{"id":7611,"date":"2021-11-15T09:49:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T09:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/?p=7611"},"modified":"2022-01-30T11:33:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T11:33:45","slug":"gavin-selerie-silent-inferno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/7611\/gavin-selerie-silent-inferno\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Selerie: Silent Inferno"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silent Inferno<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through a bird mask what runs sweet
\nover the bridge
\ncomes to taste metallic<\/p>\n

tell me grafter, would you lick that dragonzello
\nyou gave someone else, bulging yellow or hectic red<\/p>\n

a guy like you can walk through any speech backwards\u2014
\nit\u2019s just a molestation in the pit
\nbefore the real junket<\/p>\n

when\/done\/load\/before\/each\/cell
\nto test if it rages<\/p>\n

the swabs will make a catch<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

But why play the geometer and rummage
\nto nail a demon
\nmaking tears in squinted eyes<\/p>\n

this scheme could be a skit, bobbing slowly on silver<\/p>\n

whose fault can be pinned
\nin flashes
\nmagnate to beggar
\nwith babble from each gaping throat<\/p>\n

are you nobody, hiding with the contracts out<\/p>\n

ledger on ledge, coin in casino boat, proctor by spangles
\ndarn me I can\u2019t tell, here in pale blue smoke<\/p>\n

a thousand forms I didn\u2019t file or assign<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

At the funnel base all denominations mix
\nin red-hot rock or ice<\/p>\n

no helicopters blink signals, no sirens whine<\/p>\n

just a fragment of fear remains
\nas every package left at the door
\nstarts to gurgle<\/p>\n

oh Fontella, this wickerwork of nerves
\nis like a twig bleeding<\/p>\n

she so far-off, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm
\nvoice like a fooork in nevery balba
\naching charms<\/p>\n

elsewheretic (the message floats)<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Hello from the inside, I\u2019m pressed to the wall
\nan almond-eyed mosaic
\nunreachable<\/p>\n

did we dance, yes, no\u2014maybe<\/p>\n

in a touch passing kin you\u2019d lift me
\nthigh to head as a waterspout<\/p>\n

gypsy swung, volgarizzamento
\na shimmer of flesh
\nsprung from lines dropped on the library floor<\/p>\n

you see, breath itself entraps<\/p>\n

choked in a side chamber
\nthey judge us who don\u2019t harm<\/p>\n

tracing our fate in a twisted spill
\nwhen really we glide, wrapped in a snow-flame cocoon<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Follow the evidence to keep from losing
\nyour smell and taste<\/p>\n

who ever listens to conjurers\u2014we\u2019re not
\npicking each other\u2019s scabs like the scales of a bream,
\nwe\u2019re not stretched on a slab in an underground corridor<\/p>\n

Mr or Mrs God in chemtrail verse
\nis trying to set you right with a rhubarby stick<\/p>\n

come-close, go-away, clap and sack<\/p>\n

a glass of wine is the brim of the whole world,
\nonly then can you wring consent<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Goldenmouth\u2019s grease yields to a cluster of cases
\nthat can\u2019t be concealed<\/p>\n

his eleven-mile pouch is one ghostly theremin,
\na foreboding of what is known\u2014
\nthe dead lining up to mosey and zigzag
\nwith not a saint to swear by<\/p>\n

in another take it\u2019s a forest of lampposts with hanging bulbs<\/p>\n

a club under the railway arch
\nwill let you dance if you get a wristband
\nrave-tranced with a fog machine<\/p>\n

uniform is king behind a padlocked door<\/p>\n

you\u2019ll wear a trench in the ground
\nswirling\u2014what was first, the noun or the verb
\nmoiling why others should do it\u2014
\nsteal a kiss with numb lips<\/p>\n

if the shutters are down
\ndo we have to fuck with our coats on<\/p>\n

never, ever, no never, no<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Leaders squeeze chums through any defile,
\ntheir swish of gold turning to a trudge of lead<\/p>\n

just a misdemeanour will lift you to the other house
\nand no printer will print it<\/p>\n

if one partied hard telling people to keep apart,
\nif one chose wallpaper with a favour wiped,
\nif one crossed borders telling people to stay put<\/p>\n

could they say
\nwhat a tree means or a pool
\ninscribed in biro with a coffee stain
\nunder a cloud of banknotes<\/p>\n

start-up saviours for a sausage roll
\nor a punk pint
\nhave absent fingers to build the rescue model<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Can you read the way as your face melts<\/p>\n

plodding with a guide to the last bound, or maybe
\nthe closest<\/p>\n

there to finger a lancet in grey rock
\nand climb through<\/p>\n

(I strive to make blighted speech work again)<\/p>\n

is this what we knew when it wasn\u2019t an act
\nand things just existed<\/p>\n

a chain of gold threaded through the air,
\nstreets and stairs peaking in a parade of planets
\nwhich fire livelier than a devil or middle spirit\u2019s show<\/p>\n

now we soul-search the dawn
\nremembering how each watch changes<\/p>\n

a scar in a lilac leaf, almost whole<\/p>\n

as in nitrate gaps
\nthe credits roll<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Silent Inferno\u2019 is from an ongoing pandemic sequence, as yet untitled. Other pieces have appeared in Stride magazine, Blackbox Manifold and Tears in the Fence. The work draws extensively on plague literature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gavin Selerie was born in London, where he still lives. Books include Azimuth<\/em> (1984), Roxy<\/em> (1996), Le Fanu\u2019s Ghost<\/em> (2006) and Hariot Double<\/em> (2016)\u2014all long sequences with linked units. Music\u2019s Duel: New and Selected Poems 1972-2008<\/em> was published in 2009 and Collected Sonnets<\/em> in 2019 (both from Shearsman). These texts often have a concrete aspect, as discussed in the essay \u2018Ekphrasis and Beyond: Visual Art in Poetry\u2019 (Junction Box 2). Cinema is a recurring reference point. Selerie is known particularly for poems about landscape and romantic love, utilizing traditional and experimental form. His texts layer and loop aspects of history, with a strong vocal dynamic. A related essay, \u2018Long Haul Voices: The Book Length Poem\u2019, was published in Long Poem Magazine 25 (Spring 2021). A book-length interview, Into the Labyrinth, is available online at https:\/\/www.argotistonline.co.uk \u203a INTO THE LA..<\/a>.<\/a><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Click here to go back to:\u00a0Contributors and Links to Pages 1 – 4<\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silent Inferno   Through a bird mask what runs sweet over the bridge comes to taste metallic tell me grafter, would you lick that dragonzello you gave someone else, bulging yellow or hectic red a guy like you can walk through any speech backwards\u2014 it\u2019s just a molestation in the pit before the real junket […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[61,65,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/images-2.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42xiC-1YL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7611"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7626,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611\/revisions\/7626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glasfrynproject.org.uk\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}