1

In Word and Deed

Paul Houlihan

2

Contents (dream)

3. Awakening – (Exeter) a coin, within / a hand

6. Morning

8. The Rule of Thumb

9. After All

11. To Rest

12. Twilight of the Cockroaches

13. Diptych

15. Emersion

17. Galway

18. A summer’s haze

20. (à)près le deluge

22. a double bind (aflow)

24. azure (for conor murphy rip)

3

Awakening – (Exeter) a coin, within / a hand /

I had

to go to

the country-fare

Without

imposing

when,

I had

to know

where -

Tramping

past canyons,

past pyramids

of

tilted ice;

A swollen

mind

pulsating with

lice,

No longer

recognised

4

my voice.

Once

I appeared

at a cottage

or so

it stayed,

collapsed upon

rooftop beams

A woman

sowed

shoes while I

swallowed, And then

we stole some

slumber. When

awoke I,

a girl young

was

staring

persuasively.

She told

me

5

to get

and up

out-pointed

hither. She said:

“You have to

go

to

the country-

fare.

And you’re no-

where

You’re no

Where

here -

near

there”.

6

Morning

...the glass is half full

today has just begun

the sun

will rise

to shine

all will be fine

and I will be a man

and try as best as I can

with patience,

sense & cheer,

for there need be

no fumbled fear

of tomorrow's

thrust & sorrow,

no falcons now

in the air

the networks nerves

twist & tear

7

chaos reigns

the reins are strained

less than nothing

nothing is...

accept the bad

enjoy the good

free of thoughts

taught redundancy

8

The Rule of Thumb

Paul chuckles like he’s institutionalised

but when haven’t men been institutionalised?

at least he' ll be the first to admit

he's fit to be institutionalised;

they pass the years press past

the years passed

at least they seem to be passing

and everything goes on as if they were passing

pages flick quickly

from cover to cover

over and over

by rule of Thumb

9

After All

This is the end, after the end;

this is whats left,after you have left.

Is this what we have dreamed

Is this our work

Is this how you wished it to be

Is this our worth

Are these our fathers

Are these our sons

Is this our prayer

And this what was won

Is this the centre

Are these the bones

Are these the hands

And this our home

Are these the days

Are these our shrines

Is this our blood

And these our crimes

This is the drought after the flood

This is what’s left when there's no-one left

Is this the promise

Is this stark pride

Are these the things

10

We hope to hide

is this an answer

Is this our light

Is this our secret

Is this our right

Are these our symbols

And these our games

Is this our curse

And this our shame

Is this why we live

Is this why we die

Is this what will live

And this what must die

Is this what we've bought

Is this what we've lost

Is this what we've nourished

Is this the cost

This is the end, after the end;

this is whats left,after all that's left.

11

To Rest

Token boy, token heart,

Fills the paper cup up to the brim

Takes a sip , notions drift,

Dilate and delve within.

Everything is out of focus;

Savannahs swelter in a haze.

Snug rests the slug

On a sleek razor blade.

Schizo bit the bullet. Dropped

Upon rocks racked;

His truth in life a tooth loose

Noosed with string.

Trestles truncate. Try to remember

To forget the rot, right? Let it even

Out. The journey ever moves

As far as wide astray.

12

Twilight of the Cockroaches

I am a glorious cockroach.

Moloch my name.

See me scamper articulate

to negotiate a way.

My case is critical.

'Blessed are those who

hunger and thirst

for righteousness'.1

One day all this

will be yours.

Sacrifice your children now

1. GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations.

13

Diptych

I

City draped

In dust & fog

Beneath grim-grey

Titanium skies,

On the corner you situate

Yourself, a figure

Hypostasised.

Tattooed streets,

Tarred & feathered,

Briskly rub their fists together,

Around the theatre

Where touts shout

As the queues begin to slither.

A bum comes mumbling

' for 'CHANGE?'

Then wonders if

'That all y'got?'',

somethings you reach out to hold

Are

So cold you think they're hot.

Now pubs & pints pour out

Spewed forth

From ceremonial doors,

In the distance Sirens roar....

I wonder who they're calling for

14

II

In the bowels of Baudelairean alleys

deep within nights rectum,

silhouettes sit upon dustbins

speculating on loose outcomes.

of wire & string,

sharp plastic, pulp,

glass on glass, the glut of the word,

masks a hollow

nervousness of the

empty but righteously absurd,

Popcorn for the peasants

fudge for the unemployed,

In Mcdonalds. 4am. Note to self:

there is no one present.

In this. A void.

Its hard to be a saint

straight

& true to who you are,

you'll find yourself wrong way

down a one-way street in a stolen car.

15

Emersion

Idle

evening

dwindles -

the susceptible

sky

cascades

and bellicose

it billows

bits of burnt-

black-torn-tuft

cleft-clouds

while yonder

fishermen

return

to shore

with lost sons

wintry ones

who yearn for dice

i switch off the light

once more

and step

16

sprightly

scintillating in flight

gliding as the child’s kite

out on the deck,

tossed

into wrapt wind;

swept,

with a wish that

fights

to unfurl

like a stone,

the bones twist

the sail lifts

the foam glistens

my heart still-beats

17

Galway

Approach, in the slack-jawed hours of a wind-wild

morning;

Sunday papers and milk-cartons stacked beneath corner-

shop awnings,

Tired eyes. Tired. You and I. Hooded. Love in our

yawning;

Traipse through serpentine sloped streets of this

cobblestone-clumsy town,

Where sea-bedded fishing fleet sleep fast

calm in the arms of the harbour.

Seagulls screech and caw. Swish. The town clock ticks

and churns its gears.

No omen. Proceed as is your want.

Here with the sulking hulks of bombastic ships;

You and I; We are made one.

I with the ghost of Galway town and you, Alice,

with the Ocean;

Made one till all doing is done.

18

A summer’s haze

In this asphalt desert –

walled up in the warmth –

beneath glacial skies –

the windows reflect –

concrete & sale-signs,

over lugubrious bridges –

Past doors of locked office-blocks –

and vegetable shops –

Down promenades of pandemonium –

trolleys are thrust –

towards tattooed ghetto's –

past passage-ways

of paraphernalia

and trashcan retreats

where cheap trollops entreat,

arduous,

under the square’s

mechanical eyes.

Junk from the gutter

sparkles and gushes,

In spumescent pools –

by the margins

of abstract boulevards –

where rag-tag groups

19

Of bellicose troops in two –

piece suits pass-by –

Among - the cups –

the spoons, & the plates –

of the street -the sinuous–

sense-splitting-explicit streets,

You, sit down. You think:

"Who's got the time

to keep up with the times?"

You open up the petals

of your palm instead

& start studying the lines.....

20

(à)près le deluge

As soon as the idea of The Flood had subsided,

A hare stopped amid healthy hay and trembling

bellflowers

to say a prayer to the rainbow through a spider’s web.

Oh ! - (rubies and pearls were hidden,—the

willows already weeping).

In the great dirty street stalls were dressed,

and boats towed toward the sea, bestowed as if on

engravings.

Blood & whiskey flowed at ‘The Bluebeard’ – in abattoirs,

where glorious light seared through windows.

Blood & milk flowed.

Beavers built.

In the coffee-shops coffee-cups smoked.

In great glasshouses bereaved children still drenched

looked at treacherous images.A door slammed,

and in the village square, a child pirouetted, understood

only by weather-vanes and weather-cocks

everywhere,under brilliant sleet.

Madame X established a piano in the Alps. Mass and first

communions were celebrated at a hundred thousand

altars in cathedrals.

The caravans departed.And the Splendid Hotel was built

in a chaos of ice and night.

Since then, the moon has heard jackals howling through

deserts of thyme -

21

And teachers in wooden shoes sluggish on the

staircase. But,

in the forest violet, budding, Eucharis told me that it was

spring.

Oh, pond, respond, - Foam, roll on the bridge and over

the woods -break and shriek

Thunder and lightning - rise and roll - Water and

sorrows, rise and revive the Flood.

Because since it has dissipated – (with the rubies and

pearls buried, and the buds full-blown) -

how insidious! And the Queen, the Sorceress who lights

her coals in a clay pot, will never tell us

What she knows, and of what we ignore.

Trans. Bangkok 16/10/2011

22

a double bind (aflow)

obssessive control

unwinds

wieldy

ribbed

aforementioned mind's-socket

dehabilitated

this ease founders

famished

the slipshod

drunken ship

bleeds

rough-hued round

its edges;

Regard, how

hinged, swelled

toes and clinging finger

nails bite by sheer smite

principly

alloted temptation's thorns

thrust pitched past pith

and call a hole a blister

in birth answering breath.

Needlessly

the trial bewilders,

23

errors amass.

molds meet momentarily

mirrored in satsfied horror.

Dimly recollection decides

henceforth its phantom-

feast of conditions fracture

this bliss washes waste

taste incubates

a want that can't

24

azure (for conor murphy rip)

To

day

in

Dis

day

in

t

he f

u c ? k !

in

g re f

ra in

Am i u

g l

y

a m

i

va

in

wall

ow

in g

wig g l

in g

ni gh

ts in

25

pa

in

Days

drift past

Like clouds

p a s t

a sails

white

mast

O

v er

he ad

h

ave i lo

st

a

gain

a

b

ys mal

fr

i

end wh

ere

nex

t

oh,

Dra

26

in

ed es tr

ange

d

for

a for

eign

doll

ar a

day

thre

ad

on

dread

thr

ea d

on

Wa l k

b

y

I walk

a

mon gst t

he

sha

d

ow

s

27

In the val

ley

of the lep

ers

hel

p

l

ess

l

y

the

bur den

of

the self

ish

l

y

un

dead

weigh up

on

my

con

science

Let the

re

b

e

28

ligh

t

&

there

will

be

ass

u

redly

do

ubt

to fol

l

ow day

dis

da

in

the ho

l low

ref rain

Walk

on

walk

by

the tram

p

sh

it

29

t

ing

on

the side

walk

a

si

gn of des

tit

u

tion

not your

va

in glori

ous revolut

i

on

not your

de

ferred pre

ference

by

so

me

s

trange co

in

cidence

30

c

u

nt

wall

ow

ing in fil

th

t

his

wo

rld g

one wro

ng

vo

mit

t

ing

pret

end

in

g

t

o be

strong

pre

t

ending

to be

31

right

but we

've kno

wn a

ll a

l

ong

that t

hey ke

ep it a

ll hi

d

just tant

alise

with signs. I wa

lk I w

alk I

wa lk up

on

the shad

ows

down

In

the valley

of

the lep

ers

32