by Mark Goodwin
I
ring dissolves leaves dissolves
trees grass tarmac mind &
bone and
ring spreads wide
a globe of
dissolved longing leaves blown
a wetness of gleam
the ice of sound’s passing
the marriage of light & thought
a divorce of earth & breath
here’s & now’s
communion of noises
a tower
topped with hung
metal goblets tongued
by hammers
a to
wer surrounded
by air’s
halo the halo
fattening on
vibration ground’s
cool soil warms as
hope’s gongs drive
intentions through stone
II
September’s sun gongs
light’s vibration to
note’s leaves
orange song wordless as
each tiny clunk each
released leaf makes (will
make (made)) caged
birds throat-fly shrill as
bell-rust dissolves to gold’s
long histories of a
single ringing a red
brick tower in a park throws
sound’s halos
round
trees pools paths
& people’s
vibrating traces
air hoops and
falls as
autumn chimes chimes
that rise a
gain along pigeons’ clapping wings
or through
children’s
silver giggles sound’s
circles rip ple to cast
all Loughborough as
one resonant
trembling rou
nd
this tower this
tongue this clap
per look
as now un
furls
listen
to
your left west
from you
discrete but
not hidden a
couple cast
in bronze by
leaf-filtered
photons stand
emb
raced under
beech trees built
of cath
edral peals
they
kiss
they
skid
-squ
eek their
lips they
smudge
-touch
flesh to
flesh they
kiss they
k
iss
whilst whilst
tightly
packed small
yellow blo
oms gen
tly but
with vast
dep
th bong
yet
you
exp
ect(ed) such
delicate flowers to
tin
kle like a rill
some tear on some
cheek of some
one you were or
will be or are
rolls
out a sea
-through
chime
it is now
how now is
hollow but
holding all
at
last just
before silence
no
one can stop one
rose’s fra
grance rings
and holds
all vibration’s cent re
Note: Loughborough’s Queen’s Park is home to England’s first ‘grand carillon’ war memorial. Loughborough is also home to the world’s largest working bell foundry, and has sent bells worldwide.
Mark Goodwin is a poet-sound-artist who speaks & writes in various ways.
Mark has published six full-length poetry collections & ten chapbooks with various poetry houses, including Longbarrow Press & Shearsman Books.