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Nicholas Manning

I'm a Paris-based poet and writer, and Assistant Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Strasbourg, France. I'm currently writing my doctoral thesis on rhetoric and sincerity in post-war European and American poetry. Poems, articles, translations and reviews have appeared in such places as Free Verse, Fascicle, Verse, Dusie, BlazeVox, MiPoesias, Eratio, Cipher Journal, CrossXConnect, Shampoo, The Rose & Thorn, Imago, among many others. This year I was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

from Novaless

XXXXXII

he often sat up late . . .

for it was plain * in his mind

(leaning

over a gate fixed on

a landscape

far away eastward * noiseless

entirely) * that he was « outside » her life

that these lubrications had made

his light a mere landmark

which opened up onto

the brink

of * a declivity

slanting down directly

to a tomb * ancestral dignity

with all life lying in * the direction

of this gaze . . . while whereabouts outside

it she could not tell : some « region »

of science possibly * or psycho

-logical literature

while his lips moving

unconsciously on some impassioned

visionary theme . . . supported by

the slender fact * if distant by

roads footways and bridle

-paths that her doings

interested

him that his way home

-ward too (like a barrel * to the bottom)

would somehow link them noiseless

-ly : like light * extending

beneath the eye

XXXXXIII

her shoulders suddenly * shook . . .

a risibility mingled

with

remnants

his snuff-box

amusing * herself

singing amatory songs

the evening in opposition

to all orders : it went down to dine

in sorrowful drops . . . her constitutional

« cloud of misery » : uncontrollable

in the previous * hour she drank

stripped her hand of it

watched a fly

upon * her dress

back the gauntlet over

these sumptuous serpentine

curves . . . stealthily unbuttoned moved

dragging away the largest * limbs

in his sayings or in his doings

if blighted they were *

as a child

in * these matters :

a gloomy smile wreathing

her lips . . . then the rambling drives

among the trees to show him * the futility

everything was cold and colourless

attack snapped from the beech

-trees bold first then tearful

he swore to his shivering

Life * in the future

to keep * well

out of sight

XXXXXIV

musing sadly on

her placid countenance

the true conditions * of his holding

assembled

in the spar-house

all was very sanguine

feet further * upon the golden

faces of the august « death

-presences »

the man of missives

who in the extreme distance

held up * his hand almost

alone in the same house

and saw

this letter in it

XXXXXV

while they were awaiting * the answer . . .

before he broke the seal

the face

of his daughter

sublimed by * a profile

whose creaking plow had turned

these sods : appreciative * « modern »

unpractical * animate and inanimate

indeed every object which looks

so grey * from his window

the shivering trees

the thin

ice in the canal

that he must know about

even all the invisible ones * of days

gone by . . . for his aims were desultory

aimless * no arrowless in turn

without rest : the tone

still visible

of name and family (he was that

kind of man) her image

a rarity played as

a toy

like the sound of her voice

long after * her disappearance

quite audible still * so far

through the trees

XXXXXVI

« how is it * I am here ? . . . »

a beautiful practice

of still messages

taken

in some simple occurrences :

hieroglyphs of « ordinary » writing

or the light lashing * their memories

with the run of the years . . . *

the twigs upon their faces

all mentally collected

a clear gaze

in calm conditions that neither

could pronounce . . . to this language

of exposure * cultivated under glasses

the gentler ones clung a pleasing

vividness * of pattern

and volunteered

corrections :

the world being

unbounded * and all signs

discrete

XXXXXVII

to show the likelihood * of rising

he had marked out his field

a grand solar * sweep

(its creditable

sides) drop

-ping down

into * such a place

within * each observer’s horizon

he had constructed « dialogues » : treasuring

until evening * became the « small

hours » some humour of

the blood

at length the rustle

of a woman * ’s dress

willing to be wooed by himself

or by no-one . . . as far as amative

cruelty * was concerned a fine-flaked

desultoriness truly co(s)mic

metaphysical * zodiacal

an intellectual heaven !

poesy alchemy

astrology and astronomy :

he had lately plunged * much deeper

newer waters giving certain new

conditions * and some new

kraken

in all the familiar

associations still not quite

in accordance with *

any fact