{"id":2471,"date":"2012-05-08T10:29:18","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T10:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2012-05-08T10:29:18","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T10:29:18","slug":"rob-a-mackenzie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/rob-a-mackenzie\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob A. Mackenzie"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The poem below comes from towards the end of Rob A. Mackenzie’s freshly launched pamphlet Fleck and the Bank<\/em>.\u00a0 Fleck, an unconventional bank employee, has disappeared. A few months later, a letter-in-poetry arrives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To <\/strong>Occupy an Absence<\/strong><\/p>\n

…now blankness can speak through me in blank verse <\/em>(Ian Duhig)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Rob,<\/p>\n

The nights are short here and the days<\/p>\n

Slip by in prayer or what I have learned to call<\/p>\n

Prayer: the occupation of a stirring<\/p>\n

Privation of thought in air with matter at hand,<\/p>\n

With underhand mock-heroic power<\/p>\n

Liturgically fuelled neither by common<\/p>\n

Order nor disorder nor delusion,<\/p>\n

Where hope springs abysmal, undermined<\/p>\n

By temporal despair, but still attempts:<\/p>\n

Take the sponge\u2019s unfinished ode to mud,<\/p>\n

The cook who spun blancmange in his own image,<\/p>\n

Rimbaud\u2019s valentine to Tom Verlaine \u2013<\/p>\n

Pointless, incongruous, I take my pen,<\/p>\n

Replace blankness with a solid blank<\/p>\n

Line and line of blank verse and a blank cheque\u2019s<\/p>\n

Inevitable bounce, and dedicate<\/p>\n

Them to the heterodox and highly strung<\/p>\n

Patron saint of plainsong maledictions<\/p>\n

For unstringable lyre. She croons to me:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To butterfingered guardians of the banks<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Patrolling selective memory blanks \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To where the hype gyrates hip after hip <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While talent hiccups from its crypt \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To memorabilia groupies hellbent<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Nazi tat: Hitler\u2019s tablecloth,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxwork Belsen Commandant \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To the boom and bust of certifiable facts<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Drifting from their origin in dust<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jackets and unexamined acts \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Eine kleine Nachtmusik dissolving<\/p>\n

Into daylight\u2019s cursory rush; within<\/p>\n

Each note a little death, diminuendo,<\/p>\n

Undiminished by its power to hold<\/p>\n

Only the merest resonance of grace,<\/p>\n

To make nothing happen beyond a dim<\/p>\n

Psalm sung among the gleaming neon signs.<\/p>\n

Eyes down. Follow your ears.<\/p>\n

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Yours, Fleck<\/p>\n

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P.S.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To the self-effacing inconsolable<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the too eagerly consoled \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To literary artifice where curse<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Resembles blessing, blessing curse \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sing grace<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or otherwise, and sing the difference.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Rob A. Mackenzie<\/strong> is from Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. His publications are The Clown of Natural Sorrow<\/em> (pamphlet, HappenStance Press 2005), The Opposite of Cabbage<\/em> <\/a>(Salt 2009) – and a new pamphlet, Fleck & the Bank<\/em> <\/a>(pamphlet, Salt 2012) . He is reviews editor for Magma Poetry magazine.<\/p>\n

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                      The poem below comes from towards the end of Rob A. Mackenzie’s freshly launched pamphlet Fleck and the Bank.\u00a0 Fleck, an unconventional bank employee, has disappeared. A few months later, a letter-in-poetry arrives. \u00a0 \u00a0 To Occupy an Absence …now blankness can speak through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}