Ken Edwards
Gato Barbieri & Dollar Brand, Confluence (Arista-Freedom AL 1003):
UP TO AND INCLUDING (CHARING X –> ELEPHANT & CASTLE)
Up to & including the travelling
crane moving slow across white grey
evening sky clear air it's a
human web, ineluctably
tensile. At the bus stop
the red faced man wearing suit no
tie Golden Virginia hanging in hand
holds forth happy babble chatter.
On the bus top deck the ageing
irish teddy boy w/ half bottle of
Bell's sticking in hip pocket harangues
"respectable" black man on friendship
& the ruling class while black man II
gets on, in hat, has huge
Sharp cassette radio held, turns the
volume UP and DOWN, green 123, red 1,
yea KULCHUR in the maddening hub
flung from corner to corner. And the irish
man makes his way back down the
aisle & off, whereupon up goes
black man II to sit w/ 1, saying
"who's ya friend?" All the while
the spanish girl watched, a still
centre, & has not said 1 word.
UP TO AND INCLUDING DUB
Ruling class
black man
top deck the ageing
stick in hip
ruling class while black
man makes his way
to sit w/ I, saying
sticking in hip harangues
sticking in
makes his way back down
Golden
hanging hand
in the hub
on friendship
in the maddening hub
cassette radio held, turns the
hub
saying
gets on
flung from corner to corner
"respect friendship
to sit say
as huge
man friendship
held, turns the
corner. And
gets on
way back down the
old
radio turns
Up to & including the travelling
bus
At the bus stop
Up to & including
Up to & including
crane moving slow
white grey
crane moving slow across white
evening clear air
UP DOWN, green 123 red 1,
watch
the spanish girl
volume green red
& off, whereupon up goes
the girl a still
isle & up goes
evening sky
sky clear
On the bus
holds forth
whereupon
ineluctably
human
ineluctably
centre, has said not I
friend
half
tensile
wearing suit no
irish boy
22.iii.81
UP TO AND INCLUDING (CHARING X –> ELEPHANT & CASTLE)
Up to & including the travelling
crane moving slow across white grey
evening sky clear air it's a
human web, ineluctably
tensile. At the bus stop
the red faced man wearing suit no
tie Golden Virginia hanging in hand
holds forth happy babble chatter.
On the bus top deck the ageing
irish teddy boy w/ half bottle of
Bell's sticking in hip pocket harangues
"respectable" black man on friendship
& the ruling class while black man II
gets on, in hat, has huge
Sharp cassette radio held, turns the
volume UP and DOWN, green 123, red 1,
yea KULCHUR in the maddening hub
flung from corner to corner. And the irish
man makes his way back down the
aisle & off, whereupon up goes
black man II to sit w/ 1, saying
"who's ya friend?" All the while
the spanish girl watched, a still
centre, & has not said 1 word.
UP TO AND INCLUDING DUB
Ruling class
black man
top deck the ageing
stick in hip
ruling class while black
man makes his way
to sit w/ I, saying
sticking in hip harangues
sticking in
makes his way back down
Golden
hanging hand
in the hub
on friendship
in the maddening hub
cassette radio held, turns the
hub
saying
gets on
flung from corner to corner
"respect friendship
to sit say
as huge
man friendship
held, turns the
corner. And
gets on
way back down the
old
radio turns
Up to & including the travelling
bus
At the bus stop
Up to & including
Up to & including
crane moving slow
white grey
crane moving slow across white
evening clear air
UP DOWN, green 123 red 1,
watch
the spanish girl
volume green red
& off, whereupon up goes
the girl a still
isle & up goes
evening sky
sky clear
On the bus
holds forth
whereupon
ineluctably
human
ineluctably
centre, has said not I
friend
half
tensile
wearing suit no
irish boy
22.iii.81
Copyright © Ken Edwards 1982
Ken Edwards’ books include the poetry collections Good Science (1992), eight + six (2003), No Public Language: Selected Poems 1975-95 (2006), Bird Migration in the 21st Century (2006), Songbook (2009), the novels Futures (1998) and Country Life (2015) and the prose works Bardo (2011), Down With Beauty (2013) and a book with no name (2016). A new novel, The Grey Area, will be out in 2019 and he is working on a memoir of the 1970s, with flash-forwards, Wild Metrics, a re-creation of the era in which the poems above were gestating: a short section appears here. He has been editor/publisher of the small press Reality Street since 1993. He lives in St Leonards on Sea, where he plays bass guitar and sings with The Moors and Afrit Nebula, bands he co-founded with Elaine Edwards.