northcapeship
for Tony Frazer
eleven days of weariness on board a vessel
at night the sea is choppy
turning me around in the bunk
sudden shifts and shudders
metallic noises
look at the waves white on black
den har sjlet paa en Torden
- the one who has been there
has been sailing
on a thundersky
the one who has been there
has been translating Sognefjord
he constructs oil rigs
they start on the sea floor
and then go up
circular tanks for storage
until you reach sea level
then it’s three or four
shafts take cylinders
to continue the shaft
place platform
on top
your hands go up and up
biggest concrete
building in the world
always in the distance
a derrick
above a nearby hill
in a beautiful cove
a crooked spire
Chesterfield
bent over my birth
tyranny of wealth more galling and debasing than rank
the new opera house is terribly white
all marble and granite
to resemble an iceberg
in the intense sunlight -
I could not open my eyes
you can walk up the sloping roof
it has deceptive gullies
raised edges
invisible in the light
it will not melt
Peder Balke reduced his palette to black & white
motifs he had seen decades before
ship in carved waves dark breakers
pitch
moonlight weighs on water
scat-te-ring of birds
arc sky
come to roost
Nordkapp
sharp hooded
built shape
white rock
floats
on fog
Notes:
Mary Wollstonecraft A short residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 1796
Henrik Wergeland Sognefjord, 1842
Peder Balke 1804-1887, exhibition at National Gallery, February 2015
for Tony Frazer
eleven days of weariness on board a vessel
at night the sea is choppy
turning me around in the bunk
sudden shifts and shudders
metallic noises
look at the waves white on black
den har sjlet paa en Torden
- the one who has been there
has been sailing
on a thundersky
the one who has been there
has been translating Sognefjord
he constructs oil rigs
they start on the sea floor
and then go up
circular tanks for storage
until you reach sea level
then it’s three or four
shafts take cylinders
to continue the shaft
place platform
on top
your hands go up and up
biggest concrete
building in the world
always in the distance
a derrick
above a nearby hill
in a beautiful cove
a crooked spire
Chesterfield
bent over my birth
tyranny of wealth more galling and debasing than rank
the new opera house is terribly white
all marble and granite
to resemble an iceberg
in the intense sunlight -
I could not open my eyes
you can walk up the sloping roof
it has deceptive gullies
raised edges
invisible in the light
it will not melt
Peder Balke reduced his palette to black & white
motifs he had seen decades before
ship in carved waves dark breakers
pitch
moonlight weighs on water
scat-te-ring of birds
arc sky
come to roost
Nordkapp
sharp hooded
built shape
white rock
floats
on fog
Notes:
Mary Wollstonecraft A short residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 1796
Henrik Wergeland Sognefjord, 1842
Peder Balke 1804-1887, exhibition at National Gallery, February 2015