Tim Allen
Four poems from MATTERED BY TANGENTS
15
words don’t explain how we survive description
into the valley of fabric rode the reproduction
hardboard temple clean negation
sheets of labyrinthine menagerie
lubricants remind words of the other supplicants
images plunge indiscriminately into conduits
technique drains through blousy portals
hung out to dry on every word
siren elite perch on a remote rock
siren elite rock back and forth on a remote perch
programmed commotion clatters across the ecliptic
try to say tree without thinking of yourself
16
plastic halo scarcity
invite logic in as a guest and it becomes a lodger
creases in the soft water mountain are recent
sarcastically plural narcissi
Latin languages gunged
garden border swells towards begrudged touch
time at large in a grunge of tides and buffed torsos
the garment of nonchalance is not for putting on
Classic Cinema climbs up hill
gradient rotates gently around missing journalist
flint axe finger fountain harp
trying to remember what comes next
17
true I lost me teeth chewing contingency bars
strapped into the air between banisters
excruciating cuckoo feet alarmed in the pinewood
supporting tight crucible squares
brutal parking restrictions but Bible has no answers
lip-synch re-verse
libel in duel text
synchronised swimmer isolation tank rehearse
cables in cages and garlands of static
be careful where you end up reading this
syncopating proteins copy quiet attic racket
if there was only one casino would it still be overcrowded?
18
it’s time to use the guides
leak puts stop to trivial argument in rival’s boat
it’s about time we were paid for waiting for such differences
searching landfill for clues to my past
gooseberry bush spikes celestial lens
hair turned long and blond by a metal detector
dyslexic chimera exchanges damned charlatan
cat tried to come in through the flat cap
think this is nonsense or a minor fragment?
you don’t know what I like until you’ve tried it
godsends were sent to the wrong address
it’s why fishing floats shrink the closer they get
Copyright © Tim Allen 2017
Tim Allen now lives in Lancashire and helps run the Peter Barlow’s Cigarette reading series in Manchester. His most recent book is Anecdotage (Dock Road Press, Liverpool 2017). His numerous publications include books from Shearsman, Oystercatcher and KFS. Red Ceilings published the first two parts of the trilogy Enflamed Glaciers (Default Soul, 2014 and A New Geography of Romanticism, 2015), the third part being Mattered by Tangents, from which the above poems are taken.