Hellish Clout
Maude Larke
stomping through gnarled and knotted
at odds with uneven aleas
a gnashing of leftover rupture
cross-wizened with an overdue decision
that magic-mushroomed to push out the walls
and left behind drooping
a wet-newspaper lining
but still in derisory motion
the sagging of a pile of old oddments
still oddly staging a desultory stashing
when a trick of meter and altitude
unsyncopates the plod
that halts in a last moment of abrupt rooting
just as the axe hits and awakens
the plantish shrieking of sap
the hard shudder in the twingeing twigs
the innate tick-length tracking of where the splinters have flown
then it all becomes shards
atomic yellow bleeds to airiness
and a space invents itself and dries
in suspended anacrusis
decision wadded and drop-kicked
rupture backhoed
the roof whites out
ceding to the minuscule acceleration
the leafy waving during the slow fall
and the landing that is also a lifting and stretching
Listen to Maude read the poem here:
stomping through gnarled and knotted
at odds with uneven aleas
a gnashing of leftover rupture
cross-wizened with an overdue decision
that magic-mushroomed to push out the walls
and left behind drooping
a wet-newspaper lining
but still in derisory motion
the sagging of a pile of old oddments
still oddly staging a desultory stashing
when a trick of meter and altitude
unsyncopates the plod
that halts in a last moment of abrupt rooting
just as the axe hits and awakens
the plantish shrieking of sap
the hard shudder in the twingeing twigs
the innate tick-length tracking of where the splinters have flown
then it all becomes shards
atomic yellow bleeds to airiness
and a space invents itself and dries
in suspended anacrusis
decision wadded and drop-kicked
rupture backhoed
the roof whites out
ceding to the minuscule acceleration
the leafy waving during the slow fall
and the landing that is also a lifting and stretching
Listen to Maude read the poem here:
Working notes
"Hellish Clout" rose out of the experience of a previous poem. It is about the nature of sudden inspiration, intuition, or recognition. I concentrate especially on the question of intuition, which I believe is a woman's province. The previous poem was "Higdon Strings," published in Cyclamens and Swords. I have been fascinated by the creative powers of composer Jennifer Higdon since 2007, when I received full in the face the UK premiere of her Concerto for Percussion. "Higdon Strings" shot forth while listening to her Blue Cathedral, completely unexpected, although I had been pondering Higdon's signature string sound for some time. "Hellish Clout" is a meditation on that sudden shooting forth.
About the author
Maude Larke has come back to her own writing after working in the American, English and French university systems, analyzing others’ texts and films. She has also returned to the classical music world as an ardent amateur, after fifteen years of piano and voice in her youth. Winner of the 2011 PhatSalmon Poetry Prize and the 2012 Swale Life Poetry Competition, she has been published in Oberon, Naugatuck River Review, Cyclamens and Swords, riverbabble, Doorknobs and BodyPaint, Mslexia, Cliterature, and Short, Fast, and Deadly, among others.