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Authors: Paul Muldoon
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CUTHBERT AND THE OTTERS
    In memory of Seamus Heaney
Notwithstanding the fact that one of them has gnawed a strip of flesh
from the shoulder of the salmon,
relieving it of a little darne,
the fish these six otters would fain
carry over the sandstone limen
and into Cuthbertâs cell, a fish garlanded with bay leaves
and laid out on a linden flitch
like a hauberked warrior laid out on his shield,
may yet be thought of as whole.
An entire fish for an abbotâs supper.
Itâs true theyâve yet to develop the turnip clamp
and the sword with a weighted pommel
but the Danes are already dyeing everything beige.
In anticipation, perhaps, of the carpet and mustard factories
built on ground first broken by the Brigantes.
The Benedictines still love a bit of banter
along with the Beatitudes. Blessed is the trundle bed,
it readies us for the tunnel
from Spital Tongues to the staithes. Iâm at once full of dread
and in complete denial.
I cannot thole the thought of Seamus Heaney dead.
In the way that 9 and 3 are a perfect match
an Irish war band has 27 members.
In Barrow-in-Furness a shipyard man scans a wall for a striking wrench
as a child might mooch
for blackberries in a ditch. In times to come the hydrangea
will mark most edges of empire.
For the moment Iâm hemmed in every bit as much
by sorrow as by the crush of cattle
along the back roads from Durham to Desertmartin.
Diseart meaning âa hermitage.â
In Ballynahone Bog theyâre piling still more turf in a cart.
It seems one manifestation of the midge
may have no mouthparts.
Heartsore yet oddly heartened,
Iâve watched these six otters make their regal
progress across the threshold. I see how they might balk
at their burden. A striped sail
will often take years to make. They wear wolf or bear pelts,
the berserkers. Like the Oracle
at Delphi, whose three-legged stool
straddles a fiery trough
amid the still-fuming heaps of slag,
theyâre almost certainly on drugs. Perhaps a Viking sail handler,
himself threatened with being overwhelmed,
will have gone out on a limb and invented a wind tiller
by lashing a vane to the helm?
That a longship has been overturned on the moor
is as much as we may surmise
of a beehive cell thrown up along the Tyne.
The wax moth lives in a beehive proper. It can detect sound
frequencies up to 300 kHz. The horse in the stable
may be trained to follow a scent.
What looks like a growth of stubble
has to do with the chin drying out. I straighten my
black tie as the pallbearer
who almost certainly filched
that strip of skin draws level with me. Did I say âcalamineâ?
I meant âchamomile.â For the tearoom nearest to Grizedale Tarn
itâs best to follow the peat stain
of Grizedale Beck. A prototype of backgammon
was played by the Danes. Even Mozart would resort to a recitative
for moving things along. Halfway through whatâs dissolved into the village
of Bellaghy, this otter steps out from under the bier
and offers me his spot. It seems even an otter may subordinate
himself whilst being first in line to revolt.
He may be at once complete insider and odd man out.
Columbanus is said to have tamed a bear
and harnessed it to a plow. Bach. The sarabande.
Under the floor of Cuthbertâs cell theyâve buried the skull of a colt
born with a curvature of the spine.
Even now we throw down a challenge like a keel
whilst refraining from eating peach pits for fear of cyanide.
Refrain as in frenum , âa bridle.â
We notice how a hook on the hind wing of a moth
connects it to an eye on the forewing. A complex joint
if ever there was one. According to our tanners,
the preservation of hides involves throwing caution
to the wind. Their work permits
allowed Vikings to sack Armagh in 832. The orange
twine helps us keep things straight. I once sustained concussion,
having been hit by a boom in Greenwich,
and saw
    In memory of Seamus Heaney
Notwithstanding the fact that one of them has gnawed a strip of flesh
from the shoulder of the salmon,
relieving it of a little darne,
the fish these six otters would fain
carry over the sandstone limen
and into Cuthbertâs cell, a fish garlanded with bay leaves
and laid out on a linden flitch
like a hauberked warrior laid out on his shield,
may yet be thought of as whole.
An entire fish for an abbotâs supper.
Itâs true theyâve yet to develop the turnip clamp
and the sword with a weighted pommel
but the Danes are already dyeing everything beige.
In anticipation, perhaps, of the carpet and mustard factories
built on ground first broken by the Brigantes.
The Benedictines still love a bit of banter
along with the Beatitudes. Blessed is the trundle bed,
it readies us for the tunnel
from Spital Tongues to the staithes. Iâm at once full of dread
and in complete denial.
I cannot thole the thought of Seamus Heaney dead.
In the way that 9 and 3 are a perfect match
an Irish war band has 27 members.
In Barrow-in-Furness a shipyard man scans a wall for a striking wrench
as a child might mooch
for blackberries in a ditch. In times to come the hydrangea
will mark most edges of empire.
For the moment Iâm hemmed in every bit as much
by sorrow as by the crush of cattle
along the back roads from Durham to Desertmartin.
Diseart meaning âa hermitage.â
In Ballynahone Bog theyâre piling still more turf in a cart.
It seems one manifestation of the midge
may have no mouthparts.
Heartsore yet oddly heartened,
Iâve watched these six otters make their regal
progress across the threshold. I see how they might balk
at their burden. A striped sail
will often take years to make. They wear wolf or bear pelts,
the berserkers. Like the Oracle
at Delphi, whose three-legged stool
straddles a fiery trough
amid the still-fuming heaps of slag,
theyâre almost certainly on drugs. Perhaps a Viking sail handler,
himself threatened with being overwhelmed,
will have gone out on a limb and invented a wind tiller
by lashing a vane to the helm?
That a longship has been overturned on the moor
is as much as we may surmise
of a beehive cell thrown up along the Tyne.
The wax moth lives in a beehive proper. It can detect sound
frequencies up to 300 kHz. The horse in the stable
may be trained to follow a scent.
What looks like a growth of stubble
has to do with the chin drying out. I straighten my
black tie as the pallbearer
who almost certainly filched
that strip of skin draws level with me. Did I say âcalamineâ?
I meant âchamomile.â For the tearoom nearest to Grizedale Tarn
itâs best to follow the peat stain
of Grizedale Beck. A prototype of backgammon
was played by the Danes. Even Mozart would resort to a recitative
for moving things along. Halfway through whatâs dissolved into the village
of Bellaghy, this otter steps out from under the bier
and offers me his spot. It seems even an otter may subordinate
himself whilst being first in line to revolt.
He may be at once complete insider and odd man out.
Columbanus is said to have tamed a bear
and harnessed it to a plow. Bach. The sarabande.
Under the floor of Cuthbertâs cell theyâve buried the skull of a colt
born with a curvature of the spine.
Even now we throw down a challenge like a keel
whilst refraining from eating peach pits for fear of cyanide.
Refrain as in frenum , âa bridle.â
We notice how a hook on the hind wing of a moth
connects it to an eye on the forewing. A complex joint
if ever there was one. According to our tanners,
the preservation of hides involves throwing caution
to the wind. Their work permits
allowed Vikings to sack Armagh in 832. The orange
twine helps us keep things straight. I once sustained concussion,
having been hit by a boom in Greenwich,
and saw
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