Then

A Work in Progress
34

Basil Bunting was in Northumberland

Samuel Beckett in Paris

William Burroughs in London

Ezra Pound was dead

and according to peachie, burroughs told him:

words are chemicals

& effective words are those that impinge

on the consciousness 

and are reinforced 

by

a rich mind reagent

just words alone

as dangerous as LSD 

creating fantasies

just like AI

                          

the sea spat stones onto the beach

on the night of storm sand girdled the stones

stones lay

day        night

                        traversed by stars

         the land

         recumbent

        nude

        drowning

songs of silence breaking on beaches

polyps coral world

from the mountain

views of the sea

storm of spume & white water

song of noiseless silence

deep in your depths

(

&

in the morning

high snow topped the sierras

gleaming day of mules

pine trails wands of bamboo

oxen & horses

bells jingling

hooves 

on the beach

wound & woven

safe kept in softness

there

& there

there

)

kelp    tow    pebble    strand

gull        urchin               anemone

fretful follows the sea

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2025