A Kitset of 26 Poems
by Dennis List
A Kitset of 26 Poems was published by Amphedesma Press, London, in 1972, and has been out of print for years. I've now cleaned up the poems a little, removing the gunk with 100% pure-distilled brainsweat. This is the reconditioned kitset - better than new!
The poems are designed to be read in varying order. Because there are 26 of them, each is arbitrarily attached to a letter of the alphabet. To determine the order of reading, you need a passage of text which contains all the letters of the alphabet. For example, the conventional order of keys on a typewriter keyboard: q w e r t y u i o p a s d f g h j k l z x c v b n m.
With this particular sequence, you read poem Q first, then W, then E, and so on. I don't recommend it. Nor do I recommend the totally unimaginative sequence of a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z.
It's slightly more interesting if you use one of the test sentences for people learning to type, such as
The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.
Quick-blowing zephyrs vex daft Jim.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.You use each letter the first time it appears, so for the above three examples, the order becomes:
t h e q u i c k b r o w n f x j m p s v l a z y d g
q u i c k b l o w n g z e p h y r s v x d a f t j m
p a c k m y b o x w i t h f v e d z n l q u r j g sBut there is no need to restrict yourself to short sequences. Practically any piece of text will eventually contain all 26 letters. For example, these poems, in the order printed here. Poem A has 22 different letters, poem B has P, V, and Z, but for J you'll need to go through to poem E. The order derived from these poems, as printed, is
t a k e w o r d s f c h m l i n u n y g q x p v z jYou'll generally find the commonest letters of the alphabet (etoanirshdlu) coming early in the sequence and the rarer letters (zqxj) last. That's as I've planned it - and that's why the typewriter-keyboard sequence is not recommended. A through to Z (as shown here) is a lazy choice, but not a bad one, with some interesting juxtapositions.
You'll notice that different sequences place different interpretations on some of the poems. Bear in mind that there could be several different narrators in the sequence, so the "I" of one poem may be the "you" in another.
Some day I may figure out a way of presenting these poems in a different order every time this page is loaded.
There are factorial 26 different orders here (26 x 25 x 24 etc... x 3 x 2 x 1), in other words millions - but probably only a few dozen different groups of meanings.
Try reading one a day, printing it or learning it, and puzzling over it. These are the poetic equivalent of all-day suckers: small enough to take into your mouth whole. You can puzzle about the flavour all day, and nobody knows you're doing it.
You can also use these poems for divination, as people use the Aeneid and the I Ching: choose a poem at random, and apply it to your current problem.
A
CURE
"Take two words after each meal"
is what the instructions said.
But one day I dared and took three.
I thought I should be eloquent but safe."These words are too weak"
I thought, next day.
My dictionary dwindles alarmingly.
B
SCIENTISTS HAVE DISCOVERED
Today I heard the news.
what I have always feared is true.
An orange is not orange
but yellow with red spots.
A voracious lifelong orangist
I was violently shocked.
With the razor nib of my poison-pen,
I sliced my tongue in sympathy.
Wriggling under the microscope
my tongue-tip glowed in the dark:
defiantly, indelibly orange.
C
TRAMMEL
When I tried to sit
in a different seat each time
I was thwarted by the people
in the same seat every time.
D
To understand this poem, you need to know about the Wellington cable car, before it was rebuilt in the late 1970s. There were two cars, each on its own railway track, connected by a long cable - so when one car was at the top, the other was at the bottom. Talavera Terrace was a momentary stop in the centre, where the two cars met - so close together that you could reach out and touch somebody in the other car. Here, it was possible to step across, and go back the way you had come.
TALAVERA TERRACE
Up one day in the cable car
I passed my alter ego going down.
Should we change cars
and reverse our lives?
Too late. The car moved on.
E
PIFFLE PUFFLE
(For the harassed people of the world)I'm breathless
I forgot to breathe
it's such a bother
to talk about
I carelessly opened my tiny mouth
and all the
air blew outI'm speechless
I forgot my speak
I've too many things
to think about
I tried to remember how to breathe
My words all
bumbled out
F
PALINDROME
When I, so unsuccessfully, applied
to join the Secret Health Society,
"What's the secret of your health?"
they snapped,
"Yesterday," I gloated,
"I was younger than today.
Tomorrow - perhaps older - who can say?"
The end of the committee table
stretched beyond the sunset sky.
Contagiously the Members shook their heads.
"Breathing?" I suggested.
"An experiencing heart?"
"Or life as death, unfolding like an echo."
G
Ineffable yearning seizes me
for the long-forsaken Canterbury Plains
(where I have never been
nor expect to ever be)
where the eye is far from any other eye,
further by far than any eye can see.
H
REJOINDER
Bumped into myself
in town the other day.
Well!
Fancy meeting me!
One finds oneself all over the place!
Did someone mount a mirror in the street?After a lifelong search
at last I have found myself.
Surprise!
I look just like me.
But am I writing with my left hand or my right?
I
MISHAP
Today I met Miss Apprehension (1966)
back from her year in the Lip Service.
"When are you how are you who ?" I stammered
unnerved at her beautiful teeth.She whipped out a prong,
inserting it into my mouth.
"My goal is to untie the tongue-tied" she flicked.
"It's Mute The Immutable Month."
J
SECOND GLANCE
Show me the look - I won't look -
that won you first prize in the
Open Mouth Display.
I thought I might poke out my tongue
and you could look away.
Instead, your glassy eye reveals
my ugliness today.
K
BOLTON STREET
Elizabeth, David, and Elizabeth Bell
rest in an 1890 sandwich.
The ants who were guests at their picnic
respectfully sip from the spillage.
L
GIFT
"I've only one thing
to give you," she snaps.
"You need it!
The English Language.
Here it is - so there!"
So saying, she falls silent,
and steps back, well away.
Goodbye.
Thank you.
Poetry only.
But we shall not speak it, shall we?
Unless we pay me toll.
M
REVOLUTION IN MONTEVIDEO
Your mind is a gridiron
of burning streets, your
DETOUR!
CLOSED!
UNTHINKABLE!
signs ablaze.You're turning so fast
I can't follow.
Somebody, pull down the blind:
protect me from fiery eyes.
N
I'LL BELIEVING ON THURSDAY
All presbyterian spires shall be green
& the Occs will be slaughtered in the streets.
They wait for the day when Thur declares
All catholic spires shall be cinnabar,
all question marks and boathooks pink
& peapods green with envy in the
base of the Wednesday stomach.
O
TREATMENT OF CRUBS
The common or garden crub
is not to be found in the garden.
Treat it once every March with crub manure
and it will not be seen in the garden.
P
SEPARATION OF THE THREE KINGDOMS
Gardeners have ruined this city
by "weeding" as they call it
though it's actually unweeding.Fire engines drive the fires.
Fire alarms alarm them.
They fire at each other down the hose.Hairdressers weed the naked hair
in a park is what motorcars do.
The garbage trucks no clothes.May cemeteries split open.
May their dead disintegrate.
May compost overgrow.People once were here.
They left their breath behind.
Their noise has spoiled the air.
Q
Pears' Encyclopedia
was found in the glue one day.
"What a great pity."
"A good book too."
"Thirteen pounds thirteen and three."
A closed book will never reopen.
And some pages never return.
R
DRAUGHT
Losing once again? Yes.
I summon a wind, to
accidentally knock the table.
The pieces tumble to the floor
and fall to blows themselves.
Black men jump the white men
while flat men burn the grid.
S
MONIA
Monia monia monia.
One day I got bonier.
The big bone broke.
The little bone spoke:
"Monia monia monia"
T
UNDER A TABLE
No, it is me
who the cat likes best.
I'm closest to the ground.
A spoon in the mouth
of a troublesome cat
will keep it safe and sound.
U
WITH YOU, NEVER TO YOU
You ask me
Did I lie with her?
I'm not ready to answer that -
don't pester while I'm dying.If I didn't answer
I'd tell you the truth.
If I did
I'd only be lying.
V
THE ONION AND THE WALNUT
You make me cry when I peel you.
There's nothing but skin underneath.
"Not only," you say. Nor am I.We conquered a tree, one rainy night.
Pedestrians passed underneath.
You dropped nuts on umbrella-tips: why?The onion cracks open a nut with its teeth.
Percussionists hiss in the rain.
Our aerial dreams grow a new life afloat.
The sinuous flesh crawls again.
W
SHRIVEL
Someone's lost innocence lies
pathetic or carelessly torn
on the floor of the deepening forest.
Were it to rust, the colour
of undergrowth (blue)
and if they came looking -
how could they find it alive?
X
FRAGMENT
Three men are hoeing
by the great stone wall
that splits my field of vision.
I hope they do not kill
the creeper I have planted there.
Y
FACELESSNESS
In Christmas at pudding I bit on a cog.
It wouldn't turn between my teeth.
When Aunty Hortensia swallowed her hand
we ducked our heads,
not daring to look.
Who cooked a clock in the cake?
Z
BOUSTROPHEDON
Only an ox turns tail
at every turning.
The owner's volubly
keen to sell the beast.
But is it penned in metal
with others of its kind,
enlarging, to bring steel joists of flesh?
Or is it like the spider-king
imprisoned in a tower,
escaping on a washerwoman's sheets?