Nocturne for Albert Ayler

 

1.
for whom
were you

waiting brother

waiting
at well
with eagles
stretching wings

sieges in hell

2 .

begin

keep on
going

formidable force
of fluid
passes lips

praise tongue
immolating
on ice

far out
there

pole
to pole

meridian
in mouth

clenching breath
then beating
it
free

it free
brother

3.

come

come
to convert

poison

4.

albert's pulse'
remembering

sound
of slaves

steel
against skin

leather
against skin

backs
bending
slow
vertebrae becomes viper

clunk
of chains
against
timber

sweat squeezing
song
from
thorax

threnody
only threnodies

knots
ìn knees

shoulders

hands

name
nocturne

night
still

remembers

5

smolder
speak only

to spectres
long

gone but running
within
wind

wind
you are

permitting
to pass

ghost's
lips

6

burning birds
above
bring
tune

into elaborate circles
of your living
time's

soul

so it is
said by
by brother

don
turning trumpet
ìnto barbed wire

trapeze

two
of you

tied
to one

mother
choir

chanting
against chant

crying
into lake

7

gaze
with eyes
closed

threnody's thread

first
to las

weave
soul
in field
in forest

somewhere
outside stockholm

8

resuscitate
remains of memory

forgive flight

sorrow
dwelling
detains

you cry
& kneel

far from sea

dance
deep
in
valley
with your horn

9

death
speaks her name
from surface
of hudson river

over
& over again

time
turns
against you
turning

skin
beautiful

blind
broken

so little surrendered
in sickness's song

breathe better
brother

despair
danced élicate

weep
with wing

wind
you

be
above

burning
birds

endless echos
tune you taught

beautiful bellowing
better than speech

10.

gloriy
ghost to be

go to ghosts

garden
grown by ghosts

give
ghosts
give

ghosts
edifice

ghosts
working on wheel

ghosts wake
call out
to corpses

chant

ferocious flowers
grow into ghosts

 

 

 

 

Christopher Barnet

Christopher Barnet

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