03.03.18

Malcolm Lowry Dérive: On this rocky shore the man of steel and the long weekend in skin tights, neoprene, chest full of salted atomic mist stands with sun to back. Al Purdy wrote a poem entitled Malcolm Lowry, published in his excellent collection, The Cariboo Horses:

Malcolm Lowry

Not much to remember
     going to see the soused writer and
     bursting from dull green wood
     out to the live green water
with introductions and awkward handshakes
on a shore full of driftwood and stones with blue
boats on a blue horizon
not seeming to move but moving anyway and
ourselves unacquainted with one another
unnoticed by the sea
And in the nature of things I shouldn't
have been surprised if there hadn't
been any gin that day
     and getting drunk on tea

Not much reason
to remember that bit of land or
the old iron ship I found later
on an exploring trip I guess
the hectic spots of flame still dance
on the cheeks of the salty old whore
of a city over the water shine
still on a blue or a grey day
and the gulls no doubt still scream
louder than ever in a noisy masquerade
of permanence
                        but that red face is dead

Not much reason
                        to remember him on the beach
                        no knowing even the stones
                        he shifted in the exuberant morning
                        or what trees have fallen or
if some of the mountains were restless
                        and moved
slightly moving also a little down there on the water only
the composition of colours must be
                       much the same
And buried in a next of deep grass a couple
of old gin bottles
                       but they're empty

- Al Purdy from The Cariboo Horses