proetics

das ist it . for now

2010-09-03T23:27:00.004+01:00

I'm taking a short break from Proetics, but a new brand new blogsite will launch in late 2011, so watch this space!

In the meantime, check out my website for any announcements: www.michael-zand.com

das ist england . kaput

2010-06-24T23:13:00.007+01:00

good riddance to rhubarb
the posh can be trying
but these crazies make hay
want a peaceful life in caves
or a slowly flawed sweater
have fun in pools for cash
whilst donkeys lead lions
and have my love to diet for

put a cork in it flatface
become our lord of the pies
and nurse the shouty ones
your fathers were never welders
they just drank stiff ones
like buy one get one fucked
a free guido with every order
or juliet from the chandeliers

heres to the banana brains
to ageing shirtless horsethieves
to the struggle to make music
to the boozy grand pianos
lets watch nudes fly and sing
we are the bog standard
the old world is under us
paving stones on the beach

lion

2010-05-29T17:42:00.001+01:00

i am . man am
li on . as lan

circle . charkh
line . khat
line . khat
circle . charkh
life . omr
fire
light
fire
a cut
a crack
a tree i
splin . tered
a thin
stream
of glitter
you are . we
carried . in
love
i love
you . as i
am am
lion

My new book of poetry, lion, is out now from Shearsman Books.

It is available to purchase at all good online booksellers (and direct from me!). Look out for various readings across the UK this summer.

http://www.michael-zand.com/lion.php

i emmeline

2010-05-17T23:38:00.005+01:00

am tired of advocates
and of you . actually
i don’t hate you . no
quite the opposite
it’s quite beyond you
to a sphere . a suffix
of praxis . of schism
to explain the absence
of soldiers . law courts
waged by women . i
a judge of life . is all
under a brief sentence
urging you . as a man
to be difficult / complex
a grievence propellor
to colour me by numbers
make me glitter them
deaf . deaf . deaf . de
a choice of each evil
living breathing breasts
a brutal question mark
with a baby that cries
an end . endless politics
papers soaked in snow
is from the beginning
as she smiles to us both
of a cat and a mouse
for the future . is going
to help wither this fight

old gaza . roa

2010-03-29T17:55:00.004+01:00

is gone is
blocked
but there
and the . blocked
enough for a
soldiers . now
prism . and then
connate . by the the
if only . i cou
chip . bit by bit
taste her again
bit by bit by
a light breeze
hashem
strawberries
like all . ever

then i . would
even if it
when it . men
i truly would
stretch . me
is a cross

lights on the caspian sea

2010-03-21T22:56:00.001Z

by the sand breaks sun loaded down as
old . ache
our masters drift
teded to sleep . i . i
told you as much . as there was
or at least as much as you
that those that those
un dulay . dulating
crystals were all iran . and
ever really please never find it
in . you know that dont you . aziz joon . like
the gold khorsheed glinting us . the waves

to make a multitudinous hall of mirrors

nesf e jahan

2010-03-13T17:54:00.006Z

he said . we men we
* are half the world *
as he boiled tea
on a tiny gas stove

i slipped my tongue
in ( to ) her mouth
set / sweet / knees
isfahan is bone dry

a plastic jar of coins

bad boy

2010-03-07T21:27:00.010Z

east jerusalem . is blues
wafting / along the narrative
open in the gates . sheets
or the splits . in territories
near ramallah rats . rat at at
lots of girls and lots of boys
the scent of jesus . scares
ashara . the love of ashara
staked in an open concourse
we are closed / they are inside
habibi . like bang on the head
panties . many coloured panties
no coins just kisses . disks
playing football in the park
a dubbed movie . a brain snap
make it . in the ashara ashara

western wall

2010-02-25T00:45:00.011Z

all streets end here
ha kotel hama aravi
you can see . me
dripped in sweat
wings and little cars
utterly impossible

i don’t know . don’t
know anything . here
a guest amongst glyths
and gender . divided
lilith isn’t enough
gabble our beliefs
lips are not lips
lying on your earth
things cannot die
covered in bark

i know i stutter . fail
painting you . an object
like a tree . or smoke
it's garbage at the edge
like a mirror shouting

but i am still a jew
with inside . outside
my head against you
cracked . bleeding
i care for every brick
your possibilities
amaze me . greater
than any frail lyric
you ground . like words
sounds of words . not
tired . ar / gue / ments
you are better than i do

good . night

2010-02-04T14:15:00.001Z

lost in the dark immensity of her eyes
he was drawn in . like a honey bee
i guess he must have loved her
to have flown there . leaving his world
sphere against sphere . in a dream
of one little room . beside another
and he circled . turning to this moon
fixed on those breathless eyes
basking like a thief with nightgold

oh john . I’m so sorry . you were wrong
the italians should have told you this
you see, your face reflects . not refracts
it’s like a thin film . an unequal mix

unica come sei . immensa quando vuoi
grazie di esistere...

louisa in 1990

2010-01-13T23:19:00.000Z

in time . out of that time . it was
a dark morning . spitting a little
toasted happy . riding the shitty roofs
a train of lichen . dog days and coffee cups
a rich schoolboy watches . edged . clung
but a little time at a time . as if by
proximity . the corridor of uncertainty
steel pipes in a row . is like a good guide

early nineties décor . nothing but the
sweet clink of glass against glass
somewhere to crawl . to the ram
the kingston tup or the bishop in residence
i understood nothing . just asked for pens
my fucking awful jumper . but you were so fit
meg ryan curls . when jumper met louisa
a transatlantic interwoman expressway

green caresses . with damask spins . in cold
on the edge . shaved . against a huge window
you . naked and turned . se . ven . teen
a reflection . the outline of your face
the rise of a king and the fall of a queen
no twists . red shiraz . a long way from wessex
we met again at that time . in the hollow
like children . peeling oranges at the top

london . boxing day night

2010-01-01T16:02:00.000Z

driving throught it . with tom tom
in cision . “the north” to “the south”
a long straight river in steel
parallel and opposed . installed

the gherkin is up . a single lamp is
flickering . waining . a timed distract
praising dead enemies in strange churches

urban . clutted . repeated concrete thumps
but a window is a window . shielding him as
samuel sleeps in his cot . thinking of hannah
four hot hours from israel . he's fine

it seems close . the towers a giant “x”
it hurts us . each of us . as we cross
the bridge

nothing else grows here . but this eli
he has a thoughtful voice despite it all
he throws us a few . in the city
half light

palestinian synonyms

2009-06-02T17:10:00.000+01:00

be . become
hire . engage
label . hit on the crown of the head
move like a hen . show impudence
die . draw a long bow
go to manchester . deliver dry goods

learn . take warning from
be equal to . capsize
strike a cord . grow roots
go slightly mad . avoid parents

absorb . drink sherbet
stupify . make flat
be . become
saint . nomad

narrow road

2009-05-27T14:31:00.000+01:00

dawn in monterrey is
slowly etching me
a trauma . marking

the snuffler . and you pasiphaë
mother of the minotaur

the rest does us . steel a boart
with a scythe . or
drip drip
like a hornwort . and seam

spellbound by . the travails
of our little theatre

a man softly wrested

2009-05-11T00:01:00.000+01:00

midnight is exhausted and dusty
an uninvited guest . guess

germing along an expanse of colour
as our own slick yarns hangover us

a poise . sundered of the sweet smell
severed from any "moving" finger

it passed her by and once past her
copes . left . stained by the rest

will tire of the wander . the swamp
they . or we . make of the sky

foreign exchange machine

2009-04-21T13:17:00.000+01:00

front . there she is . in

mark et espenser . in line in

draped black silk . an

ibna islameen

yet . turn . faced

this is one . likeness of us . of

¡ bin hengist . bin horsa !

hand held by a little green friend :

do you understand . me

first press the buttons and . and

wait for the euros . do they have them

in your country . do you verstanden sie

and around us is lily c . blown up

shiny . poised

but vacant . and

very slightly ginger

pang

2008-12-16T00:15:00.000Z

with words in English and Danish

and with a clasp of the dark . skyet . overskyet
the door at the back . sparrow dives . fugl . fødsel
swoopers in bounds hjerte . heart sted af
of hus . un house ed . but will stays across it it
in side of us . like the øje of the ulv . in the past

soft take . to place this . en pine or kval or
before a last long dance . moving from flyde til gulv
she hits the pane . and the words start . windows
men på os . på denne place eller sted . på
there is a loss . en pinen . a pang that cuts layers

through the history of denne place . this hjem sted
vv

foolstory

2008-10-05T00:41:00.000+01:00

daastaan

the forest is far from us . in those days
our old man . toldened me . lives at the end
of the tracts . by the hasheesh fields
landrings curved . away so he see
the olive groves and the kurdish village
one autumn day . the sun special . crim zone
the air sweet . dusty wets warm
the old he pace and prepares in surlience
when he the slow . turning of a cart
a kurdi family . beauty like simple
child steps forth and staring rigid scared
a toy with red and blue . batcheh koochik
this small omid . naked hope
but hung from a necklace of crusted jade
an eye to protect . worth only love
the cart rolls off and mother was child again
old clipped his donkey and made his saddle
with his warm . parcel drove to the route
to the house at the top . praying throughout
as the maid answers us
and placed my worry beads on childhead

the dust picked up again and swept seeds
and petals across the courtyard

diggers

2008-09-18T00:12:00.004+01:00

from lion:

we are soldered . too the up
deys drive . the vast soiled mound
these were our people . shovel
spade and future . re site of the
had to do duty . madars and pedars
corpses in a ground . but leave as
shahid bash . mojahed . vatan
thousands . piled . in lined
the stench of the eye of a lie
it shone out . like long words
for my earth . is your . brown ghel
is all there to me . dug once
crouch in the myths . bent double
one and day . dugged near . like the heat
spat it . oil and shat and for
bemiran . in their sweat . pleading
on any head . as magas buzzworm
the ghel made scarlet . flied sand
in old caves . of tribes . of cross
swallowers . and . enough of it
enough of it . makes it an anger
in the lust to speak . to be long
like the lion . for the long

the gift

2008-08-12T00:11:00.001+01:00

(after Forough)

i speak out . t . t
from . nahaayat
nahaayat . t. . t

infin . at . depth . in the night
n . high . yet
for this is what we have come

biya

and you come to see at my house . as a friend or in the
spirit of a friend . bring in a lamp and a window to
look . at the crowds in the happy city streets

they peak by . a . a
as if to
nahaayat . . t

what is found in the east

2008-07-03T00:12:00.000+01:00

( time to half rea )

a stone . with a hole in it
it keeps us us . away . evil shaytaans
( wonder if they get it )

a stone . with a hole in it
it keeps us us . away . evil shaytaans
( is what it is . sorry )
by the sea . for the
quie . t . idyll . s
but a void . come restless
( sigh and move a head )
bad bad progress . on shore

then he realises
surround done . like a whole way of life
we're neared to the edge
( mistake i . never mentioned )

it . neared to the edge
so begin in . shoroo
feel and keep us . local things are alike
( la aa eik )
a stone . with a hole in it

the wind . carries us

2008-06-25T01:46:00.000+01:00

(after Forough Farrokhzad)

in your tiny un . night

the wind caress . is

a tree

listenen b goosh

whisper . cherish . wi

to point of hap

hungs . of overusus

shud her

so it panes of f . raps

the window the

a . green . a . green

from one end he

tah . ph . burns

palms against glass

like mememory

divi . deded

so their lips melt

on wind . on bard

as we are . as we are

it carries us . s

salaam aleikum

2008-06-18T00:34:00.000+01:00

peace be with you

that means . something

not say hello . because you do

or nor . some secret grasp

scrapening in the dust . doost

but see a moment of choice

it smithed by and by . heateded

carried craddle . these blisters

to lovingly exchange . in the dark

giving to you . to me

a greet in . so

we . need never . h

for fea . fears . es

of its absence