C. K. Stead
Excerpts from ‘The Clodian Songbook’
Poem 4
Clodia
do you care
does it chip at you
that the old old
should frown?
Sundown over the lake
beyond the etceteras
bush-spike burned black on it
on the red flush
but we know
where and how it returns.
Not so our youth
light in the eye
fire in thigh
and is it
are you wanting
when darkness knocks
perpetual dormitory?
Lose count Clodia
lip and tongue tell
but not
number
nor mumble anything
but these kisses
and this
and these.
Poem 5
‘Countless’ as they say also of
stars / sandgrains–
ask a conventional question
Clodia, you get
for example
beginning at Ahipara and counting
north
along Ninety Mile Beach
grain by grain
or when you lay on your back on the golf course there
numb with cold
and watched the numberless clear stars watching us
'myriad'
over my shoulder–
is how the poets counter
questions of many
of kisses
of what it will take
to slake a thirst, abate a hunger–
not infinity
but an unfixable
number
cardinal like
these kisses
and this
and these.
