The Brighton Poem - Third Opening Poem by michael oliver

the sea all sea
- a lit bright boundary
proscribes my lasting now
- here and past colluding
with innocence long caught
- now called in contemplation
a constant inquiry prescribed
- for minds touched ease

not it's own answer
- but its own inquiry
it is in telling
- a psalm told belief
known from it's being
- within the movements name
and being unkown questions
- the universal kept sense

and present rooms distraction
- the talk talks on
and half eaten burgher
- with this fascinated cheese
and scenes smooth sequence
- and my mind invests
and raked eye lives
- with tales unfathomed now

this tale now turns
- discerned on a quiff
and his fixed eye
- forever lost in him
the gestures speak covert
- into an ochre back
about the room people
- their transient orbit continue

I read my Popper
- sip perry an aftethought
easy with this singular
- behind me the sea
here an open page
- Tiepolo draws attention
and Inigo Jones acknowledges
- from his front cover

up from the sea
-down to the sea
rust dyed hair laughing
- pale skin in boots
a chattering of unco-ordination
- there a sheltered arm
guides to a car park
- and into soft shadow

the ochred attention rises
- pauses to the quiff
watched caresses his arm
- a question tube formed
a silent rush is
- then is not no
an eternal moment known
a transitory permission granted

the triple discourse cool
- the epee at Eton
the queens house Greenwich
- Tiepolo's washed brushed drawings
the passing traffic passes
- managers curved grey belly
James's clean white trousers
-my unsure knee twinges

the quick texts sent
- the quick texts incoming
the smile the noticing
- the introduction the talk
is this me me
- out of the hermitage
to become the priory
- and amour of cloisters

the sea bright sea
- the flecked band sea
the unsure sea seen
- but not known knowing
a chance of remembering
-being sea flecked seduction
the object of this
- the oscillation of pilgrimage

verify this sea today
- here the justification is
as luton church cedes
- to the other minarets
as the Shard chills
- as the wheels scream
as the sun sets
- a comfortable landscape approaches