MARTIN STANNARD's most recent collections are A Hundred of Happiness and Other Poems (Smith/Doorstop) and Conversations With Myself: Selected Reviews and Notes 1984-1998 (Stride). His Selected Poems (Stride) and Poems on Various Subjects are due next year. He lives near Nottingham, England.



RECONSIDER

Answer:
I'd adopt my usual tactic
of not doing anything.
You, as the questioner,
would therefore be allowed
a division of the spoils
and to make up your own mind,
and thus my mind also.

Answer:
Of the several courses of action available
(the insurrection having been defeated at last,
suppressed with frantic cruelty)
4, 18 and 32 are the most sensible options
(everything is terrible and trivial)
but 19 is the correct answer
so I choose 19 to creep into your good books.

Answer:
I'm not sure. But if I did
not know where somewhere was
I would ask advice before going to look for it
in a universe all owned and claimed.

Answer:
The insignificant words are inflatable, poignant, assuage, oil-soaked, condolence, disabled, Help!, drip-feed, rapprochement, reflecting, carpenter, pungency and basket.
Though there is no power in Rome to restrain me
I should not use these words -
if I do I am wasting my time and yours,
and I know whose is the more valuable.

Answer:
This is a case where honesty and language
have been forced together
into happy sunny civilised life,
a not happy compromise. For example,
to marry is to compound, think of mistake,
and I am cycling down the road
when I see a bore inexorably coming towards me;
it's obvious there's nothing I can do
and I may be straying a little from your question,
but I'm falling sleepy.

Answer:
I would do nothing again and, like a pilot
who must learn to trust his instruments
as well as his judgement, and be at one
ultimately with the air itself, wait to see if
doing nothing is successful.
But I would give you a running commentary
on what was happening, just so you
don't lose interest and go away
to the land you undoubtedly crave,
the peace beyond your people's frontier.

Answer:
Free, exact and systematic thinking
has begun: if I was in business
I would get out as soon as possible,
and start again. Mind you, the second attempt
is as likely to fail as the first, it seems.

Answer:
The more I see the less I see. The seas are lifeless
and the rocks barren.




A SWASHBUCKLING ADVENTURE

Here is the book I wrote, and the letter
in its envelope. Here are strange creatures
crawling endless shorelines and shapes in
shadowy corners. Here is their name and address.
Here is worry, a scraped living, and
the complete explanations. Here are rocks
and here is the shadow I cast. Here is investigation,
walking, and some pride in ignorance. If this
were not me I would not recognise myself,
and you would not love me. Here is sunlight,
my falling, here are your arms. Here is a ship
upon an ocean, here are people, and here are people
jumping into the sea to drown. Here is the rain
that graces the scene, here are droplets of water
disguised as pearls of wisdom. Here is East and West.
Here are all the gods looking the other way.
Here are the barricades in a slow dismantling.
Here is the smoky horizon, here is what is
between us and it, here is a space to fill, here
is time, the shapes of leaves, hedgerows.
Here is dangerous laughter. Here is my fingerprint
on your heart, and here is the invisible mark
for everyone to see. Here the only way to live
life is to risk death, and if not death then misery,
and if not misery then poverty, and if not poverty
despair, and if not despair disappointment,
and if not disappointment only modest satisfaction.
If not any of these things, you have not lived.




DISCOURSE ON CHEERFULNESS

And suddenly in walks William Hazlitt
And think how much of life can be idea and remain only idea
And almost but not quite as suddenly the morning comes
Which is a surprise because it was the night
And its advance was concealed by the hill between us
It's so pleasant to compare my knowledge of geography
With your accumulation of place names and exact distances
Together they approach the complementary
And suddenly in walks Titus Groan
At least it's someone who could be he
The pianist is interrupted in the middle of music
But there is little discontent there hardly ever is
This being a safe place and a warm zone of comfort
And suddenly here's the end of a book that was long distant
And suddenly we are celebrating the cessation of tensions
And suddenly it is alright to be yourself again
We are delighted by trees because we can't begrudge them
Consider all the greens and browns the squirrels and birds
There is nothing to be gained by begrudging them
We are delighted by children because we can't deny them
And suddenly in walks Laurel and Hardy
Looking extremely well considering he's dead
There is so much extraordinary life in death
They are looking for something indisputably funny
And suddenly here is the offer of a job you can't refuse
Although it means travelling to the other side of town
It's not as if I'll be missed because I was never really here
The sun is shining and soon it will have dispersed the fog
And suddenly in walks The Lone Ranger we ask him to leave
And he does so and he is gone he is gone
And we're not going to make the same mistake twice
And we are the best person we know and the worst person we know
We are the best person we know and the worst person we know
We are definitely the best person we know
And the worst person we know.