New Poems by Laurie Duggan

Eyewear is pleased to feature two new poems by Laurie Duggan. Duggan was born in Melbourne in 1949. He moved to England in 2006 and now lives in Faversham, Kent. Recent poetry books are Crab & Winkle (Exeter, Shearsman, 2009), Compared to What: Selected Poems 1971-2003, (Shearsman, 2005) and The Passenger, (University of Queensland Press, 2006). His translations of The Epigrams of Martial have just been republished in the USA (Boston, Pressed Wafer, 2010).

Paphos

Darkness across the water, before which

lightning, hail against windows;

a morning of tombs and low scrub, the desire

to get ‘shit-faced’ in some bar

The term ‘authenticity’ is meaningless here,

even the ruins attest to constant change

Sea-horse duct above rooftop generators,

satellite dishes, air-conditioning units, hot water services

VISIT PAPHOS AQUARIUM and

CHRIS HOLIDAY RENT A CAR

An illuminated truck circles the town

playing Christmas carols

Santa Claus awash on the seafront

At night a manhole cover, lifted by waves

clanks in the middle distance;

the sea flattens out

with a slight breeze from Africa

The cats of Paphos exist as small clues

in a big picture

A bar that sports mixed drinks:

‘sex on the beach’ and ‘blow job’

hosts a band that plays ‘Down Under’

The old is new, the new is old,

nea and kato

(‘an after dinner sleep

dreaming of both’)

Everything here is ‘English’d

by various hands’

insomnia?

That’s a Greek word

---

At the Norfolk Arms

pressed tin and Corinthian columns

smoked jamon, cut glass,

a gilt Madonna hemmed

by dried peppers: W1 espagnol.

This neighbourhood’s Georgian,

the pub, named for Norfolk who?

Thomas Howard, the 4^th duke,

Norfolk in Sussex, recusant?

The Spanish barman says

of the wine list I stare at

‘the most expensive is the best’

I remember instead the edict

on an album cover

(The Dictators Go Girl Crazy):

‘quantity is quality’

poems by Laurie Duggan

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E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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