NOTES FOR UNDERGROUND

STITCHING THE BEYEUX TAPESTRY - REBECCA HAWKES.

First of all I learn to sheathe my mind in a needle,
a shining domestic wand with a steely eye and a sharp bite.
Hovering over the battlefield like a hand-held bird of prey,
it darts and dips it nimble beak into freshly spilled colour,
dining off a raw pink and grey palate of corpeses and savouring
the acrid metal stench of victory.

MIRACLE - YANNIS RITSES(1909-1990)
Translated by Rae Dalwin
A man, before going to bed, put his watch under his pillow.
Then he went to sleep.
Outside the wind was blowing. You who know the miraculous continutity of little motions, understand.
A man, his watch, the wind.
Nothing else.

THE AGEAN - MARIA LQUISA SPAZIANI (1924)
Translated by Beverly Allen

This music has lasted since the word began.
A rock was born among the waters
while tiny waves chatted in a soft universal tongue.
The shell of a sea turtle would not have foretold the guitar.
Your music has always risen to the sky,
green taproot, mother sea, first of all firsts.
You unfold us,
nurturing with music- threat
fable hypnosis, lullaby, roar,
omen, myth,
Little agonies of grit, of wreakage, or joy.

INFERNO - DANTE ALIGHIERI 19265-1321
Translated by Seamus Heaney.
In the middle of the journey of my life
I found myself astray in a dark wood
where the right road had been lost sight of.
Canto 1. 1-3