My blog staff of thousands didn’t have to do much to persuade me that Heathcote Williams’s newest dissident poem, a rhymed marvel of CAT-scan clarity, will be seen one day as a YouTube classic. Here are the opening lines transcribed from the video in four-line stanzas:
Tangled vegetation sprouts from each orifice
From his mouth, his nose, and his ears
Signifying the creature’s urge to merge with nature
And rouse inhumanity’s darker fears.
Click for the video. Listen to Heathcote Williams’s poem narrated by Alan Cox and watch the montage.
He’s Dionysus dancing drunk around maypoles
He’s Pan stamping a cleft foot on the ground
To awaken the sleeping Earth’s spirits of springtime
As winter dies and a new life force is found.Thanks to subversive stone masons in the Middle Ages
This green remnant of man’s pagan past
Finds its way onto church ceilings, corbels, and bosses
Along with Sheela na gigs mad with lust.
Williams messages that Cold Turkey Press may be planning a print edition of “The Green Man Is a Green Terrorist.” If and when that happens, we’ll will pass the information along.
Recent Comments
Jan Herman on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Done. Thanks for the catch.George Butler on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
One more typo to clean up: In the caption under the video link above--to Abbie performing as "Winnie"--her last...william osborne on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Thank you for this, Jan. You are too kind. The "Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne" is hilarious.Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
I disagree, Bill. If your reminiscence about Beckett is any measure, I think you should always write blog comments...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Actually, I wasn’t referring to Gerard’s comment. In fact, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t do the additional scroll...Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Dear Bill -- Now at last the full story! Danke. Merci. I knew you and Beckett had met and...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
One other little thing I forgot. In return for my gift, Beckett wanted to give me tickets to a...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
An interesting topic for me, since I spent seven years doing nothing else but setting the works of Beckett to...Jan Herman onAn Epitaph for Our Golden Era
Thanks, Bill. It puts more light on things. Less irony.william osborne onAn Epitaph for Our Golden Era
“That’s what I find so wonderful, that not a day goes by, to speak in the old style, hardly a...