The Law of Poetry (Selected Poems)

• Published in: Law and literature 2002-03, Vol.14 (1), p.229-248
• Main Author: Cronin, MTC
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Birds; Bones; Children; Eyes; Law; Poetry; Research Article; Soils; Unwritten law
• ISSN: 1535-685X; 1541-2601
• DOI: 10.1525/lal.2002.14.1.229

Preparedness to kill hereif that is the distanceone must travelfrom birthis imaginable just asis the dreamgaping with facts.And the visitors promise always promise because that is a different ability from hearing the distant thunder of lovecrashing and differentiatingself from not-self.After any of these good shows out on the groundis a blonde eyeand a dark eyewatching the assemblyof animalswho befit existence.Where shall I go later is what I ask the castle when returning from paralysis it has reduced its red sizeand blue sizeto a lock against me230and the dog of my tongue.Where will I find desire like a bristlechildren of the puppies death and dreamsand a Madagascan raffia fabric with which to make a noose for the hell people? [...]with a face like bleeding stone the castle throws eggs at these wordsthe forerunnersto my false longing and balancing.We are happyWe are happyWe are happy say its stones and erect the helper notices to make each day payand continue the game.231The Law of BonesCement too, dies; our children become those we once enslaved; we live in the clothes, eating the food,of those long dead whom we bearno relation to; the balconies crackand fall off our houses.How close to the revolution we always come and how we divide up the years to elect new lives worth cheering to; over and over we are dragged tothe oases and stand, hands pressedto the gates of the wilderness.We write the fiction of immorality, the fiction of the rose; with the knife savour flesh; with the gunour distance from death.We toil, we assemble, we hear the colours burning behind us.Where is necessity on any day between the bone forming and the bone decaying? Put your armshere, make these noises andwalk like that.Now you have the right to take your own life.To laugh at the pain you share.(iv) Eating Pomegranates and Poetry that Falls to the Jungle FloorDuring this the world explodes sounds of animals come from beneath the ground cover and bird calls, heartbreaking in their idiosyncrasy, penetrate the dark roof of the mouth,fall to rest on the tongueas if the desire to echo were strongerthan the will to listen.239Seeds crack! Flesh breaks under stronger flesh and blood begins the long journey to be with other blood.Words occur in the bite.Words that would strip the world from itself, but impossibly, as the fruit must finish, hands empty, as what supports us must remain unseen,hunger gone.(v) Dog Eat DogIs, in fact, a different law but one that has slipped into this book and thu