Two found poems and a cut-up text [s]

Over the past 10 years I've been collecting founds that turn up in secondhand books I've bought, with the idea of some sort of mixed-media project in the back of my mind.

I am still truly amazed by the sort of things I have discovered (or have discovered me) - words and images, ephemera, that have been lost from another's lifetime for decades, forgotten between the pages of a book: old, faded photos, used bus and train tickets, cinema ticket stubs, love letters, abandoned postcards, even a lock of dyed red hair… And poems.


HESITATION
By Livia Laurent.

You touched me where resistance ends
In depth an abyss yet unknown.
You came into my darkest days
When I was frightened and alone.

And brought to life the hidden strings
As one who brings
Water to those who thirst
And do not know.

It was just so.
And now
That you will lead me further still
To richer fullness and to fuller sound
I hesitate like one who has not found
Not yet
The answer to all that which was before.
Just one step more
And I will cross the threshold to all that
Which is to be.
But give me time
And understand -
AND WAIT FOR ME.

This first poem (which was found in a book of love poems by John Donne, bought at the Book Barn in Bristol) had a byline - Livia Laurent - which I followed up on the Net. This revealed a woman - possibly a pseudonym of Eva Maierhof - who wrote a book on the experience of German exiles interned on the Isle of Man (A Tale of Internment: London, 1942). She is also credited as translator of a 1944 book, Escape from Berlin by Catherine Klein, an eyewitness account of life in Berlin between 1939 and 1942. Could it be the same woman? I guess it could be as the poem's typed on old paper stock. But does it really matter? What makes it interesting for me is its found status.

''Un-known''

Do not say
you love me
if you know
it isn't true

Do not try
to kiss me
if there's no
pleasure in it
now for you

Even if I love you
I'd rather be alone
than have you
stay with me
as though nothing
had gone wrong

The times
we had together
will never come again
but memories
will stay
in spite of
future pain

So tell me
what the score is
don't try
to ease the hurt
you needn't

taste my lipstick
though I may
leave
Tear stains
on your shirt.

The unaccredited author of this untitled second poem could be connected to the Newcastle Morden Tower poets, as it came from a batch of books bought at auction from the library of the late Morden poet Gordon Brown. (>> Brown was editor of High on the Walls: An anthology celebrating twenty-five years of poetry readings at Morden Tower. Bloodaxe Books, 1990).

LUL
aby
x_xx

Gentle stolen tears
spazz
wanton lips
and rif LUSHly
to your
tender diaphanous heart.
for sure
we'll look forward (LFTL)
to gud big hugs
and simmering bliss.
mmmmmmm
always looking forward
always simmering
always later
all mine - all yours
all your loving
all your andes
all your TOYs
all yours - all mine

x_xx

This last poem is composed of elements from text messages i sent to my partner, recycled using the Gysin cut-up technique (>> see The Third Mind by William S Burroughs and Brion Gysin: John Calder, 1979 ).

You can explore founds further on this great site
[link]