POEMS

Blue plate

a blue plate
a tale and a basket
handing out tunes and bread for day
and another mile
and another song to say
sing and all will be brought and taken
like water and the blues
like time and the memory
and the scratched soul of a world
poised and ready to continue

say a line
and sing awhile
and all will be one

wait and watch
the door to further opens
and bird enters,
happy as a tree
and bright as light blue
seeing me
and seeing you
and still pulling words from throat
as morning mist blisters the end of summer night.

© Julyen Hamilton July 4 2005

early morning beauty blues

as bird flies sugar-free to full light
streams with windows of istanbul
and the bass simple rings ears
to happiness and nether quiet

early morning blues
makes dance moves fast like the blue plunge
to deep waters 
and the expanse of temperature

notes from the master playing standing bass
friend beyond negotiation
worker of the instrument
receiver of the gifts
maker of the evidence
through and further than  the sparrows scratch
and refined like gravel from the mountains


early morning beauty blues
marble and peace
wood and skin touched
like a light sleep with the eyes half shut
half open
half shut half open

out of the window
over the house tops
city of converging rivers
seas to immense oceans us

from some tiny me soul
with the lips hung ready to whistle or sing
these early burning beautiful morning beauty blues.

© Julyen Hamilton istanbul july 2008

Herds of cattle

other words
other moves

further stories
new herds of cattle

migrating through the mind
other oceans

other shoals of thoughts
coloured like tropic

symptoms of change
establishment and evolution

black day
shot through with light

bleak desert
produces golden droplet

honey tunes
sing wild delight

and delicate baskets
are woven through the night.

© Julyen Hamilton Aug 31 2005

hymn to potency

I suppose this is a hymn to potency
a small river flowing in my blood
flowing against the flood.

What more can a poor boy say?
What more can a man?
What more can a woman?
What more can a man or a woman say
now that so much seems broken
and the century is adrift.

Let's look, let's look, let's look.

The post comes so slowly here
I got your letter only yesterday
the one you wrote me 1000 years ago
let's look, let's take a look
I open the envelope like the skin of a tree
and here I sing what you wrote to me
you said...

"I suppose this is a hymn to potency
a small river flowing in my blood
flowing aginst the flood.
What more can a poor girl say?
What more can a woman?
What more can a man?
What more can a man or a woman say
now that so much seems broken
and the century is adrift,

Let's look, let's look, let's look"

© Julyen Hamilton '93

Song written for the performance CORTEX with Carme Renalias in 1993.

BURNING ADVICE

to the atheist
allow the question of after life
to melt the rationalised future

to the believer
let go of belief
and peel your eyes to the evidence

to the hopeful
let the roads of hope be laid
but without need to be travelled

to the wise
fall forwards into deep blue beautiful youth
and strip time away beyond its reign

to the enlightened
check your hand-luggage

to the present and tense
shift and touch the world
just to the left of here and now

to the serious
play

to the jokers
practise silence in an exposed place amongst others

to those who advise
write your advice down on paper
and burn the book happily in winter.

© Julyen Hamilton slovenia river soca aug 2007

spontaneous abstract behaviour

So boogie drove away the blues
as spirit sprung in and spun round
like a wake-up call
screaming softly in your ear

pearls and dark eyes
and the spice of indian bhindi ladies fingers

horns and cherubs sing
and their songs lilt and file
scrape and slide
as backs scratch smoky air.

you're joking, every melody's mine
as they spin and shine

peach voices crawl over gravel
and the light is all there
all there
like no denial
as they inch forwards
opening the night like a surgeon
moon as knife
song as sponge
dancing as blood
and the devastations of wildness
the only way to the sanity of the hour.



Whiskey calls over to the island cat
and says "Honey when does the sun shine here?
why no snow in your neck of the woods?
if we wait 'til spring maybe they'll have cancelled it"



So they tear down what is left of the night
bundle it into the back of a limping car
drive it to the boarder
change its colour
and throw it,
hopeful and loving,
into oblivion ...
far beyond the mind's imagining
and the body's touch.



And so the heart of feet cools on
the late wet pavements,

and sick christmas songs fade
to sleep
whisper
silence.

© Julyen Hamilton nicosia dec 8 2007

These are... a series of whispers

The air with no wind - You listen with no legs


Talking about and old man who long ago was young
and when young he went out with a knife
and peeled all the onions in the garden
and in the end he found only concrete,


About the onion - the paradox of centre - the centre empty


Talking of history
the voice of a 1000 years of genes
the multiplication of essence, essence, essence
history, history, history
onions, onions, onions.


Compassion, compassion, compassion lives of compassion.


I come here today to send a message
I knocked on the door
it said open at nine and the weather was fine
and I was happy as I knocked on your door
and you opened and I come in and said
I want to send a message
I want to send a message


I want to send a message
between my heaven and my earth
and I send it in a series of whispers.


A series of whispers like honey
like history, history, history
and essence, essence, essence
and onions.


And each one hears the message as whispers
one at a time
passed on down the line.

© Julyen Hamilton '93

Disappearance

Brief as years
you heard me
staring purely as a boy

keeping my distance like
a foreign boat
moored at your harbour side.

Beads of light off the water
tunes in early morning
a silent cycle passing
like your disappearance
lead by your elegance

a rare flower graces the apple tree.

© Julyen Hamilton feb 07

this hibiscus is a trumpet

this hibiscus is a trumpet
on which the night plays,

listen

this vista is a present dream
which now renders real.

I sit and watch and hold myself
in arms

a chest of breath the dust of night kissing
this dear boy girl

whom we are all exposed to be
clearly and wonderfully.

this hibiscus flowers trumpets
as words transform to insects

the night dances to song
suspending
the
hours
as
melodies

© Julyen Hamilton 2007

as fantasy

as fantasy is a place where it rains......
she waits earth ready

as body is a world down where song finds root,
her god's ears are listening

as book is a place where carved pebble words lay
awaiting the spring of reading eyes

while heart is place where teeth are useless
and smile reigns married to tear.


Thus legs are a place which finds her
running beyond obvious fields


listening to crumpled sounds of personal forest

steaming up hard breath hill

racing over thistle bed

and sharp flint carpet


to arrive 
at desire's
enveloping long eared
deep arm chair
of fantasy



..........awaiting instruction.

© Julyen Hamilton 2008

CRAPPY MINI BAND DANCE

crappy hot and sweating pretty
you're twisting to the nitty gritty
and all the elbows are a' chasing you
as you boogie to and fro

so i tap my feet
and tune my lips
and close my eyes
and turn my hips

and music flips
and hands they hit
these broken sounds
from crap music bands

all along the road up front
i'm listening to musicians hunt
their way along the black back roads
gone hunting scraps and cutting notes


they're hunting and they're breaking time
i watch you chasing all you find
no rules to break no lines to cross
the music rules its god its boss


i pick a stick
and pluck some string
we'll lose the roof
with this music game

warm your feet
and brave your heart
they're playing shit
which sounds so sweet.

the walls are bent
the sky pours down
as the crappy deaf and dumb street band
is making sense of wonderland.

© Julyen Hamilton 2008

the big space

You are standing at the end of a long narrow corridor
I see you from afar
this distance is further for my eyes than for my feet
as I approach you I realise you are naked ;

and this first nakedness is like a question.



The pressure of the space between us alters;
at first I accuse you of causing this
and then I realise it is I who am arriving with this pressure
and then I realise that it is you and I both
and then I am aware that we are linked and that makes me nervous
nervous for the fact that something has begun in which I will have to navigate
and I know
even though the walls of this narrow corridor are firm and guiding and reassuring
that maybe I will become forever lost in this navigation
and so I call to you for help
and you answer me only with your nakedness;

and this second nakedness is like a statement.



I cannot turn and exit the corridor
there are others behind me
I am like a fish caught by the gills
and the water of this corridor is made wetter
and more hermetic by the rectangular transparent wombs to either side of me.
I focus on them, staring intently
seeking refuge in their technological nature
which makes me notice even more the inevitable approach to your body;
Then I notice projections upon your body and breathe relief
the relief of a once famous painter who having faced a period of creative emptiness suddenly finds himself able to place colour once again upon the canvas;
I am happy to a disproportionate degree and continue along the corridor;
my sense of time within all this is like a diver's,
constantly being pressed and and suspended,
like the air inside a suction pump,
the blood within the arteries,
the thought within the imagination.

Now I am easy at the approach,
fascinated by the projections and their caressing of your skin, calm that they stain no further than the surface, that they will need no water to be washed off, washed away;
our eventual closeness carries no surprises,
the handshake of inevitable consequence;

and then
as I stand before you,
me in my confidence,
and you in your painted nakedness,
I am shocked once more and thrown into the edge of my self
for I am blocking the light
casting you into shadow
immediately peeling off the colours projected upon your skin
the cool dark shade I have brought you
once again makes you naked

and this third nakedness surpasses the other two,
for it contains no collusion,
we are simple, personal, and impersonal.
no room for fear, for excitement, for anything,
even as families of thoughts rush towards the situation to populate it.
I turn and walk onwards
invited and welcomed by the immense space of this room
and my discovery of it
and quietened by the wisdom of the layer of earth which has been laid for me to walk upon.

If at any moment in the corridor I had wished my body naked,
then now, even more, I wish to take off my shoes and bare my feet
and place the eyes of sensation between my toes
and be once again like a young boy and like an old man
with no heavy weight of maturity.





Later, much later, I cannot remember how much time has passed now,
I find myself standing before five other bodies entombed, enwombed, I am not sure which,
curled up in their confines, growing in their readiness.
And I find myself holding them instinctively
holding them like a young father who handles with both protectiveness and privilege;
and whose smile recognises both these attractions.







All is calm now and this peace is broken only by the future.
What will happen
what will happen next
how will I handle this future and the loss of this present







.....little do I know how well the spirits can grow,
in spite of the dusts of doubt all around them,
how well they can grow,....
how well they shift me, move me, halt me, fall me,
cry me, call me,
peel me, scar me,
think me, teach me
rock me, reel me
spin and dizzy me......

...joking constantly and
dancing with such serious joy towards approaching immateriality!




..............



Long after all this had passed, I was in the bus going home
or was it squashed in the back of a friend's car my thigh pressed against the thigh of another.......
anyway,
I looked down to my hand and realised something had been holding it all the while I had been in the big space,
accompanying me all the while,
and I looked down and I saw in my hand
a tiny group of minute musicians and heard the tinny echo of their music still ringing.

I thanked them and said I would buy them a drink when next we met.

© Julyen Hamilton - Written for an imagined choreographed by Apostolia Papadamaki, in Athens.

could it be?

be the key
this boredom inside
and all around of me

could the signs
the portents clear
bring all the angles
which i fear

might the game
so clearly blind
dissolve the insights
duly found

I ask the night
the grey and black
if what I'm seeing
can be turned back

the letter frank
the pen inscribes
the news of day
from which we hide

but 'tween the breaths
green birth, pearl death
the jester's sword
will keep its word

humour to humus
through slime or tide
our craft alone
keeps vision wide.

© Julyen Hamilton sept25'11 fontcoberta

Every Step

Every step
the foot falls along the way
and the path tilts
and the crevasse threatens
and the wild plains have been sown with seed
and balance revises itself.

And the waters await cadence.


Every foot and each time
the soul falls clearer
the voice extends more pearl and bridge
less stalk and gap,
the hands shake less
and the silence in amongst all grows near tangible.


A question forms from the mist and despises the grips of clarity.


I listen at a stone's throw
the new birds are twinned
the colours take confidence
and the bell shines as it rusts.


All this and more
finds its way to the surface
contrives its manner of being
and the squalid doubts retract their ready talons.


Every second takes its wonder, going nowhere fast.


The running legs cut a field in two
the pen laid to the side bows duly to the voice
the lane of words just born
is ready to be walked generations in the future.


Crepiscule winks the promise of the next day inviting
the subconscious to be left out all night.

© Julyen Hamilton ap 7 2011  fontcoberta

Imagination

1. Words are for contemplation and aim to stimulate;
they are born of observation at a given point in time.
As dance moves, so does thought.



2. Improvising conveys a person's thought and feelings at a specific time
- not waiting to be conclusions, these feelings and thoughts are able and desirous enough to take
form...to be performed... movement coming from all of the many centres in the body.



3. The body has a potential of a wide range of expression and recognition of its environment.
It can orientate itself at the same time both in the tangible world of its sorroundings
and the intangible world of its imagination.
In the improvised moment the audience is present as the dance
deals creatively with these two spheres.



4. The body prefers differentation and individuation more than generalization and conclusions.
The body uses movement to expose the imagination.
In movement, imagination becomes physical.

© Julyen Hamilton

...on stillness

"...what I find myself excited by is stillness as a focus in the body.
When you think about stillness of course, you realise that the body is never still.
Stillness is a quality of the mind and body that ideally you always carry with you
- and if you can tap into that stillness it seems to stimulate movement from a particular source.

I heard John Berger recently talking about writing being like smashing the silence around the word.
It's the same in dance.
There's a stillness around movement waiting to be broken
...and when you go through that stillness to find the movement,
there's another stillness at the centre of that...and so it goes on."

© Julyen Hamilton - from an interview in The Independent, London GB 1992

who

who holds the fork
who holds the knife
who told the soil
the secrets of this life

who managed the lies
and thick roots of fear
who opened the doors
and placed more fear there


who wrote the lines
and the stains of memory
who called the tunes
and arranged the tyranny

who made the mountains
and the epic poems long
who wrote all those letters
and the melody of songs

i, the king anonymous
i flew in nature's face
i descended from the zenith
descended from all grace

i, the hole of blackness
and the toothlessness of crime
i, the tongue-less nervous bell
the escapee of time.

i, the eye-less restless hawk
i shunned the mountain side
i, the hidden septic pool
which beauty can't abide

i, the wrath the gods desire
to cast their thunderbolts
i, the purple blaze of doom
that renders silence mute

i, the crest-less cock at dawn
who cries alone for grain
i, the flaccid empty cow
whose (eyes and legs) hide and soul are lame

i came upon the traveller
along a stony path
i asked the way, he raised his arm
and bid me follow far.

i tired and walked and walked and tired
the airs both live and dead
i listened to his cryptic words
but chose nothing to heed.

For me, you were the blind man
the one that leads the blind
the only cruel helper
that that epoch could provide

i trusted you and teased you
and found your skin so soft
your ears and eyes and willing legs
your mind so far aloft

your thoughts and lucid temper
your history and mine
found common point and sensefulness
the grace of gifted time

And i wonder on reflection
who wrote the lines and notes
whose simple blind indifference
let child-likeness have vote

but then again my wondering
falls on needless ground
as the seasons eat my offerings
and all that i have found

i salute you in your beauty
your sea of coloured hair
your soul alone and struggling
through your darkness deep and clear.

i salute you in your bravery
your wise and careful gait
i salute you before the moment falls
and the chance comes too late

i bow this low and happily
to sense this lowly place
to place my self in shadow
and see the light shine from your face.

your elemental wisdom
and your breath which tells the wind
all that details hold
and all there is to find

© Julyen Hamilton 2011

To sit still

To sit still
to have the flame in front
To enter the flame
and burn up what is unnecessary



To sit before a window
through the glass a northern pine, bare rocks
and way up out of the city white bears
and reindeer



To sit before a window
high above a gothic street
which sweats the southern sounds
of stretched night time
the ring of butane sellers
and other voices
bouncing between the cheeks of the houses.



A wild goose flaps its urgent wings
and mounts the air
to gain sky
above a group of trees at the field's edge
and airborne , aims singularly where it must.

© Julyen Hamilton

the kinesthetics of language

where do we speak
when do sounds become words
how do words occur
how do they occur to us
how might poetry happen
listening - surdity - and absurdity

verbs and bones
nouns and organs
adjectives and organs
adverbs and muscles

is there a difference between the words composed when sedentary
and those which come when moving
the play between the movement of words and the movement of
the body in space


thoughts from a moving body
thoughts from a stationary body
movements around a silent mouth
movements around a talking mouth
song and air

© Julyen Hamilton

SUITE : OTHER

He said this is a tree and he said
I'm sitting beside the tree
And I said I see
I said I see the tree
And I said I see you sitting beside the tree

And he said if you want to come with me
He said you've got to start now and wait
I said I'll clean my feet

He said you'll never be more ready than ready
I said beautiful.



He said this is my tree because I've given up all the trees
You see you see you see
No apology
Wet, slightly wet there.
He said this is my only way ­ forwards

Scratch
He said silence is over rated
Over-rated and understated
One two three one two one two one

The whistle was just the wind in the tree
And the tree in the wind
the wind in the tree and the tree in the wind?
He said lets start again
I said leave early, no no no no
He said try yes (clap)
Sugar

Its wet there
Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison
Poison attention Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poison Poetry Poison Poison Poison Poison

so he sat beside the tree polishing my chest
he said voila like a rat

I'm going back down to the basement
I'm going to undo all my old clothes
Burr chick-at-ti burr chick-at-ti..
Hold that second
Watchac seez a cheekaty
Baaaaa
He said wool is over- rated
He said sheep are the only accompaniment for a spiritual life
I said attention

Yahehya yahehya heiyahehiyaforest-blues blues blues
Aaaah!

He said you can start again only once
So stoke me
Zo zo ztictictic oh hoho




 
This is the place - this the time - this is the place - this is mine
I'll return with some food, with another a-other
Another forget 'a' forget 'an' take other
Hot hot hot hot
Cold
Your blood has gone cold
I am left near the television these nights
These these these extraordinary nights,
We have here
These extraordinary seasons this year
These extraordinary years we have in this
apocalypse..welcome

..sctract..

I am going down, going down, going down
Somewhat down, memories further down
Risked slipping further
than the memories of further down, down
beyond accomplishment, down
beyond the comfort of accomplishment,
Down.

He said this is my tree
I said you can believe what you can believe
I believe you can believe what you believe.

He said I'm sitting beside the tree
He saidand you? And you and you and you
I said I'm dancing.
He said I sit still
I said me too

At least not watching like the tree is watching
Upa ty two upa ty two one two one two
One two one two one two two one two

Especially for you
These days these days these these days.
Round..like a brush cleaning the screen
Like a brush of acid cleaning the bathroom mirror
Like a daily cleaning spree through the nose
Like utter slow contemporary convulsions
Like a whale remaining true to its ancient. no its wet somewhere here.




 
I stand up
And I stand down
I stand up
And I stand down down down

Ah tuuu huh
..in a flight of fancy
And can, .will you hold me, can you hold me;

She said is there another?
I said forget 'is' forget 'an' just take 'other'

Weeeeeoheeeeahhhuuuuatsss ahehah
back back back.




 
I imagine this is half a forest
I am not alone, there are many of us here.
And also maybe here
You fool you fool you fool you have missed the other
Between, about and continually between your beautiful blue-brown eyes - thankyou.

I'm going back down to the basement where the logs of winter, where the logs of winter,
where the logs of winter rest like frozen sheep



He complained they took his wine
I complained they took my fur
Hot, no longer,
Peace..bravo.
At last, at least beyond all hopes
Hoping hoping hoping hoping
Beyond beyond the mountain on the other side.

Nearly enough but not quite
Nearly beyond the foliage
Oohahhhweearrr.yahoooahoo

Knees
Television
Silence
I am between the forest and not the forest
I am returning with a song about Charlotte
Here I am returning
Here I am between the - and the -
But unfortuneately the song about Charlotte has not arrived.





He said it happens to all of us this tree
He said there's no tree he said there's a tree
He said between here and here and here and here
..is all completey different.
just just not so much but still wanting between the
golden youth of eternal winter,
only with the thin glare of summer ice
and your beautiful blue brown eyes
aaahi mercisaid the rat
voila.


 
Of course hueh ha
He said you go on and on and on and on into the other dimension
Kill it kill kill it kill kill ithere.







Marvelous,
I marvel at the marvelous
that is how I know it is marvelous;
And it takes as much energy a cold water to boil ready for the egg of the next generation.

You cry, I should laugh
You wait, you sigh, you know the difference
You pretend you don't but you know the difference.
Voila.

He said sleeping was the only way of fully understanding the tree;
I said all the leaves fall off
He said you talk a lot
I said you're not exactly so silent yourself, sweetheart.

He said we love you
I said if I'm sick take this too
If I'm hot take this too
If there's
light, sound and difference and altogether other
Take this too.

Elbow,
where all my dreams spread like seeds
spread like seeds spread like seeds spread like seeds
huh spread like seeds huh spread like seeds huh spread like seeds honey honey spread the seeds honey honey honey
honey honey honey honey honey honey honey
..continue honey.


I'm going to fly.

© Julyen Hamilton - SUITE : OTHER, New York dec 2002

text created live by Julyen Hamilton in the performance

The live texts from "Pieces for Light and Chance" Vienna, night 1

BISCUIT and GREEN

Primarily understandable
On the second day everything changed.

on the third day both Green and Biscuit fell indeterminedly but resolvedly, to work.

'Follow me' said Biscuit
Green said 'I'm your man'
Green said 'I'm your man'
and whenever Green said I'm your man
Green lifted his leg like a man

wonderful said Biscuit 'you make me forget the strangeness of my name, I will love you forever for that,'
Biscuit was given irrepressively to promises which of course he could never fulfill longer than a decade.



green green green
win at cards
win
win at beer win at table
win on the high crane
win on the building site
win
'Green' said Biscuit 'buy me something to make me beautiful
buy me something to be beautiful
buy me something gold
something silver something gold'
'Green' said Biscuit 'dance.'

On the fourth day
that's the day after the third day
only the third day was one of those long days
that really stretches you like, like this
so on the fourth day,
which seemed like it could be like a really thin day,
like Biscuit was thin because he never ate enough
green kept saying. 'Biscuit if you don't eat you'll never have any energy to dance
and he said 'but I don't dance'
he said 'you do'
he said 'I don't'
'you do
you do its that you don't eat'
he said 'you do dance its just you don't eat'

anyway...

on the fourth day which was after the third fat day
fat fat like mother, mother fat
came
slowly the real realization of
death;
death, the sweet relaxing
quasi silent prospect of the break with the illusion of infinity.
Imagine this when you're 28 years old.
This is young for such a break
for such a move in the spirit;
this is young for such a realization.

Biscuit and Green were both young
if you piled their ages together they would
half
a century
make.

--------------------

Okay - its all changed, its moving on

Belief like spring,
when spring comes.
day 1 and day 2 and day 3 and day 4
marryyoulatermarryyoulatermarryyoulater
all have the most incredible
going down going
party party
beer no not winning beer not winning at cards no
just beer;

naturally
Biscuit and Green were there looking outrageously edible;

--------------------



I feel like breakfast
I feel like 2 breakfasts
i feel like here we should build breakfast
4 breakfasts
and a roof,
coffee,
and on the roof a cloud
of course something italian
of course forget country
just think.
After breakfast we go to sleep again
sleep again sleep sleep sleep again
sleep again
such a long long day
a long way
back.

we can make a map and breakfast
and take breakfast with us
all over the world
i mean, breakfast is always useful
i mean wouldn't you say breakfast is always useful
look at it - see
breakfast for three
'the unexpected' said Biscuit,
and Green was jealous of that

'oh god I'm going to climb a tree'.

(Exactly.)

So the 5th day which came as a shock
5th days always entering through the slit
which has been forgotten the night before.

------------------------

Six - don't miss it
six is small
six comes up unexpectedly behind the throat
behind the heart
before the plan gets scratched
six comes around the back of the ear
in the sharp of the night
the sharp of the knife
that cuts the apple
thats so equal;
six comes up curling
curling and whirling
up unstoppable
deniable but irrefuseable
deniable - irrefuteable.

Six comes out like steam
like heat
faithful
faithful to dancing
faithful to water
faithful to dancing water getting
ho ho ho ho hotter
under the earth where the bread bakes;
night;
Jacob Jacob - Thanks!

Coming back again
free like less
coming back again
coming back again
coming back again

-----------------------------------------------



Biscuit and Green had a very long life
25 50 75 150 300 410 500 711
they saw the moving of mountains
they saw their bodies growing old and young
and old and young
they saw civilisations turning over in bed
they saw the rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall
of happy countries
sad countries
slow countries
quick countries
rich countries
poor countries
peace;
the saw all this in their long lives
they saw towns build up
they saw towns fall down
they saw towns come up
they saw town come down
they saw places arrive
they saw places go
they saw peace
and the unintelligable stutterings of young children
they saw they saw
and the older they got
the more they saw
they saw they saw
and one day
one day one day one day
they saw ....
wait for it
wait for it, wait for it, wait for it....



....they saw no more.

© Julyen Hamilton - this text was composed during the performances in 'Tanzquartier' Vienna, Austria April 3,4,5 2003
and is here in its original and uncut version; it does not include the text and sounds from Christian Reiner

The live texts from "Pieces for Light and Chance" Vienna, night 2

OTHELLO

salute
salutamos
ludo
ludamos

hah!

hola
hola
sorry hola
buen dia
que fas aqui fas aqui

othello walked in a particular manner
to work every
day
to work walked othello
and to walk to work was othello's occupation
and when othello had no walk
even worse othello with no work, othello's occupation.

i can hear work approaching.

peaches
apples apples appless apples peaches
peaches second day peaches
old apples

exactly
precisely
indubidably
day broke across his head
like the egg off a chicken
when othello walked
to work.



othello's work took him 6 hours each day
othello cleaned shoes for people
in the station
in that stationary way
'clean shoes clean shoes clean shoes'
he barked like a dog.
Can I what? Nothing.
oh it was nothing except....
pretty feet, pretty chest, pretty back
pretty bored..
come come hola

come hola come.



----



Peaches
Apples and there are peaches old apples
and no chickens
No chickens saw othello
that morning no chickens saw othello.

othello just made people's shoes black.

you understand
you understand
you understand
come on, come on in
we've got peaches and, sorry, no chickens.

I have a book
tomorrow i have abook
tomorrow i will look at the book and ask othello
all about being...
should i choose blue of green should i choose blue or green?
should i choose green or blue?
should i choose to be a man or....
you understand the ease
you understand the difficulty
and that the permutations are not endless endless endless
endless endless endless endless etc

i found water
i struck oil
blacker that the boots that othello cleaned
in the station after he had walked to work

bye bye bye bye bye....(melody)

-----------------------

more more more more more more
and hen more and more and then
more and more and more
and then again more.

Somebody to work for
that's what I'd like.
you're right
you're absolutely right
i said you're right i just took an early sleep
why not take an early sleep before it is needed
before getting over tired and then i thought
this would be a good momentand then i thought now was a good moment
and the now which was the now then is no longer
being this thought the sleep is the only way to link between the then which was now and the now now.

i would give this to you but
but it is mine.

'I'm not a jealous man' said othello
'I just adore biscuits'

-------------------------

Hola, hola you remember
I was at your place
but i had no shoes
for you to clean and you made my feet black
i was soooo happy
but i didn't show it like this
i said 'thankyou'
you remember the week later
a week
you remember a week later
i had no trousers, my money was low and my heart
(high) here i suppose, they say,

but sometimes it is here
and i jump forward and i'm right in the middle of my heart
right here and i jump back
and i'm right in the middle of your heart
and then you jump forwards and you're in the middle of my heart
and then i turn around and you're behind me again and then you turn around and so -
you painted my legs black
and i was sooo happy
but i didn't show it like this
i just said 'fuck you! man what are you doing?"

I lied - i was so happy.

I went home and danced with my black legs
and i said
'someday othello's going to be my man.'

I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer
I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer

I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer

I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer
I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer

I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer
I said it like a statement - I felt it like a prayer
you get the picture
you get the picture
you get the other picture
you get all of the pictures and as you get the pictures
the pictures change and with the changes you get another picture

hotter here
more heart there
romance there
the river with its heart dappertutto
which means ......... here.





-----------------



Someday they'll take the building away
someday they'll take the glass out of the window
out of the buildiing that they take away
someday they'll take...
no they won't take the light that comes through the glass
in the window in the building which they will take away,
no that they will not take that away;

Today this makes me comforted
not comfortable but comforted
and so i walk in the light through the window
in the building which they have not yet taken away
I'll be ready when it goes
sad for the loss of building
sad for the loss of window.

Sister.

Hola
I'm no going yet.

-------------



My money was running even lower
if fact my money wasn't even running
the next week
(i have to do a week again)..thats two weeks
there's one for later.

The next week i arrived
and othello said 'hi hypocrite'

That week i had no trouswers
no shoes no socks
and even more unusual for this city at this time, this epoch
no underwear
i said 'othello' - you'llbemymanbemymanmyman othello
could you-"
and he said 'yes'
and he did..right to here,
as black as night and i said that's not black enough
and he said 'close your eyes sweatheart.'

I was soooo... you know
and i showed it with my hand, face,..
he said 'hi bye bye bye bye '(melody)

-----------------------------

Its not my fault i can't understand eveything.

I'm very I'm very taken to this week
i could live in this week for a month
i could invite all my friends in this week
there would be room enough to play cards and get poor again
to win enough money to buy my clothes back
room enough in this week to drink, to dress and to eat
the most succulent
and to walk up to othello
in the way that othello
would
never
walk
while walking to work.

but
things got worse
in spite of dancing every night
in spite of a myriad of fortunes
and unfortunes found at the end of one's fingertip;
and
the next week
i arrived with no shirt
no necklace,
no earrings
give them to me i said
and soon i was black all over
except under the eyelids
so i refused to close my eyes
from that day until now,
night and day
day and night,

dream
and rubber
goat and a tragedy
voila
a day
a day i missed.

© Julyen Hamilton - This text was composed during the performances in 'Tanzquartier' Vienna, Austria April 3,4,5 2003
and is here in its original and uncut version;it does not include the text and sounds from Christian Reiner

The live texts from "Pieces for Light and Chance" Vienna, night 3

SOLDIER

swam the soldier

the soldier
swallowed a good deal of the water in the swimming pool in which he was swimming

the soldier wore nothing
as he swam swam swam
swam in the swimming pool,
nobody knew
nobody said
nobody saw
nobody jumped up in surprise
nobody sat watching
nobody knew
the soldier was a soldier.

-------------------------

from way beneath
the blue skin
way beneath the coming in and the going out
way beneath the standing and the understanding
and the overstanding and the beside standing
and the dancing moment
way beside
way above
but now way below the blue miniscus
the swimming swallowing soldier heard
nothing at all;

heard only his future
played like memories
memories
memories leaving
memories arriving
memories kept here,
watch them now;

Biscuit and Green came back
came in the door
came in the big glass glass glass door
and heard the pumping heartbeat
of the motors bringing
new waters into the swimming pool;

they said you will hear no more about us we will away away away
the said we have bought a horse
away away no in the corner of some field
seeds spreading all around
when we dance awhile,
awhile but the while will be in the dark
and you will see nothing
but you will know you will see nothing
but you will know
but you will faint because you see more
than the soldier swallowing swimming pool water
like a fighting fish.

-----------------------

ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
..........





Kneeling down
kneeling down on two elbows
two knees
three legs four horses
no fruit no fruit just grass
grass like grass
brown grass
and what's this grass here? ­ red!
i do not believe what they saw grass red
oh yes - give me some more water from the swimming pool i'll spit or nothing;



i left my jacket here
...and she said soldier come on
(sings) holy holy water
holy water
holy water
holy water

i brought you some eggs from the village
i'm never going back
everything you say,
and everything you do,
i'm ready
but i'm just shit scared
and that's why i come swimming
and swallow half the damn pool
because i have sort of sneeking, slurping, sensual suspicion
that things could get - worse;

-----

'we understand each other
so well'
said the soldier to the water
and the water said,
'i am the only one who knows you are not as stupid as you seem'
and then Green and Biscuit said,
'right on -
and on -
and we'll be dancing for you'

----------------------

you are behind me and this is mearly an illusion of being less frightened
of what will happen
when the soldier finishes his time in the swimming pool,
gets out, dresses himself
and decides
which
which
which costume to put on
which theatre to progress to
which song to spit from his lips
from his tongue
from what remains of his teeth;
dig dig soldier
dig dig dig dig dig dig
courage is fattening
dig dig dig dig dig dig
here is where it comes out
all over the world



here is where it comes in
coming in
ready ready ready
coming in hup! coming in
full to the brim Jim
full to the clavicle
two - the piano
two - the trumpet
two - to the bugle
two - the man
three - the horse
four - the water
the unknown country
shrinking like a family, forgotten.
There's room here
.come
you're all invited.

----------------

in the swimming pool
swam the soldier

the soldier
swallowed a good deal of the water in the swimming pool in which he was swimming

the soldier wore nothing
as he swam swam swam
swam in the swimming pool,
nobody knew
nobody said
nobody saw
nobody jumped up in surprise
nobody sat watching
nobody knew
the soldier was a soldier.

-------------------------

from way beneath
the blue skin
way beneath the coming in and the going out
way beneath the standing and the understanding
and the overstanding and the beside standing
and the dancing moment
way beside
way above
but now way below the blue miniscus
the swimming swallowing soldier heard
nothing at all;

heard only his future
played like memories
memories
memories leaving
memories arriving
memories kept here,
watch them now;

Biscuit and Green came back
came in the door
came in the big glass glass glass door
and heard the pumping heartbeat
of the motors bringing
new waters into the swimming pool;

they said you will hear no more about us we will away away away
the said we have bought a horse
away away no in the corner of some field
seeds spreading all around
when we dance awhile,
awhile but the while will be in the dark
and you will see nothing
but you will know you will see nothing
but you will know
but you will faint because you see more
than the soldier swallowing swimming pool water
like a fighting fish.

-----------------------

ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
ohivegottogettoanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
oivegottogoandgetanotherwar
..........

Kneeling down
kneeling down on two elbows
two knees
three legs four horses
no fruit no fruit just grass
grass like grass
brown grass
and what's this grass here? ­ red!
i do not believe what they saw grass red
oh yes - give me some more water from the swimming pool i'll spit or nothing;



i left my jacket here
...and she said soldier come on
(sings) holy holy water
holy water
holy water
holy water

i brought you some eggs from the village
i'm never going back
everything you say,
and everything you do,
i'm ready
but i'm just shit scared
and that's why i come swimming
and swallow half the damn pool
because i have sort of sneeking, slurping, sensual suspicion
that things could get - worse;

-----

'we understand each other
so well'
said the soldier to the water
and the water said,
'i am the only one who knows you are not as stupid as you seem'
and then Green and Biscuit said,
'right on -
and on -
and we'll be dancing for you'

----------------------

you are behind me
and this is mearly an illusion of being less frightened
of what will happen
when the soldier finishes his time in the swimming pool,
gets out, dresses himself
and decides
which
which
which costume to put on
which theatre to progress to
which song to spit from his lips
from his tongue
from what remains of his teeth;
dig dig soldier
dig dig dig dig dig dig
courage is fattening
dig dig dig dig dig dig
here is where it comes out
all over the world



here is where it comes in
coming in
ready ready ready
coming in hup! coming in
full to the brim Jim
full to the clavicle
two - the piano
two - the trumpet
two - to the bugle
two - the man
three - the horse
four - the water
the unknown country
shrinking like a family, forgotten.
There's room here
.come
you're all invited.

© Julyen Hamilton - This text was composed during the performances in 'Tanzquartier' Vienna, Austria April 3,4,5 2003
and is here in its original and uncut version;it does not include the text and sounds from Christian Reiner

The Immaterial World

If further, then where, why and when?
but here and now call relentlessly
charming all other times to here and now

swarms of bees work
the horses hooves spit shards of fire from the stones beneath

the thoughts the mind waves
flags in the storm and night,
brings back news from far away
and way over yonder

so being here a while
paint some further fading years
then turn in your colours
and fold falling through the membrane.

screams and ululation
broad boats which carry alms
false lines upon the waters
causing fear and harm

right now i can't see so far
right now the mass is here
welcome to the thinner frame
welcome to the immaterial world

i'm not walking to the other side
not falling off the earth
just that perceptions of the present earth
sometimes need to be
tested for their worth

nothing to gain
nought to lose
how far does the shout travel now
now we've become invisible

this is not waiting
this is the listening poise
this is the hunting ear
and the dark sharp eye
this is the hand which releases hold
of all which seems relevant
divining life beyond the wall.

Welcome to the Immaterial World
there's no-one here but you
a thousand mirrors and the're all cracked
a city of sirens and magnesium beams
scouring the grey brown earth;

but your sights are always on the blue
you see the false and it all seems true
there's no use in hunting pearls
welcome to the immaterial world

if i was you i'd run from here
if i was you i'd flee
but i'm me and curious
and welcoming
the Immaterial World.

© Julyen Hamilton july 26 2010

These words are not said in any of the performances of 'The Immaterial World'
but they do somehow serve as an inner voice
which is present each time i make this piece.