Faultline is a collection of poetry published by Active Distribution/Sto Citas, November 2018. The poems are political and personal (and an examination of where those territories meet), observational and contemplative, and travel through explorations of social inequality, police violations, street homelessness in the US, environmental disaster, intimate experiences of queer sexuality, rites of passage and bereavement, also the power of guidance and renewal. Paperback, 127 pages.
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New Clear — Title inspired by the track ‘New Clear Daze’ from the album The Weathermen Shrug their Shoulders, by The Ex.
lyrics
New Clear
1.
Hiroshima Nagasaki
if we all wear velvet gloves
can we put you back black box
lower you down chant
arrowtip never to target —
no target to find mankind
marching on gravel, hands up in the air
fade out/the sound of crystal clear
running water.
It’s too late
Wait — someone said something
about an icewall: 1.4 kilometers of coolant
to freeze the groundwater around the spill
leaching from a thousand hastily constructed
tanks, 355,000 tons of radioactive water
400 more washing out every day —
A lead cover falls, a candle blows out
it’s cold, it’s frantic, there were news
flashes, then no more
news flashes
then it was quiet —
just the constant, slow leak of cesium hotspots
for all the steel walls they have raised
in the sea bed round the crippled plant
collapsed at the edge of the ocean clutching at its sides
the hot, hot water pouring through its fingers.
2.
On the ocean floor, fissures where tectonic plates
are slowly yawning apart or around volcanic activity
— hydrothermal vents — extreme heat —
the water far past boiling, fathoms down molton ore seeps
making black smoker chimneys in the pitch darkness
the midnight zone.
Such force, as quake, from here
that pushed a tsunami to the shore.
3.
Silence. Doors fallen from frames. Dry brush weed in cracks. A small breeze through abandoned buildings. One woman still goes back in to feed the cats. Derelict road blocks. Shop shelves hanging empty. Children’s toys tipped on their sides. Rusting bikes, rusting cars. The Geiger counter clicking high in the grasses.
One sievert dose — radiation sickness, nausea
Five sieverts — kill you within a month
Ten sieverts — dead in weeks
The seventy three sievert tolerant robots they sent in to Fukishima, just faltering malfunction
Hot concrete, hot metal, hot air — recent reactor levels there
reading five hundred and thirty sieverts per hour.
4.
Look away, look away. History cowers guilt. Who? Gap
When? Shows us tight jawlines, jaws clenching —
Now no one saying anything
Anything at all.
My mother tells me my Uncle had said —
Er blieb dann manchmal die Nacht.
He used to pass through. In the ‘70s.
Nuclear scientist. They invited him.
On the way out to Japan.
Das hatte er damals schon gesagt —
— that they shouldn’t build it there
on a faultline —
5.
back black box
lower you down chant
mankind
hands up
fade out/the sound of crystal clear
running water
back black box
lower you down chant
mankind
hands up
fade out/the sound of crystal clear
running water
back black box
lower you down chant
mankind
hands up
fade out/the sound of crystal clear
running water
back black box
lower you down chant
mankind
hands up
fade out/the sound of crystal clear
running water
credits
from Faultline,
released May 22, 2020
Recorded and mixed by Jer Reid
Drum composition Alison Roe (with Lisa Fannen), guitar improvised by Jer Reid.
Alison Roe
Alison Roe is based in Scotland and plays taiko with musicians, poets and dancers in various countries. She currently plays with Glasgow-based band, Painted X-Ray (taiko, electric guitar, bass and violin) and in Europe with Yumi Célia and Ignatius Kim. She also teaches taiko, if you fancy having a bash yourself. More details at taiko.scot.
Jer Reid
Jer Reid plays in bands Painted X-Ray and sumshapes and improvises with different people including the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. He plays a lot with dance and started music/ dance group Collective Endeavours with Solène Weinachter in 2010 which now focuses on group improvisation. He also works as a sound designer, recording and mastering engineer and as a dramaturge for dance.
supported by 4 fans who also own “New Clear - Alison Roe & Jer Reid”
It gets under your skin. Clever lyrics, beautifully minimalist music, tunes implanted into your brain pretty quickly and in there for the long haul. French female vocalist, Scottish drummer, and maybe one of my favourite Zaph Mann suggestions. Gavin Hellyer
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