Issue 36: Peter Larkin

Word Memorial Order

                 A cento derived from J.H. Prynne's Word Order (Prest Roots Press, 1989)

Would to sing on sight the full offer,
ethereal spike stroke truth to nerve,
grip quietly the order crossing, unresting,
travels openly afraid in this word circle

Shade out common day repeatedly bright,
whisper nature its target lights, invasive
garden secretly goes about the cavity

In this yard carry an engine’s spoken hint,
from hardly a sound to bribe the dust, a
word for it does what it’s for, less beat
fallen through, fidelity scarf in fine song

Thuds frank at ground hunger, the cry
strikes harder its chance, then again a blow
by lapse clears purity to next breath

Peter Larkin’s most recent publication is Scarcely Carry All Vast Woods (Shearsman, 2025). He published J.H. Prynne’s Word Order in 1989, contributed an essay to For the Future: Poems & Essays in Honour of J.H. Prynne on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, ed. Ian Brinton in 2016, and made a cento from Prynne’s Of Better Scrap (2019) entitled ‘Scrap Better, Better of Scrap’ for the Earthbound Poetry Series in 2020.

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