words & music by Daniel Cray
John Patch
John Patch, Rougemont House, Exeter, 1788
Engraving: Ezekiel Abraham Ezekiel, after John Opie
Cementing your credentials with your conversational charm
Applying the splanchnic practice: Anatomized post-mortem harm
John Patch
A double-hose from an oxygen chamber,
the plugged-up nose of a posthumous maimer
John Patch
Prostrate with the vapours, a scrap of humanity
displayed on a table with a scented handkerchief
Lex Talionis: Punishment by degree,
the code of retaliation corresponding to the injury
John Patch
A double-hose from an oxygen chamber,
adopting the pose of a Cosmic Ranger
John Patch
Patching me into your Pittsburgh Modular,
synthesized riffs all squibbly and globular
The room in which you were born
looks into the ditch of Rougemont Castle
You converted that foul ravine
into the delightful spot it now is
John Patch
Big white buns either side of your brain-pan,
your breathing machine makes you look like a spaceman
John Patch
Patching me up like a human duvet,
hands all covered in Oil of Ulay
John Patch
---
sources:
‘Dissecting the Criminal Corpse’ by Elizabeth T. Hurran
’Space Ranger’ by Isaac Asimov
‘These Old Shades’ by Georgette Heyer
‘The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’ by J. Delpratt Harris M.D.
from Bring on the Crémant
Bridge Street Café
Basic Food Hygiene awards
The Haywain is fading by the menu boards
A scruffy brown terrier tied
to the steering wheel of a red Motability vehicle outside
The apparatus has lifted us into the Bridge Street Café
Woven mats of straw
Real and imaginary lines criss-cross the floor
An alcove reveals the scrolls of a Buddhist priest
A simple meal of seasonal foods followed by sweets
The paradigms have shifted at the Bridge Street Café
Spiky organic structures are bruised with a stone hammer
held in the wrinkled hands of a Kalahari nomad
Water becomes vapour and the mixtures passes
into our systems
The catechins take effect
Inhibited congealing of the blood platelet
Acerbic astringency
Diminished lipoproteins of low density
Withered by hot air on the continuous conveyer
The leaves that have been sifted for the Bridge Street Café
See our bibs, each with a trough, a narrow channel to prevent run-off
As our consciousnesses drift inside the Bridge Street Café
Thomas Glass
Portrait of Thomas Glass by John Opie, in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (altered). Attribution: Wellcome Collection
---
sources:
'Thomas Glass: Physician of Georgian Exeter' by Alick Cameron MD DHMSA
'The Impossible Zoo' by Leo Ruickbie
‘The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’ by J. Delpratt Harris M.D.
'Slither' by John Halkin
The Cubhood Of Wahb
Down towards the Meteetsee, the bearcub carries on
There's no food on the Graybull, the berries are almost gone
For the man who hunted his family, the price of peace is war
The Bobcat, the Range-Cow, the Coyote, Wahb despises them all
Living is ugly and hard
The grizzly cubhood of Wahb
He finds the little granaries where the squirrels hoard their nuts
for Winter in great quantities, for Wahb it is good luck
He reaches out towards them then hears a sudden clank
One of his paws is caught in the steel of a beaver trap
Wriggling up through the barbs
The grizzly cubhood of Wahb
---
source:
There's no food on the Graybull, the berries are almost gone
For the man who hunted his family, the price of peace is war
The Bobcat, the Range-Cow, the Coyote, Wahb despises them all
Living is ugly and hard
The grizzly cubhood of Wahb
He finds the little granaries where the squirrels hoard their nuts
for Winter in great quantities, for Wahb it is good luck
He reaches out towards them then hears a sudden clank
One of his paws is caught in the steel of a beaver trap
Wriggling up through the barbs
The grizzly cubhood of Wahb
---
source:
'The Biography of a Grizzly' by Ernest Thompson Seton
from The Floating Republic and the London Clay
from The Floating Republic and the London Clay
Prebendary Barnes
Prebendary Barnes, Prebendary Barnes
I long to sing a psalm, see a lectern, hear a sermon
Prebendary Barnes, Prebendary Barnes
Hold me in your arms at the hecatomb of Omdurman
I long to sing a psalm, see a lectern, hear a sermon
Prebendary Barnes, Prebendary Barnes
Hold me in your arms at the hecatomb of Omdurman
As I face the enemy
I think of Heavitree
My friend the Prebendary
Prebendary Barnes
I think of Heavitree
My friend the Prebendary
Prebendary Barnes
---
source:
'The End of General Gordon' (from 'Eminent Victorians') by Lytton Strachey.
photo: St Michael & All Angels Church, Heavitree, Exeter - attributed to Derek Harper.
photo: St Michael & All Angels Church, Heavitree, Exeter - attributed to Derek Harper.
The Melodic Analyser of the University of Toronto
Four filter channels from seventy to five hundred hertz
Rejecting the second harmonic and isolating the first
The intonation curve is traced on the screen as the speaker speaks
from a tape of a conversation on a busy Parisian street
Vous nous avez tous vus dans la rue?
A perfect reflection of the fundamental frequency
To the elements of melodic perception, reacting accurately
Phonemes explode from parted lips, aperiodic
Vibrating chords, the rise and fall of speech, melodic
Overlapping vocal overtones above the din
The fundamental underneath when we speak and when we sing
Vous nous avez tous vus dans la rue?
A perfect reflection of the fundamental frequency
To the elements of melodic perception, reacting accurately
The Melodic Analyser of the University of Toronto
---
sources:
Rejecting the second harmonic and isolating the first
The intonation curve is traced on the screen as the speaker speaks
from a tape of a conversation on a busy Parisian street
Vous nous avez tous vus dans la rue?
A perfect reflection of the fundamental frequency
To the elements of melodic perception, reacting accurately
Phonemes explode from parted lips, aperiodic
Vibrating chords, the rise and fall of speech, melodic
Overlapping vocal overtones above the din
The fundamental underneath when we speak and when we sing
Vous nous avez tous vus dans la rue?
A perfect reflection of the fundamental frequency
To the elements of melodic perception, reacting accurately
The Melodic Analyser of the University of Toronto
---
sources:
'Intonation' - essays edited by Dwight Bolinger, mainly
'Machines and Measurements' by Pierre R. Leon and Philippe Martin
The Lyrical Schopenhauer
---
sources:
Jewish Virtual Library (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org)
'The Glove that Transmits Touch over the Internet' by Lesley Evans Ogden (www.bbc.com)
'Ein Zögling des Jahres' by Heironymous Lorm
The Floating Republic
They go in great numbers from their ships to Sheerness
in all the pomp of parade.
Long have they laboured to find themselves men.
Have they not a right to complain?
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
From the masts of their barges red flags are flying
as they take to the ramparts and the streets.
Their heads are embellished with blue paper saying:
"Success to the Delegates of the Fleet."
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
Contagions that can't be cured on board
The faith of the nation must be restored
Far from the thought of subverting their sovereign
and his government's beloved country,
their endeavours depend on the laws of humanity,
honour and national safety.
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
---
source:
in all the pomp of parade.
Long have they laboured to find themselves men.
Have they not a right to complain?
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
From the masts of their barges red flags are flying
as they take to the ramparts and the streets.
Their heads are embellished with blue paper saying:
"Success to the Delegates of the Fleet."
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
Contagions that can't be cured on board
The faith of the nation must be restored
Far from the thought of subverting their sovereign
and his government's beloved country,
their endeavours depend on the laws of humanity,
honour and national safety.
The Floating Republic
Ho-howa-hey-howa-hey-ho-har
Ho-howa-hey-ho-har
---
source:
'The Floating Republic: An Account of the Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797' by G.E. Mainwaring
Chaise à Porteurs
A seat of matted bark and rope with a pole either side of me
Carried across the alps on my Chaise à Porteurs
upon the shoulders of several men into Italy
Carried across the alps on my Chaise à Porteurs
Epic scenes to awe a hardened sceptic into belief
Carried across the alps on my Chaise à Porteurs
Terror mixed with pleasure, the full effect of sublimity
Be aware, learned men,
of what Samuel Johnson says
Turn all care out of your head
as soon as you mount the chaise
Carried across the alps on my Chaise à Porteurs
Indifference to life the source of my intrepidity
Carried across the alps on my Chaise à Porteurs
Neither hurt nor frightened by The Vast Profundity
---
source:
'Ladies of the Grand Tour' by Brian Dolan
Springtime Spectacles
Just proportion of energy
shared by two halves of a globe
The sun above the equatorial wheel
Perceived three-dimensional scene
Contrasting red-blue colour code
Stereoscopic vision revealed
Images integrated,
printed and laminated
Ingenious optical trick
two hundred microns thick
You have resumed your evening classes
halfway through the second term
The walk has loosened up your tendons
You must use the 3D glasses
There is much still for you to learn
Impressive are the rhododendrons
Azaleas are so alien,
shrubby with five stamens
Azimuth of everything
Anaglyph in the spring
I'll bind you in the minuteness of the microns
Gently stretching days
The wasps begin to graze
Holes in a honeycomb
The mouth of a cyclostome
Supercell thunderstorm
The bison are about to swarm
The Habitats Directive
Who's that striding through the gorse,
sent from the city, here to enforce
a series of measures required to maintain
species in danger in their natural range?
He sits cross-legged on the loam,
focusing his attention upon your home
He writes a report about the life that you have been leading
You deliberately disturb specimens during the period of breeding
Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the
conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna
The Habitats Directive
As habitats continue to deteriorate,
enforce the directive before it's too late
As habitats continue to deteriorate,
enforce the directive before it's too late
---
source:
The Habitats Directive Articles 1 and 12.
featuring:
Matthew Shepherd - keyboard
Michael Parker - guitar
Pete Westaway - synthesizer
featuring:
Matthew Shepherd - keyboard
Michael Parker - guitar
Pete Westaway - synthesizer
Cold Extremities
Chowing down on a Bakewell tart,
ruminating in the gloom
Illuminated in the middle of June
by a three bar electric heater
Just a crust or is it art?
It looks like a crescent moon
I hum a pleasantly inoffensive tune
and put the key-card in the meter
Now there's nothing left but a tin
Cold extremities
are creeping over my skin
Cold extremities
on the fringes of the solar system
Cold Extremities
on the surface of my skin
---
featuring: Michael Parker - lead guitar
Just a crust or is it art?
It looks like a crescent moon
I hum a pleasantly inoffensive tune
and put the key-card in the meter
Now there's nothing left but a tin
Cold extremities
are creeping over my skin
Cold extremities
on the fringes of the solar system
Cold Extremities
on the surface of my skin
---
featuring: Michael Parker - lead guitar