From Preterient

Susan Howe

Teachings on Style and the Flower

In 1402, the Japanese Noh performer and aesthetician Zeami Motokiyo wrote several items concerning the practice of the Noh in relation to an actor’s age. He said a boy’s voice begins to achieve its proper pitch at eleven or twelve, only then can he begin to understand the noh.

But this flower is not the true flower not yet.

Irish Literary Revival

1926. Mary Manning having wandered on the Brontë moors in Yorkshire, carries a copy of The Scholar Gypsy home to Dublin. She always takes it with her when she goes out walking. It is 1948. I am to read aloud the last three paragraphs of Wuthering Heights for the sixth grade public reading contest at the Buckingham School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The book is my mother’s choice. Poetry is our covenant. She believes tables move without contact I am skeptical. If what is present to the mind at one time is distinct from what is present in another what is belief? Hoosh. Not in the Catholic graveyard not in the Protestant one either. Bird in the hand worth two of its own emptiness. This flower, taken from a scrap of paper, is said to be the Ammellus or Italian starwort of Virgil. Long ago Ogham stones were erected to commemorate the dead in rune-like ciphers then memory for voices then the rapid movement of ballads. Nearly all go to Scotland anglicity. I have no option but to be faithful to unlucky half human half unassuaged desiring dark shade you first Catherine. Lexical attention must be guarded from the dark age of childhood though lengthen night and shorten day. You are my altar vow. This cowslip is a favorite among fairies.

The Gate

A double cowslip bears one flower out of another. It remains in pastures long after the grass has been eaten away a stage name under the true one

Mind the hidden

Dedication to M enough

to the wood if you have

aconite and poppy she

said “Lie still, sleep well”

Quiet for it is a small

world of covered bone

Come veil the thought of

I shall dress primrose

_______

Rookh which stray

account the dark sea-

robber’s map rose

of a hundred leaves

who learns ARABY

Even in the old story

arrow ragged Lallah

_______

Boiled milk was greatly

appreciated a step on the

road to luxury and there

was slim made of bitter

potatoes broken up when

kindly cottagers strove

to cherish and welcome

Patrick Brontë’s childhood

Their guest strove well

_______

Homemade bread was

fadge the raised soda

bap or scone came later

baked on a griddle or

girdle while baking was

called “harning” but

mashing up potatoes

in meal and flour was

called “baking”

_______

Advanced from Emdale cabin

to Lisnacreevy cottage neither

sought nor accepted sympathy

Hoarded his savings he didn’t

dread hobgoblins Mrs. Gaskell

exaggerated the facts in this

matter as have many others

Carried his webs to Banbridge

Could weave and read at once

_______

At supper sowans fine enough to

thread a needle the Brontë mind

never ran smoothly his children

were given ghost stories monsters

I am grateful archaeology Galway

oral history warcry boat curragh

When stealthy in shawl slumber

speaking from memory set forth

by moonlight written fact Irish

only in name limestone traveller

_______

Mary Manning presents this

book to her Dear Sister as a

token not to be appreciated

so must act esteem affection

Affection take this book Dear

to every moment she cannot

Invisible she grows tired and

beside vast catacomb Thebes

_______

Reader of poetry this book

contains all poetry THOOR

BALLYEE in seven notes for

stage representation May

countryside you reader of

poetry that I am forgotten

Long notes seem necessary

Unworthy players ask for

legend familiar in legend

the arrow king and no king

_______

A character walks on thatch

bridge across the deep stage

Material image and her mate

Chanting within her role she

cannot step beyond invisible

right foot lifted in half step

Where is he going because this

play is famous for April sage

green kagota kneeling piety is

a dominant restraint he does

not stoop as in pitiful reign

Noh lies in its concentration

You child of Atsumori old cloak

faded gown sleeve flung open

_______

Fabled founder in darkness

in Greek authentic helmet

illumination his heirs and

assigns forever as if wives

in themselves loosened the

murderous shawls so they act

astonishment but all terror

exactly as I have written I

am in ash blue gray Kogota

costume till the one here who

is the child Chorus comes in

Now Ireland in rebellion I

am arrived at upper memory

eroded base on shallow step