#3 - Tempest

Fay Roberts writes: I’ve decided, for the moment, not to say what my seven are. They’re quite famous, so it will probably become apparent as I go along (or I might change my mind later and say anyway…). So anyway, wise Verily Aspie guessed in the comments already – this is Lust, of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The gateway to the seven stands right here.
You long to touch, but cannot quite commit
to all the things that you’re supposed to fear
(while this one claims it’s fine to just submit).

It’s natural to hope, it does no harm
to gaze upon what might, in time, be yours,
and how are you supposed to counter charm
designed to gloss (or venerate) its flaws?

You look, and look, and cannot look away;
spend all spare moments summoning the scenes.
Occasional indulgence has now swayed
to frequencies and formulas obscene.

And though you’re more than warmed now by this fire
you’ll gorge yourself on all you might desire.

– FR

Cripps/ Pink Lady courtesy of Markon

#29 - Seven (by Lewis Buxton)

 
The other men fumble for a special number

something remarkable that’ll change the outcome

of the game and remind them of Sheringham,

Roy Keane, the little known Jeremy Alliadiere

 

or, most beautifully of all, the lucky seven,

which will lay on their back like the sun’s rays.

These days it’s Saka, Ronaldo, or Michael Olise

but before it was Cantona, Pires, David Beckham.

 

I’ve never gone in for that sort of thing

I’d pluck out eighteen, forty four, a bad

squad player somehow come up from the youth team.

 

Things only mean if you want them to mean,

and as I join the clutch of hands in the kit bag,

The number means nothing, only fingers brushing.

 

 

Lewis Buxton is a writer and theatre maker. His work has appeared in The Independent, Poetry Review, The Rialto, and Magma amongst others. His first collection Boy in Various Poses was published by Nine Arches Press in 2021. His new show ‘FRIEND’ is touring in Autumn 2024. He lives in Norfolk.

#11 - Ostinato

Today Fay Roberts examines Mars, and takes in all sorts of cultural wayposts as ze goes (some expanded on below the image).

But now the intro’s done, it’s far too late:
the hot-head with the coldest heart is here;
the tension mounts, you must accept your fate,
for here is one that you can love and fear.

Relentless, red, his pockmarked visage looms,
all atmosphere is drained and breathing grows
so difficult; the coloniser booms,
crescendoed to fortissississimo.

Though many find him lurid and profane,
here’s some who laud him guardian and more –
a route to honour and their rightful gain,
the means to set foot first on further shores.

But while they claim he represents their sex,
there’s more to manhood than a single X.

Mars GIF courtesy of Best Animations (no clue who created it though, sadly)

Some explanations may be necessary – ostinato is a term for “a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch,” which I first encountered in the description of Holst’s first piece in The Planet Suite – Mars, Bringer of War, where the intro’s percussive motif is played col legno, with the strings of the stringed instruments being hit by the wood of the bow. The piece builds to the loudest dynamic in formal, “Western” classical music: fortissississimo (ffff).

Any other interpretations in this poem… well, that’s up to you…

#7 - A Jovial Lay

Delayed due to migraineʼs bitter curse, Fay Roberts explores Jupiter, the largest and oldest of the Classical Planets.

High winds above this bright and stormy night
sing shrill, warm hallelujahs to the king
who dwarfs the other monarchs in his might
and main, amassing wards in lieu of bling.

Wives and daughters, lovers, fools, and more
attend his majesty, the first to rise
and dedicate his thunder to the score
of all aoidoi laid upon the skies.

But kings should hear, as bards know best of all,
that hubris has a knack for bringing low
the mightiest, and even kings can fall
and break their pride on what they used for show.

When destiny contracts from near and far
you’ll either end up dust or as a star.

Jupiter, © NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via Wikipedia

#3 - King of the Six

 As Fay Roberts explores the Seven Classical Planets this month, ze starts far out with Saturn: 

We start in darkness – where else could we hide 
from father feasting at the edge of light? 
Bright issues spring from him, and more besides, 
his bloody harvest garlanded with spite. 

He tells us that his rule’s a Golden Age 
(before we learn to fear, and then to hate), 
and verdant meadows form an open cage 
without the fire with which we circle fate. 

But in the depths of winter tables turn, 
the lowest mounting up on stilts of mirth, 
and in the dark the merest glimmers burn – 
together we relearn to coax hope’s birth. 

While those about to die acknowledge him, 
it’s better to be sanguine than be grim. 

– FR

Avoiding copyright issues, Fay made this graphic zirself.