Lee Harwood

with John Ashbery, (1965), photograph by Pierre Martory

FIVE PIECES FOR FIVE PHOTOS

                                                           for Lou Esterman wherever he may be.



1. The Surveyor’s Office at the Custom House, Salem,
where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked 1846-1849.

It’s a dream, an escape of sorts that does work in its fashion – the solitary life, “peace”, and 
no demands. A neat life, marred by an ageing fussiness, the fading of friendships, times of
undeniable loneliness. And yet those days when bright sunlight holds the room and there is
an indescribable quiet.

I know what is in every drawer, on each shelf. Inscribe in the ledger these details?     
Hesitant.     No, let it be.

Outside the door the sound of people running down the stairs

4. Sand Storm Sweeping Over Khartoum, 1906.

“It came out of nowhere,” they say. No, it didn’t. Nothing does.

Clouds suddenly cloak the mountains blown from somewhere, on a wavering spring day. If 
we’d paid attention we’d have guessed it. “The Cloud of Unknowing”, we joke, working by
compass along a now featureless ridge.

But there are those who with clear eyes stare ahead, with some sort of certainty in the world.
T.E. Lawrence blue eyed (courtesy of Peter O’Toole), D.H. Lawrence brown eyed (I guess).
Knowing what they’re after through all the clouds and storms, sand or otherwise.

Such confidence is daunting.
Let them fight on. I’ll hunker down behind this rock, or if you like, for the sake of fiction, this
dune. Wait till it’s blown over, then continue. There’s room in this world for us crafty folk
too. Foxes aren’t daft, nor am I.