A page to help those new to William's poetry to get a feel for his work....
This page is an experiment in the use of an extended form of annotation, initially, followed by an unannotated version of the poem to allow for an an appreciation of the uninterrupted flow of the rhythm of the work. (When you have read the page, please respond to the user poll at the bottom of the left hand menu).
Abuba Bide (from the book Lammas Alanna)
12 vacanas of childhood for the Goddess
(Mount Abu in Rhajistan, Northern India was climbed by William whilst on leave from the R.A.F. at the end of WW2. Visiting the temples there had a profound and lasting effect upon him, which began a lifelong interest in goddess imagery. 'Vacana'- is an Indian word for religious free verse)
William (far left) descending Mt Abu 1945
1.
Her ground heaves farewell
Heaps of love-fire sent
Bleezer encourager (bleezer - a metal plate to 'draw' the fire)
Drawn over black lead (black lead - used to polish the range)
Sunday cracks the word to us
Crackle-cone on the mantel (crackle-cone - 'cats whisker' radio)
Rakes pew-less hymns
In memory ash
Blaze flickers in corners
Shadow-arms gather us
We are counted
2.
Her dene calls out to us
From nettle beds
And young sycamore shrubs
She calls us from the no-go
Trespass land
Over the sharp fence division
Gray beech boles either side
Sixpences a secret treasure
The sod hides
To run across meadow slope
To get the breath back
At her well
3.
Maggi light lit briefly all night (Jack Shine the Maggi-children's game)
As they move around in darkness
The mysterious dene
Has lovers abide there
Till eastern blue
Brings distant bell across fields
To slate roof of Aline Street
Where children all fall down
Their ring-a-ring broken
To her bell sounding
For she's the only one
Wallflowers growing up (Wallflower - a childrens singing/choosing game)
All the precious time away
4.
We walk the colliery line
To a canyon quarry
High on the edge of her breast (Maidens 'paps' (breasts)-Tunstal Hills, S/land)
(The 'Rocky' hill of Tunstall hills, taken from the more easterly 'smooth' hill. The 'Hope Woods' lie beyond.)
Glimpses of masturbation
In Hope Wood (The Hope - land to the west of hills)
Pitch and toss
By Gambler's Rock
As we pass
Girls and boys going on
To nothing much
Scrambling up loose limestone
Just a fumble among
Orchids and cowslips
Then home
5.
The engine steams it's way
With a long train of empties
Bairns on battery sides
Watch brake van tailing off
Their fathers are
In Mothergate (at work in the the 'pit')
Down under
The buzzer has called out
A click click of heelplate reply
Baccy, cigarettes and matches
Are hidden in hedge holes
Edging the black path
Leading down
6.
There is a hill not far away
Where love divine is given
Where tender mercies come to fix
In this our humble dwelling
It is a song of rising bread laid out
Like the word fresh baked to eat
But when is the day
That the fish man comes,
When is the day of the fish?
Callerherrin! Callerherrin!
Street by street he cries
How a' yer the day missis?
How a' yer me hinny?
Come buy my Callerherrin
You'll thrive
7.
Cockerooso!Cockerooso! (children's street game)
Cockerooso! my side he cries
Then they all hop across
With much dunching of shoulders
And many a foot put down
They join the caller
In the middle-ground
Where the'll call out another
(If he crosses right over)
To cry with a loud
Cockerooso! come on!
William c1932
8.
"Tid Mid Miseray
Carlin Palm
Paste Egg Day."
We sing out our rhyme
Counting the weeks
To Easter-Morn rising
Some say it is not
Christ we sing about
But the Old Earth
Which gave us birth
We roll nonetheless (rolling the onion-dyed 'paste' eggs down the hill)
And all shout
As they go leaping
Then we jarp (strike the pointed ends of the eggs against each other)
9.
Her hill-breast flesh
Glows above corn ripening
She oversees the harvest
Coming soon
We play around
Climbing the 'Rocky' (the most westerly of Tunstall Hills with a cliff face)
Or rolling down
Tender grass slopes
To a strip of strong blue sea
Smudged with chimney smoke
Colliers sailing off
Leaving her emptying mines behind
10.
A bouncy tram
Takes us to the beach
After walking down lovers lane
The stream yellow
With colliery waste
Her lovers embracing
In bough shade
Bring whispers underhand
As fresh blood begins to rise
But we are soon off on the top deck
To eat gritty sandwiches
In a circle and to
Chill our scrotum in the sea
11.
A song comes into the ear
From somewhere about
It is marra music that gets louder
Brass voices tenor and bass
Fill the morning
And its beat bloods the heart
Of many following
She is singing in long streets
Calling all like the piper
But not to be lost
It is a way of arms linking
A dance of life
12.
I didn't know her then
As I went to the front
To be saved
The preacher had called (from a travelling evangelical preaching group)
To us all to come forward
My mother and grandmother
Treated me like a saint
At suppertime
But she calls in a different way
Just look at her Lammas breasts (Lammas-harvest feast)
And vulva dene
Bairns playthere often
It is a different passion
I still have the certificate
Now the unannotated version:
Abubu Bide
12 vacanas of chilhood for the Goddess
1.
Her ground heaves farewell
Heaps of love-fire sent
Bleezer encourager
Drawn over black lead
Sunday cracks the word to us
Crackle-cone on the mantel
Rakes pew-less hymns
In memory ash
Blaze flickers in corners
Shadow-arms gather us
We are counted
2.
Her dene calls out to us
From nettle beds
And young sycamore shrubs
She calls us from the no-go
Trespass land
Over the sharp fence division
Gray beech boles either side
Sixpences a secret treasure
The sod hides
To run across meadow slope
To get the breath back
At her well
3.
Maggi light lit briefly all night
As they move around in darkness
The mysterious dene
Has lovers abide there
Till eastern blue
Brings distant bell across fields
To slate roof of Aline Street
Where children all fall down
Their ring-a-ring broken
To her bell sounding
For she's the only one
Wallflowers growing up
All the precious time away
4.
We walk the colliery line
To a canyon quarry
High on the edge of her breast
Glimpses of masturbation
In Hope Wood
Pitch and toss
By Gambler's Rock
As we pass
Girls and boys going on
To nothing much
Scrambling up loose limestone
Just a fumble among
Orchids and cowslips
Then home
5.
The engine steams it's way
With a long train of empties
Bairns on battery sides
Watch brake van tailing off
Their fathers are
In Mothergate
Down under
The buzzer has called out
A click click of heelplate reply
Baccy, cigarettes and matches
Are hidden in hedge holes
Edging the black path
Leading down
6.
There is a hill not far away
Where love divine is given
Where tender mercies come to fix
In this our humble dwelling
It is a song of rising bread laid out
Like the word fresh baked to eat
But when is the day
That the fish man comes,
When is the day of the fish?
Callerherrin! Callerherrin!
Street by street he cries
How a' yer the day missis?
How a' yer me hinny?
Come buy my Callerherrin
You'll thrive
7.
Cockerooso!Cockerooso!
Cockerooso! my side he cries
Then they all hop across
With much dunching of shoulders
And many a foot put down
They join the caller
In the middle-ground
Where the'll call out another
(If he crosses right over)
To cry with a loud
Cockerooso! come on!
8.
"Tid Mid Miseray
Carlin Palm
Paste Egg Day."
We sing out our rhyme
Counting the weeks
To Easter-Morn rising
Some say it is not
Christ we sing about
But the Old Earth
Which gave us birth
We roll nonetheless
And all shout
As they go leaping
Then we jarp
9.
Her hill-breast flesh
Glows above corn ripening
She oversees the harvest
Coming soon
We play around
Climbing the 'Rocky'
Or rolling down
Tender grass slopes
To a strip of strong blue sea
Smudged with chimney smoke
Colliers sailing off
Leaving her emptying mines behind
10.
A bouncy tram
Takes us to the beach
After walking down lovers lane
The stream yellow
With colliery waste
Her lovers embracing
In bough shade
Bring whispers underhand
As fresh blood begins to rise
But we are soon off on the top deck
To eat gritty sandwiches
In a circle and to
Chill our scrotum in the sea
11.
A song comes into the ear
From somewhere about
It is marra music that gets louder
Brass voices tenor and bass
Fill the morning
And its beat bloods the heart
Of many following
She is singing in long streets
Calling all like the piper
But not to be lost
It is a way of arms linking
A dance of life
12.
I didn't know her then
As I went to the front
To be saved
The preacher had called
To us all to come forward
My mother and grandmother
Treated me like a saint
At suppertime
But she calls in a different way
Just look at her Lammas breasts
And vulva dene
Bairns playthere often
It is a different passion
I still have the certificate