A Hatfield Mass
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In Martyn Crucefix’s bold new sequence of poems, A Hatfield Mass, the sensuous shapes of Henry Moore’s work interweave with the fluid, observant voices of the verse. From curves and spaces, words and silence, Crucefix constructs a secular Mass that explores a variety of forms of love, our relationships with people and the world around us. In part a journey from innocence to experience, these are poems marvellously open to the beauty of landscape, the shared intimacies of our bodies, the passage of time through which we are endlessly becoming: “if not more beautiful we grow more rich”.
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In Martyn Crucefix’s bold new sequence of poems, A Hatfield Mass, the sensuous shapes of Henry Moore’s work interweave with the fluid, observant voices of the verse. From curves and spaces, words and silence, Crucefix constructs a secular Mass that explores a variety of forms of love, our relationships with people and the world around us. In part a journey from innocence to experience, these are poems marvellously open to the beauty of landscape, the shared intimacies of our bodies, the passage of time through which we are endlessly becoming: “if not more beautiful we grow more rich”.
3. Reclining Figure, Angles
credo
If there must be a word
and believe me there must
then it is the word alert
and drawn to what moves
beyond her—where she lies
draped about the knees
with fabric pulled taut again
a way of explaining time
to the eternal moment
as her left leg declines
though no longer passive—
the turn of her left shoulder
towards a strong focal point
leaves the body twisted
on the thrust of her flatplanted
right foot—image
of awareness repeatedly
alertness of an interest in
though there’s nothing
here of the egotistical—
in these graceful airs
in what passes through
as it has through these others
the flex and curve
of self-confident pride
yet hollowed and smoothed
and though the head
is shaped to a feature
still the magisterial gaze
is blankly all-seeing
staring beyond shock
or surprise or pleasure
or anger or envy forever
beyond grief—this curious
taking notice and if it ever
comes to be diminished
I mean the head on its stump
it’s the body that senses
and nothing’s let slip
Published: 01 September 2014
ISBN: 978 1 905208 25 8
Pages: 32
“Crucefix has, as always, an exceptional ear… poems that are urgent, heartfelt, controlled and masterful”
Kathryn Maris, Poetry London
“Crucefix is well aware of the possibilities of language, and, like Rilke, his language is intense, compressed and vivid… The poignancy of parenthood and companionship is a theme which emerges powerfully”
Zoe Brigley, Magma
Martyn Crucefix has won numerous prizes including a major Eric Gregory award and a Hawthornden Fellowship. He has published 5 collections of poetry; the latest, Hurt, was published by Enitharmon in 2010. His translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies in 2006, shortlisted for the Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation, was hailed as “unlikely to be bettered for very many years” (Magma). His new translation of Rilke’s The Sonnets to Orpheus appeared in 2012.
