Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN', Manchester (UK)

I'd looked for Lemn Sissay's wall poem 'RAIN' several years ago, but it may have been the foliage in front of it that prevented me from seeing it. With no foliage, though, it shows itself, although this wasn't where I'd originally thought: it's nearer to Manchester than the poem on Hardy's Well wall, and just before the Curry Mile on Oxford Road.

You have to read it from up and down each line to see the sense:

'When the rains falls they talk of Manchester but when the triumphant rain falls we think of rainbows it's the Mancunian way'

 

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Shudehill, Manchester
The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in London
Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester
Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem

Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Shudehill, Manchester (UK)

Shudehill Bus Station, where there's another example of Lemn Sissay's public poetry, this one titled 'Catching numbers':

Catching numbers

 

Since the first journey on public transport

                – all aboard the womb

first stop The Doctors Arms

                To this wonderfully wet

morning in July.

 

Not even the clumsy age of 16

                Was as important as 32

Not even Dad, 40, or Mum, 35,

                Was as important as

the number 32.

                The thought of the number

32 was the most fantastic thought

                 of all the thoughts
that all the thoughts
                 could think, I thought.

A rainbow sprayed itself across the city

                  It was 3 minutes to 2.

3 whole minutes to 2

                  step by step and stop by stop

Tick toc, tick toc.
                  Turning the corner in all its
double decked glory,
                  A galleon thundered down
the main road
                  Its captain at the wheel
stern and concentrated.

It growled to a gigantic concrete churning

                  Kerb rippling road gripping

high street halt.

                  The closer it got

the smaller I became

                  Tic toc.

The double decker docked.

Never had I felt more powerful than then

                  A 16 year old lad stopping

a number 32

                  A traveller to my dreams and

a passenger to my fate

                  Not a second too early
not a minute too late.
                                                           Lemn Sissay

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in London
Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem

Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester
Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN'

The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in Fen Court: London #19

Tucked away in Fen Court is this remarkable sculpture, which is explained, with the poem, in the interpretation plaque below.

 

 

 

 

'GILT OF CAIN

By

Michael Visocchi & Lemn Sissay

 

This powerful sculpture was unveiled by the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on 4th September 2008. The sculpture commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, which began the process of the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire.

 

Fen Court is the site of a churchyard formerly of St Gabriel's Fenchurch St and now in the Parish of St Edmond the King and St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard St. The latter had a strong historical connection with the abolitionist movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Rev John Newton, a slave-trader turned preacher and abolitionist, was rector of St Mary Woolnoth from 1780 – 1807. Newton worked closely alongside the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce.

 

The granite sculpture is composed of a group of columns surrounding a podium. The podium calls to mind an ecclesiastical pulpit or slave auctioneer's stance, whilst the columns evoke stems of sugar can and are positioned to suggest an anonymous crowd or congregation gathered to listen to a speaker.

 

The artwork is the result of a collaboratin between the sculptor Michael Visocchi and poet Lemn Sissay. Extracts from Lemn Sissay's poem, 'Gilt of Cain', are engraved into the granite. The poem skilfully weaves the cold language of the City's stock exchange trading floor with biblical Old Testament references.

 

HERE IS THE ASK PRICE ON THE CLOSED POSITION,
HISTORY IS NO INHERENT ACQUISTION
FOR HERE THE TECHNICAL CORRECTION UPON THE ACT,
A MERGER OF TRUTH AND IN ACTUAL FACT,
ON THE SPOT, ON THE MONEY – THE SPREAD.
THE DEALER LIED WHEN THE DEALER SAID
THE BULL WAS CHARGING THE BEAR WAS DEAD,
THE MARKET MUST CALCULATE PER CAPITA, NOT HEAD.

 

AND GREAT TRADERS ACTING IN CONCERT, ARMS RISE
AS THE ACTUALS FROUGHT ON THE SEA OF FRANCHISE
THROWN OVERBOARD INTO THE EXCHANGE TO DROWN
IN DISTRESSED BROKERS DISCONSOLATE FROWN.
IN ACCOUNTING LIQUIDITY IS A MOUNTING MORBIDITY
BUT RAISING THE ARMS WITH SUCH RIGIND RAPIDITY,
OH THE REAPING THE RAPING RAPACIOUS FLUIDITY.
THE VIOLENCE THE VICIOUS AND VEXED VOLATILITY.

 

THE ROARING TRADE FLOOR RISES ABOVE CRASHING WAVES:
THE TRADER BUYS SHIPS, BENEATH THE SLAVES.
SWAY MACHETE BACK, SWAY MACHETE AGAIN
CUT BACK THE SUGAR RUSH, CAIN.
THE WHIPSAW IT'S ALL AND THE WHIP SAW IT ALL
THE RISING MARKET AND THE CARGO FALL
WHO'LL ENTER "JERUSALEM" MAKE THE MARGIN CALL FOR ABEL?
WHO WILL KICK OVER THE STALL AND TURN THE TABLE?

 

CAIN GATHERS CAIN AS GILT-GIFT TO HIS LAND
BUT WHOSE SWORD OF TRUTH SHALL NOT SLEEP IN HAND?
WHO SHALL UNLOCK THE STOCKS AND SHARE?
BREAK THE BINDS THE BOOND UNBOUND – LAY BARE
THE TRUTH. CASH FLOW RUNS DEEP BUT SPIRIT DEEPER
YOU ASK AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
I ANSWER BY NATURE BY SPIRIT BY RIGHTFUL LAWS
MY NAME, MY BROTHER, WILBERFORCE.

 

This project was initiated by British Black Heritage and the Parish of St Mary Woolnoth and was commissioned by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the British Land Company.'

 

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

 

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Shudehill, Manchester
Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem

Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester
Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN'

Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester

Lemn Sissay's poem 'Flags' is written into the sidewalk of Tib Street, Manchester, from Market Street toward Swan Street, and stretches a little less than a mile, on the righthand side of the street only. Sometimes, where stones have disappeared, you have to guess the missing letters, which is usually easy, but very occasionally comprehension is impossible. Sometimes you have to kick aside cigarette ends to read more clearly, or wait for a momentarily parked car to move. This is living poetry, uncertain poetry, where people oblige by walking into the road as you take your photo, but no one stares at you, you merge with the life of the street.

Occasionally, I may have gotten something wrong, and I'm sure someone will tell me so, knowing I won't mind. I could, of course, pretend that the error was deliberate. And then, perhaps the person who laid the stones got something wrong, or the poet is occasionally mischievous. Just to keep us on our toes.

 Lemn Sissay

THESE PAVEMENT CRACKS

ARE THE PLACES WHERE
POETS PACK THEIR
WARRIOR WORDS

THESE PAVEMENT
CRACKS ARE THE
PLACES WHERE
SLEEPING SHADOWS
OF MOVING
BRIDGES STOLE

WHERE DYING
DUST OF DREAMS
SLIDES WHERE
THE SLITS SILT
TURNS TO FOOD

WHERE HOME
TRUTHS TRICKLE
HOME AND CONFIDE
WHERE THE SILENT
FORESTS BROOD

WHERE SPINES BENT

?? THE BRIDGES

ARCHES WHERE THEY

VAULTED WITH A

SICE(?) TO ? SPEAK

AND UNITY SOWN

ON TO THE SKIN

OF ALL TRADES

PERHAPS THEYRE

A SCRIPT WORDS

OF THE STREET

PERHAPS THESE PAVEMENT

CRACKS ARE THE PLACES

AWHERE FLATTENED FLAGS

LIES SOLIDIFIED WAVES

THE TELLING LINES

WITHIN A SEA OF FACES

WHERE SUFFERERS

TAKE COVER

OF STREET CAVES

WHERE WANDER THE

WAYWARD AND LOST

WHERE THE RUNAWAY

CAN CHART HIS

JOURNEY BACK HOME

WHERE THE WATER RUNS

AS THE WORLD DEFROSTS

THE STREET BREATHES

BENEATH THIS STONE

AND PERHAPS THE

PAVEMENT CRACKS ARE

THE PATTERN OF

CONCRETE BUTTERFLIES

WHERE THOUGHTS

CAREFULLY

CULTIVATED

WAITING TO

WAKEN GROW

WINGS AND FLY

LIKE US THEY HOLD

THE PEOPLE OF A

MODERN EARTH

THIS WORLD

BETWEEN THE

WINDSWEPT FLAGS

WHERE PAVEMENT

CRACKS ARE THE

PLACES WHERE

SLEEPING SHADOWS

OF MOVING

BRIDGES STOLE

THE COLD

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

 

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Manchester
The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in London

Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem
Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN'

Hardys Well and Lemn Sissay's Poem

Hardys Well is a pub just south of the Curry Mile, Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, Manchester.

Lemn Sissay believes that 'poetry is central to what we do', and that poetry should be seen on the street in the same way as sculpture is. One evening, talking to his friend Mark Atwood in this pub, the manager challeged him to write a poem  on the wall.

The result is below: quite a masterpiece of street art in the pub garden, complete with benches and old red phonebox. The only thing is, by the look of the abundant vegetation around the locked gate, I strongly suspect that the pub is now closed. If this is the case, it's a bit of a blow to Lemn Sissay's idea of poems as landmarks.

'HARDYS WELL
WAIT WATERLESS WANDERER. WHOEVER WALKS
TO THE WELL WILL WADE INTO A WONDEROUS WORLD.
A WORLD WHICH WILL WAKEN THE WILTING
WALLPAPER OF WORK AND WORRY. WELL? WORRY
WILL WAIT WHILE WELLS WAND WHIRLS A WARM-
HEARTED WACKINESS INTO A WEARY WEEK.
WHEREAFTER WAVES AND WATERFALLS OF
WONDERMENT WILL WASH ALL WEAKNESS. A WAY?
WELL? A WORLD WIDE WEB OF WHOLEHEARTED
WHOLESOME WISDOM AND WIT WAITS WIPE AWAY
WORRIES. WELLS WORKS WONDERS FOR WRINKLES.
WHY WAIT. WHY WONDER. WHY WORRY. WHY
WAIN. WHY WHITTLE. WHY WITHER. WALK IN. WELL.
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR. IT'LL DOUBLE YOU. AT
HARDYS WELL.'
LEMN SISSAY

ADDENDUM: Lemn Sissay has now won the vote for Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Phew! I'm very pleased to say he easily beat the horrendous Peter Mandelson: we don't want dinosaurs, especially hypocrites like the architect of New Labour!

Links to my other posts of Lemn Sissay public poems are given below:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Lemn Sissay's Poetry in Shudehill, Manchester
The Art of Michael Visocchi and Lemn Sissay in London

Lemn Sissay's 'Flags', Tib Street, Manchester
Lemn Sissay's 'RAIN'