Lucy Wilks
52 Transpositions after Oulipo
on matters of import / on maturation of the impossible
our voices / we fly
are studied / though stumped
la belle dame / the bellowing damnifies
avec / but we withhold
merci / meridians
furrows / fuscous
on a log - a lizard's / logic - your load
thumb-print / of frankincense
rosellas / rose-red
at table / tablet -
their feet their spoons / felicity a spore
your tree-creeper / my tremolo
wrapping in spirals / wreathing a spiritualist
the yellow-box / with yes
take-off / a talented ointment -
fast and slumbrous / fatally I smoke
at once / an onset
new world voyage / next I'll worship vulgarian
of a naked / of a narcissistic
conjuror / connoisseur
creation / I credit you
of the birds / with the unleavened bread
a violin in your heart / of a virgin heat
the matchless gift / the matronly gigolo
of Krishna / of Kufic
consciousness / consensus
until I till / until I tinkle
I cannot / I cannibalize
worship / this wrack
scarlet robin / sceptred rock -
where have gone / as I goggle
your snows / let me soak
spiky plants / spiracular planxties
of a spiky man / of a spiracular manatee -
still yet succulent / some sudoriferous
my sticks / my stiles
my staffs / my staggerers -
linseed oils them / lipography opens them
Richard of York / the rictus of youth
gains battle / gallops beautifully
in vain / in Valencia
I'm dead / I'm debonair
of waking / of waltzing
in the night / in nihility
noise has / nomads
left a residue / legitimize resistibility
like a burning stone / like a buried stop
knotted and gnarly / though labile and Goethian
my complex of nerves / I compliment the nestlings
at the pit / on your pith
capaciousness / capers
has emptied / enamour
me of glee / me of glimmers
dreaming I'm / drifting I'm
a black cat / a blameworthy Catalan
with white fur / with a wide furore
a spinebill / Spinoza
alarms / alights from
the pineapple sage / the pious antelope
lovey dovey / loyally downtroddenly
dovey lovey / downtroddenly loyally
lovey dovey / loyally downtroddenly
if only waking / were operosely wandering
were a ripple / a rite and
not a trauma / not a travesty
prolific pen / promiscuous pendant -
condense to their gist / conduplicate the gladness
the peripatetic / of the periwigged
primitive / prior
jubilee - two / judiciousness - typical
Phrygian palms / physiognomical palpitations
musically / mutually
I'm more adept / I'm more mosaically ad hoc
asleep / asparkle
a labyrinth / lachryma Christi -
my ball of yarn / my ballast of yarrow
your aria / your aristocrat
your adagio / your adaptability
travels / treacles
around corners / around cornucopias
on a white wall / in a wide wallow
one enormous / one enterprising and
black snowflake / blameless snuggery
I forget / I fornicate
my geography / with geophysics -
blank nostalgia / bleeding notables
let me dwell / levitate my dying
electrified / eliding
by enigma / all enquiry
I rosin my bow / I rotate my bower
to die / to diffract
with smorzando / a smoulder
earnestly / eccentrically
desirous for / desultory for
a wasted thing to do / a waxen thither to dodder
you forbear / you forebode
with my nescience / my netting -
I dream your knowing / I dribble and lacerate
a valley / what value
between us / bewails us -
no time for finesse / no tincture but finish
atop / audible
our respective silos / our restive similes -
mountains commune / muslin keeps company
interminably / intimately
I strictly enforce / I stubbornly engineer
my paralysis / my paranoia
anxiety / apartheid -
a slurry of days / a smack of the dead
at the pit / in piteouslessness
Petrarch says / petticoats scallop us -
you drive to flight / you drop a flip
my self-recrimination / on seminal recumbency
sit a little / skedaddle livelily
pace a little / paddle livelily
collapse a little / collide livelily
exposed / exsanguinated
I revert to a / I revoke a
childish hand / chintz handsel
legato is / legible is
the only slur / the only smallage
I'm happy with / I'm a Hashemite with
my sky / my slang
you catch / you cause
blue-handed / bodefully handleless
I'm worsted / I'm wrecked
and bested / and betaken
gratefully / greedily
damaged / dangled
and exhausted / and exonerated
well-worn is ill-worn / whimperingly wounded is illimitably wounded
disarm me / disburden me
of defence / of deficiency -
a pert oeillade / a pestiferous offensive
seduced / seethed
askance into / assentiently into
coyness / cracks
my dear / my decadent
Mr Mesmer - I'm / mnemonic Messiah - so
influentially yours / ingenuously yours
oblivious / obsessed
you navigate / I negate
perfectly / periphrastically
broken steps / brumous stern
in stairwell / of stalemate -
would I weren't impeded / woven I'm a westerly impinged
I dream to feel / I dress to feminize
experience / expletives
I have not had / I hazard haemally
it's a happy / it's a harrowing
vice my head is in / vicissitude my hearsay is in -
the heart of me untrammelled / the heave of me untraversable
my possibility / my posterity
itself / my izzard
exhausts / exits
Lucy Wilks was born in Melbourne in 1960. Her work has appeared in Verse, Meanjin and Southerly.
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52 Transpositions after Oulipo
on matters of import / on maturation of the impossible
our voices / we fly
are studied / though stumped
la belle dame / the bellowing damnifies
avec / but we withhold
merci / meridians
furrows / fuscous
on a log - a lizard's / logic - your load
thumb-print / of frankincense
rosellas / rose-red
at table / tablet -
their feet their spoons / felicity a spore
your tree-creeper / my tremolo
wrapping in spirals / wreathing a spiritualist
the yellow-box / with yes
take-off / a talented ointment -
fast and slumbrous / fatally I smoke
at once / an onset
new world voyage / next I'll worship vulgarian
of a naked / of a narcissistic
conjuror / connoisseur
creation / I credit you
of the birds / with the unleavened bread
a violin in your heart / of a virgin heat
the matchless gift / the matronly gigolo
of Krishna / of Kufic
consciousness / consensus
until I till / until I tinkle
I cannot / I cannibalize
worship / this wrack
scarlet robin / sceptred rock -
where have gone / as I goggle
your snows / let me soak
spiky plants / spiracular planxties
of a spiky man / of a spiracular manatee -
still yet succulent / some sudoriferous
my sticks / my stiles
my staffs / my staggerers -
linseed oils them / lipography opens them
Richard of York / the rictus of youth
gains battle / gallops beautifully
in vain / in Valencia
I'm dead / I'm debonair
of waking / of waltzing
in the night / in nihility
noise has / nomads
left a residue / legitimize resistibility
like a burning stone / like a buried stop
knotted and gnarly / though labile and Goethian
my complex of nerves / I compliment the nestlings
at the pit / on your pith
capaciousness / capers
has emptied / enamour
me of glee / me of glimmers
dreaming I'm / drifting I'm
a black cat / a blameworthy Catalan
with white fur / with a wide furore
a spinebill / Spinoza
alarms / alights from
the pineapple sage / the pious antelope
lovey dovey / loyally downtroddenly
dovey lovey / downtroddenly loyally
lovey dovey / loyally downtroddenly
if only waking / were operosely wandering
were a ripple / a rite and
not a trauma / not a travesty
prolific pen / promiscuous pendant -
condense to their gist / conduplicate the gladness
the peripatetic / of the periwigged
primitive / prior
jubilee - two / judiciousness - typical
Phrygian palms / physiognomical palpitations
musically / mutually
I'm more adept / I'm more mosaically ad hoc
asleep / asparkle
a labyrinth / lachryma Christi -
my ball of yarn / my ballast of yarrow
your aria / your aristocrat
your adagio / your adaptability
travels / treacles
around corners / around cornucopias
on a white wall / in a wide wallow
one enormous / one enterprising and
black snowflake / blameless snuggery
I forget / I fornicate
my geography / with geophysics -
blank nostalgia / bleeding notables
let me dwell / levitate my dying
electrified / eliding
by enigma / all enquiry
I rosin my bow / I rotate my bower
to die / to diffract
with smorzando / a smoulder
earnestly / eccentrically
desirous for / desultory for
a wasted thing to do / a waxen thither to dodder
you forbear / you forebode
with my nescience / my netting -
I dream your knowing / I dribble and lacerate
a valley / what value
between us / bewails us -
no time for finesse / no tincture but finish
atop / audible
our respective silos / our restive similes -
mountains commune / muslin keeps company
interminably / intimately
I strictly enforce / I stubbornly engineer
my paralysis / my paranoia
anxiety / apartheid -
a slurry of days / a smack of the dead
at the pit / in piteouslessness
Petrarch says / petticoats scallop us -
you drive to flight / you drop a flip
my self-recrimination / on seminal recumbency
sit a little / skedaddle livelily
pace a little / paddle livelily
collapse a little / collide livelily
exposed / exsanguinated
I revert to a / I revoke a
childish hand / chintz handsel
legato is / legible is
the only slur / the only smallage
I'm happy with / I'm a Hashemite with
my sky / my slang
you catch / you cause
blue-handed / bodefully handleless
I'm worsted / I'm wrecked
and bested / and betaken
gratefully / greedily
damaged / dangled
and exhausted / and exonerated
well-worn is ill-worn / whimperingly wounded is illimitably wounded
disarm me / disburden me
of defence / of deficiency -
a pert oeillade / a pestiferous offensive
seduced / seethed
askance into / assentiently into
coyness / cracks
my dear / my decadent
Mr Mesmer - I'm / mnemonic Messiah - so
influentially yours / ingenuously yours
oblivious / obsessed
you navigate / I negate
perfectly / periphrastically
broken steps / brumous stern
in stairwell / of stalemate -
would I weren't impeded / woven I'm a westerly impinged
I dream to feel / I dress to feminize
experience / expletives
I have not had / I hazard haemally
it's a happy / it's a harrowing
vice my head is in / vicissitude my hearsay is in -
the heart of me untrammelled / the heave of me untraversable
my possibility / my posterity
itself / my izzard
exhausts / exits
Lucy Wilks was born in Melbourne in 1960. Her work has appeared in Verse, Meanjin and Southerly.