Read an extract, ‘In Praise of Shadow’ from Ishion Hutchinson’s unforgettable book-length poem, School of Instructions, out now.

Source of echo
madman of prophecies
buffering nonsense
in absence of anything
solid as cloud
flung
from the womb
pale pallid asteroid
belt of nanny goat

conjuror of the ill-spoken
adlibbing in shadow
a race in a curve
as an old woman’s palm
billows the blue light
instance of an ant’s
legs twitch beneath
the headless Nobody
trickster and soothsayer

burner of Ark
cutter of dub
double-talk lame-walker
translating ship screams
and the long gazes
and the neck cricks
and the hollow face
celestial and earthbound
posing the first question
to God after an eagle
picked your liver
and tell the reply
in the treetops
to hold still

and accept
fade and descent
into nothing
like a scribbler train
heading into a bright
blind and flat
as the mouth hole
of some strange being
and what you say
at the controls
picking up signals
and feedback
off the metallic horizon
and the purple field

where a girl
undoes her hair
and warps herself
around a tree
her mother is buried
under the grass
there you once wept
from whence comes
something longer
than a shadow
when a shadow
falls in the desert

and the hills expire
the sea expires too
for you outlived
your mule days
of packed crocus
and blades of sun
ripe on your back
at the river
like a crab catcher
in shortcuts
rancid with obeah
on your skin
for a few shillings
to blast off downtown

praise your tongue
praise your spirit
praise your madness
in praise of fern
in praise of shame-me-lady
in praise of bushel
in praise of hanging leaves
in praise of praising

your word mass
your mix match
your jamming of elements

when things get terrible
and times get dread
you’re ahead

praise
praise
praise

Copyright © Ishion Hutchinson, [2023]. Used by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. All rights reserved.