Fiona Curran

© A. Kolkowski

 

Recorded at Resonance 104.4FM, London on March 24th, 2011.

Fiona Reads her poem The Object of Affection

. . . . . everything is at sixes and sevens – ladies in love with buggers and buggers in love with womanisers, and the price of coal going up too. Where will it all end?    Lytton Strachey

*        *        *

Dora Carrington loves him, Lytton, the object of her affection and he adores her, but it’s her husband, Rafe, he cannot do without. Rafe’s best friend Gerald is consumed by Carrington, askes her to elope to Spain, but she won’t leave the indifferent Lytton. Rafe takes the first of many mistresses, settling eventually for the generous Frances. The object still adores the womaniser, but he too has taken a young lover, the cupid Roger. Carrington meanwhile seeks solace in the arms  of Beacus, the near silent sailor, who craves her, but not her body. They all live together at Ham Spray, until Roger abandons  Lytton who is momentarily broken hearted. Gertler, the painter who entreated Lytton’s help to capture his beloved Dora in the first place, remains enslaved to her, nut she loves only the object of her affection.

*        *        *

So much for the swans, mating once,
the singular heart drumming devotion
smoke signal confirmation against a pitch sky. . . .
Here is the force that drives the green fuse.
We are the result of all that effort, all that love,
all those circles intersecting at divorce
began simply; that which couldn’t be ignored
gained momentum, rolled all over their lives
peopling it with lovers, bastards, wives.

Fiona Curran is a Lecturer in Film-making at Kingston University and is a published poet, as well as a sonic artist & filmmaker. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. As a poet she has been published widely in the UK & Ireland and her first collection, The Hail Mary Pass was published by Wrecking Ball Press.

Fiona Curran


Recording Notes

This was one of several wax cylinder recordings made by a group of poets in the studio of Resonance104.4 FM. With thanks to John Page.