Flame by Randolph Healy

13x21 cm, 28 pages, 250 gsm natural Strata card cover,
sewn with navy blue twist.

Cover illustration shows code for the mitochondrial DNA of E. coli.

ISBN 1 903090 13 X

Click here to read Steve Evans' review of Flame.

Click here to read Robert Archambeau's interview with Randolph Healy at the Notre Dame Review website.

Click here to read Robert Archambeau's article on Randolph Healy at the Read.me website.

See below for extract.

Ordering Information

from Flame:

I friction percussion hidden inside trees four men walking two side posts an upper door post in his right hand seven stars algor rigor livor voices rarely ascending or descending together a movement / contraries finding unfathomable spaces around which grammar shapes no shapes punctus contra punctum rods firing under change in intensity constructing an edge the straight line as curve of zero curvature ó ghlúin an effect of scale permanence having pulses zero a simplicity straining to catch barely audible improvisations escaping the gaps between angle and try-square

Le Cuisson du Sucre.

Le Petit Lissé.

Dip the forefinger into iced water, and then into the boiling sugar,
and instantly again into the iced water to prevent burning the
finger. Then pinch between the index finger and thumb. If a
small thread forms, which breaks when the attempt is made to pull
apart through the fingers, the proper degree is reached.

Le Grand Lissé.

Boil the sugar a little longer, and then try as before; if a thread
forms that can be pulled two inches without breaking, this degree
is reached. This is the best degree for preserves, etc.

La Grande et la Petite Perle.

Let the sugar boil a little longer. If you find that on drawing it out
to a thread it snaps quickly, and also that while boiling the sugar
presents the form of large pearls or globules on its surface, it will
then have reached the small pearl degree. When the pearls
become closely connected on the surface of the sugar, it will have
reached the large pearl degree.

Le Soufflé.

Continue boiling, and after a few minutes dip the skimmer in the
boiling sugar. Strike it on the edge of the boiler. Blow through
the holes, and you will find that, if the sugar is of the right degree,
it will form into small globules or air bubbles on the other side.
This is the best degree for creams, and also gives a rich flavor to
preserves.

La Plume.

Boil up the sugar a little longer, dip the skimmer in it, and on
finding that it shivers into a thready fringe from the edge, it will
have reached the degree called the “Feather”. If large and
elevated, the degree is the “Large Feather” or “La Grande Plume.”
In a few minutes more they become small and flaky, and the next
degree, the “Small Feather,” or “La Petite Plume,” is reached.

Le Petit Boulet.

Le Grand Boulet.

Le Cassé.

Caramel.

III

A lacy cyan in a lyric

Ray

Nail a city train / racy / analytic / an aria

( )

Litany in an

Icy air / lit

Tiara / alacrity / act-act act-act it ran / a

Yarn / tin can / crania / atria / canal / act-act

I V man crossing the street warm dark liquid trees simulating animating the sound his skull made Xpos Ypos Zpos quiescent innermost zone non-luminous the heart outliving the the kidneys brain outliving both surrounded by dissociated free incandescent particles open to the living temporarily yet the transition a shock as ___________ disrupts response with its own lines each with their own ends continuity a regular disposition of gaps the absence of mirrors a third invisible zone

sodium	orange-yellow
potassium	lilac
calcium	red or yellow-red

four walls roof floor already a tree’s agitated shade folded at ninety degrees against its side where he stood wiping his glasses the permanent stain the reflection of his own eye

copper	bright green
lead	livid blue

the attraction a reflex wing motion reduced on the side struck by the light causing it to turn towards the source where the name applied reverses the tonal values of the subject thus growth the city founded taken recovered destroyed rebuilt incorporated soaring in thermals a little-known system contiguous with and fed by more than thirty streams the current heating a semi-conductor lowering its resistance increasing the current raising its temperature lowering its resistance increasing the current raising its temperature lowering increasing raising lowering increasing the Spanish word for yellow a gilded cupola rational since woven by the same chaotics as mind and twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be salsa lake harp lava sled nebula men doeskin having neither length nor breadth nor width