"you, who were the spaces between words in the act of reading,

"You" is McGuckian's muse--the imaginative power that exists in the in-between spaces/gaps. Blue is the color that represents this unconscious space that McGuckian wants to "break" into.

(The "you" could also be one of McGuckian's children).

"we coiled / in the lifelong snake of sleep, we poised together / against the crevice formed by death's forefinger / and thumb, where her shoulder splits when desire / goes further than the sender will allow."

McGuckian and the muse are entangled with one another, and they unite to explore and pressure the activity that occurs within life's "crevices" and "splits."

"Womb-encased and ever-present mystery without / release, your even-coloured foliage sems a town garden / to my inaccessible , severly mineral world."

The crevices and splits represent the "secret places," sometimes the wombs, of women. In this space lies the unconscious and the imaginative power; it is a place of mystery, darkness, and creativity. Compared with the ordered, manicured, linear space of men these "womb-encased" spaces seem inaccessible, as is the unconscious.

(The "you" could also refer to a child in the mother's womb, in reference to the first line of this stanza).

Fragments of once-achieved meaning, ready to leave / the flesh, re-integrate as lover, mother, words / that overwhelm me: You utter, become music, are played."

"Fragments" could refer to words, images, thoughts, etc. that have a particular meaning within a masculine world. But once these "fragments" are touched by female essence and entangled with new meanings, they can re-integrate into the world portraying women in a different light. The essence/muse turns words (fragments) into poetry, into absolute "music."

("Fragments" might also allude to a child that is "ready to leave / the flesh" and take on a life of its own).