On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, K.M. Sutherland wrote:
> Maybe a
> bit of BM banter hereabouts, couldn't hurt. I wonder what listers think
> of _Fools Gold_? In the afterglow of conflagrated lizards? K
- yes, _Fools Gold_ (1972) looks quite like Prynne's _Fire Lizard_ (1970)
which BM published: same balanced ambiguity (is it a single poem? or are
they a set of linked lyrics?) same kind of strategies going on with, for
instance, line breaks (against syntax, to create further readings, doubts,
emphases etc) and a parallel I-youness of the address. Barry was, I'd say,
learning lots from JHP at that point, and this one strikes me as perhaps
BM at his most JHP (tho there's lots more to it of course - a list of the
differences wd be longer!). A long way from the Green Cabaret stuff,
anyway.
Barry's "lyric" (aware of the other thread out there) is always pretty
firy, romantic-driven, expostulatory stuff, and _FG_ is no exception:
here's a clip:
Bathe in scum then, spread
feint talcum over
the world. Kestrels
make good houseguests
at every turn, claws
are the true symbol
of any bilious neo-
platonic gambler. Salt
is a hurricane, who
can you be with now.
The whole is collected in "The Tempers of Hazard", for those who have
access to that work. What does anyone else think? Keston?
RC
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