If you're still reading the list (it's pretty sporadic for me these
days) please answer.
If either or both are gone, can someone let me know how to get in touch?
Many months ago there was a a discussion the nature of which is now a
complete mystery to me but in the course of which John B said to
James B, "Does anything less than everything mean nothing to you?" I
was struck by the question and copied it into a file, and there it
sat until this week.
While transferring files from my old computer to this new one, I ran
across the file, and wrote a poem using the question for a title. Do
either of you object to my using and attributing the quote in this
way?
Here is the poem:
"Does anything less than everything mean nothing to you?"
John Brockam to James Barbour on the PoetryEtc Mailing List
PoetryEtc's a place --
almost a place, an email list --
where mostly faceless people write
and mostly brag or argue, just like
it was real life but it's TFTs
or phosphors or text-to-speech,
maybe ink if it's printed, or fused
plastic, or something used
by people who haven't been born
assuming the list is still going
long after I've written this
poem, which is no different unless
someone's reading it to you
except I don't have a clue
who you are and on the list at least
there's a name and a kind of history,
what he said, she said, like those
two guys in the title I know
only that about, that James said
something John thought meant
All or Nothing, Liberty or Death,
Undying Love or Loneliness,
The Flames of Hell or Paradise
and John, I guess, a kind of wise
guy, and I mean that in a good way,
called him on it, meaning maybe
even on a bad day you might
read a good poem or even write
one, and even if it isn't learned
by heart by millions of yearning
fans in an America where poets
are the universally acknowledged
legislators of Mankind or
Humanity or whatever
We in Our Infinite Wisdom
declare the perfect idiom
to name us all, the whole kit
and kaboodle of us, even if
that poem or this poem never
gets read by anyone, ever,
it's by God enough for me
and for John. I think. James?
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|