Alison,
I thought it would be good for you to know that feed-back from my daughter,
i'm glad you're rapt.
I agree that any unquestioned ideology is a problem (and dangerous) and I
also think that we can question questioning and we can question doubt. In
some situations if thinking is the problem then thinking can't be the
solution. I like to fantasize that poetry can take apart thinking,
extinguish thinking, leave us in a pre-language state via all the poetic
devises poets wield.
claire
p.s here is one of my most recent poems.
Only the veils tear
I can hear the pain under my left shoulder.
The trees ring in my ears.
The pen tells lies to the page.
The river is a reason for quite.
Leave the bones on an anthill and they will be cleaned of questions and last
lines and rhymes and commas.
The bird's call cuts a colour across the grey curtain.
The flywire cuts the sky into tiny squares.
In answer to your question there is none.
In answer to the fall is the ground.
The wind rattles the doors and frames and someone's plans.
The clouds sit behind the trees like the base tone.
The water in me cries for the ocean, breaking breath with the plants.
I'm in the flames of questions,
the hands of flowers.
A prayer in answer to my river.
The words on the yellow page look like fly-dirt with the light behind them.
My face in the photo retreats into the flame.
The flame partly hidden by the petals of the flower.
The sun gestures to the mountain to finish the day.
The flame is alive like water flowing.
Landscape of hands moulding the light.
Drowsy centuries stare out the opaque window.
Only the poets tear down the veils.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: Poet returning from South Korea requesting features for tour of
the USA...
> Dear Claire
>
> Welcome to the list!
>
> At 10:06 AM +1000 10/10/02, Claire Gaskin wrote:
> >I
> >sometimes pick up the underlying assumption, in general, that you can't
be a
> >serious thinker if you say something positive and if you are not cynical.
I
> >reject this assumption as much as I reject people being positive without
> >being discerning in their critique or when their positivity is about
denial
> >and not sincere. I'm not accusing anyone of either of these things. I
just
> >feel these issues where raised both personally and to do with writing. As
> >someone who teachers creative writing they are important issues to keep
> >thinking about.
>
> Any unquestioned ideology is always a problem, no? Especially with
> arts like poetry, which seem to me founded on doubt, somehow - that
> dancing on the abyss.
>
> As for your daughter linking HP with The Gift - well, what can I say?
> I'm rapt to hear of her response, the book is about enchantment. If
> my bank balance ever starts approaching JK Rowling's (ah, _that's_
> fantasy...) I'll start a fund for indigent poets.
>
> At 10:06 AM +1000 10/10/02, Claire Gaskin wrote:
> >What is the etiquette for this list? Can I put a poem straight up for
> >comment. Does it matter if its unpublished and out for publication etc
>
> No, feel free to post whenever you like. The only question which
> sometimes arises is that of copyright, as this is a semi-public forum.
>
> Best
>
> Alison
> --
>
>
>
> Alison Croggon
> Home page
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
>
> Masthead Online
> http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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