Hello again Anny,
Thanks for replying. I am one of the soundbite / sample generation who
dropped out and then spiralled into chemical abuse. I hated school was told
I was thick, and consoled my days with surfing and fishing opting out of
exams. By 16 most of my friends had found smack, while I had found Eliot,
Milton, Pound and Pope, (in that order) and I haven't looked back since. I
owe Eliot alot; the soundscape of the wasteland will never leave me. by
sixteen I didn't even know how to write properly, my idiosyncratic grammar
comes from having been self taught (but that was ten years ago). Since then
I've been to university - I did Ecology & Peter Larkin for my Long-study. It
cost me £10,000 + interest. I won't work for corporations, I've done the
factory thing and principally I've decided to make a stand against global
monopoly, its easy I suppose if you've got now't. I live in a shit-pit, and
I'll be thrown out soon. I'll search for a home in foreign fields, and as
joinery is one of my many trades, I'll build an eco pad. Dreams...
All the best
Anny
and thanks,
mark
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: so far so good
> Hi Mark,
>
> I bet you are the youngest on this list...
>
> I would like to ask you, by saying:
>
> As for education
> > I can't currently afford the interest.
>
> do you mean you cannot go to university?
> If this is the point I am sure a lot of people have plenty to say about
the
> kind of education they received at university. On my side I had a very
> technical one since I am a translator and interpreter, nothing to do with
> poetry or prose; and I couldn't wait to end it in order to have some time
to
> read the books I wanted and kept on piling up, which is something I am
still
> doing.
>
> I think you can reach a maturity in any artistic field only through
> self-education.
> Sure, I do not deny what I studied in those university years, be it at
least
> for the notion of the amount of time one has to spend on and with books.
>
> Take care, Anny
>
> > For what it's worth I too enjoyed the poem and the story.
> >
> > But poetry is no dead duck. It may be severely mutilated, abused,
> > detached and isolated but this is an uprising at source. I am surprised
at
> > so much seeming negativity on the prospect of the future by so many
> > inspiring minds. I thought that through language people could find a
> higher
> > ground, (even in the face of over whelming odds) and in poetry counter,
> > perhaps, the 'real', - but this is possibly an un-useful term. I am not
> the
> > brightest, and it is difficult for me to communicate here, - 'overly
> > paranoid cast in a self-alienated barrack' (generational!?). But some
> modern
> > poetry invigorates and attempts to negotiate a possible inference. If
only
> > in a small and strangely silent way. (butterflywings.)All of this
probably
> > means very little; but book shops that can't even distinguish between
art
> > and graphic pornography are faceless and base (they could and should do
> > more). Anyway bring out my violins because I may never have the courage
to
> > write anything here again. but as a voyeur. and hope. I continue to find
> > poetry that instructs, delights and draws acid to my mouth. As for
> education
> > I can't currently afford the interest. and as for a pension I'm banking
on
> > poverty. but while there is Grannom on the water, I won't starve!
> >
> > love,
> > mark
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 10:41 PM
> > Subject: Re: so far so good
> >
> >
> > I enjoyed the poem and the story. I am now in my tenth year
> > of redundancy/retirement and am in my sixtieth year. I only
> > do what I want to do and spend most of my time reading/in pubs/
> > listening to music. I am lucky that there is just enough money
> > for me and the cat. Future generations wont have my luxury with
> > the current crash of final salary pension schemes. Or my luck
> > in having a free education. I am currently reading Niall Ferguson's
> > 'The Cash Nexus' and getting an eagle-eye perspective on what
> > has produced globalisation which I have to follow-up in
> > Eric SChlosser's 'Fast Food Nation'. I have stopped buying
> > poetry because it is all so mediocre nowadays. If I see a
> > new edition of one of my old masters I may be tempted.
> > But poetry in the UK is a dead duck. The bookstores realise
> > that. And maybe next week I will write a new poem if I can
> > think of a subject I can write about.
> >
> >
> >
> > Douglas Clark, Bath, England mailto: [log in to unmask]
> > Lynx: Poetry from Bath ..........
> http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/lynx.html
> >
> > On Tue, 25 Jun 2002, cooee wrote:
> >
> > > these exchanges about birthdays, and now the to me very resonant
phrase,
> > so
> > > far so good, bring me to unearth a doodle written during a semester of
> > long
> > > service leave in my early sixties...
> > >
> > > The Retiree in Winter
> > >
> > > Off you go, they said,
> > > have the rest of your life!
> > > Have, enjoy. Oh, I'm having it,
> > >
> > > in lieu of alternatives,
> > > and it looks like lasting
> > > well, here for the duration.
> > >
> > > Lasting takes time, I find.
> > > Still, I can spare the time
> > > which is all I've got.
> > >
> > > My gardenıs fallen leaves
> > > I raked in
> > > from beneath my bare trees.
> > >
> > > Each evening now
> > > I light the fire
> > > with the rakings.
> > >
> > > Like emptied files
> > > from a closed-down office
> > > they burn slowly and well
> > >
> > > to signal-less smoke
> > > and inscrutable ash,
> > > gratifying my nostrils.
> > >
> > > Then I burn sections
> > > I have sawn and split
> > > from former trees:
> > >
> > > slow to grow,
> > > slow to die,
> > > slow to burn.
> > >
> > > Everything runs down,
> > > yet with a little help
> > > the garden renews itself.
> > >
> > > Finished with work
> > > I have made my will:
> > > cremation, of course;
> > >
> > > to my son, axe and saw;
> > > to my daughter, potting-mix;
> > > to my wife, my urn.
> > >
> > > Whatıs left beside,
> > > tax office and bank
> > > expect to divide.
> > >
> > > Time treated me kindly:
> > > temperate climate,
> > > fertile soil; enough rain;
> > >
> > > flowers and fruit,
> > > wine and meat;
> > > company better than deserved;
> > >
> > > decent job and pay,
> > > the pleasures of leisure;
> > > a roof over my head;
> > >
> > > holiday travel,
> > > safe return home,
> > > a warm shared bed.
> > >
> > > So far, so goodS
> > > beyond? much to fear;
> > > but now is a lull.
> > >
> > > That came, then, out of mere fear of retirement. Now I have just
reached
> > my
> > > midsixties and another bout of leave to burn up next year. Thirtyfive
> > years
> > > teaching, and I still wake up thinking such thoughts as 'when week one
> > gets
> > > going, I shall really get the new students humming with 'Neutral
Tones',
> > try
> > > again to get them to see why it's better than Yeats's 'Ephemera'
('Your
> > eyes
> > > that once were never weary of mine...'). then push on as far as
'During
> > Wind
> > > and Rain' - which got crowded out last year...
> > >
> > >
> > > Ah, no! the years, the years!
> > >
> > >
> > > best wishes to all the young from
> > > Max Richards at Cooee, Melbourne
> > >
> > > the pre-dawn winter solstice full moon webbed by bare magnolia
branches
> > > shines on the clingwrapped morning paper on the driveway with its
pages
> of
> > > bad news, trivia, death notices, birth notices, and no doubt the
> obituary
> > > columns will be mostly about achievers who were younger than me when
> they
> > > died
> > >
> >
>
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