Thanks Grasshopper,
A classic error! Yr right.
I was rambling verbally all the time.
Maybe I should drink my coffee instead of letting it chill out at the side
of the screen - then I'll think in phrase-lengths that go forwards and not
sideways.
All the best (for what appears - out of my window right now) to be the
snow-brightest of new year for years!
Bob



>From: "grasshopper M.A. Griffiths" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Cross"ing" the Border
>Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 18:18:11 GMT
>
>Dear Bob,
>  This question often pops up, and I know it won't be long before someone
>mentions gerunds. However, gerunds have no place in this discussion as they
>are not verbs, but nouns (formed from a verb).
>This is a verb-- you are SOUNDING hoarse today.
>This is a gerund--we took a SOUNDING of public opinion.
>  I feel it is important to understand the nature of parts of speech,
>because words are our tools. We don't want to take a spanner to a screw.
>Re the verb 'ings', I think the feeling of this form is one that is ideal
>for poetry, being a 'continued' tense, so I cannot understand why anyone
>objects to it. Like everything,'ings' can be overdone, but I'm always
>voting for the 'ings' in general.
>Kind regards,
>        grasshopper
>
>
>
>Bob Cooper wrote:
>
>Hi Gary, Sally-ee,
>
>(and others who've got up, woozingly so alka-seltzer late like me...)
>
>Yes, I often recognise that poems need drama (and an active tone is often a
>dramatic tone) but, sometimes, chosing to use a word that ends with an
>"ing"
>creates a particular effect that is seen as necessasary, because of a
>"need"
>for some passivity, and so it's possible to highlight some actions and
>diminish the impact of others. (For myself, I often find that a gerund - an
>"ing" word - can be a fine way of showing that something lingers, while a
>more active word can sound too dramatic. I mean "he/she's running" can seem
>to last much longer than "he/she runs."). If I write a sentance with, say,
>three words (singing, running, falling) as actions that somehow belong each
>other I can really play with how I highlight one of the actions. The
>choices
>between active and passive ways of stating things are so rich with all
>kinds
>of possibilities.
>
>
>
>
>As David pointed out, in his responses to his poems about snowfalls and
>sheep, we follow guidelines (or decide - consciously or not - not to)
>because we're working for the subtlest of subtleties in meaning and pace. I
>guess, in the end (when we've sweated and worried every word that can be
>changed to and fro) (and we feel we're saying what we really want to say),
>we can only hope others will see what we intend them to see, hear what we
>intend them to hear, and go (somewhere) with what we've given them.
>
>Another mug of heavyweight coffee...
>And a canny New Year!
>
>Bob




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