> Hi all, this is the ten verse sequence the first four of which I
posted
> under the working title 'the heat from my head'.
>
> Grassy and Arthur both commented on what was then the 'concluding'
verse -
> verse four below. Perhaps it make a little bit more sense in context
now.
> No, Grassy - I'd missed dreary old Leonard (only joking - I used to
have
> that album). To Arthur's point, well I'm a great fan of ambivalence,
indeed
> multivalence, in writing. In so far as that verse refers to a state
of
> almost manic depression it is intended to flip between the throw-away

> stupid and, especially if one picks up the Basho reference, the very
> bitter.
>
> Any and all comment welcome as ever. Thanks, John
>
> --
>   midges bathe   in the heat from my head
> before they too   are gone
>
> a pheasant calls me   all the way   from China
>
>
> oaks pull upward   from their moorings
>           deep within   the floating world
>
> but truly   monkey   did you give a poet's
>
>
>                         stroke the pen   across the page
> and now the heron's feathers   blue
>
> a dog will bark   no matter what   the season
>
>
> trout fly sideways   from the surface
>              upstream   of the fisherman
>
> a stranger stops   to ask me   for directions
>
>
> from the steam train   children smile
>                 a greeting   to the unknown lens
>
> the rattletats fade   before they too   are gone
>

--
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Gerald England