Thanks Ryfkah, point taken. Regards Arthur.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryfkah *" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: New sub:Unfinished Mile:1944
> In a message dated 6/19/02 7:09:45 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << The Unfinished Mile: 1944
>
> In borrowed pumps I toed the line, [great opening line]
> seduced to this reckoning by comic books
> and fables of sudden glory.
>
> I was Wilson from the wild moors;
> Wonder Man. I would astonish them all.
> I was eleven.
>
> Around me towered the truth; the stiffened sinews
> and summoned blood of sixth formers,
> sash-haired heroes of their House.
>
> Their disdain questioned my existence.
> The reek and sheen of their embrocation defeated me. [embrocation - great
> word!]
> I did not even smell like a winner.
>
> The shimmering air was rich
> with the balm of cut meadows as I was humiliated
> that hot evening, watched by the whole school
>
> that bayed like hounds, chased
> my narrow back and fluttering number
> round and round the ground.
>
> I padded down corridors of grass
> to trail my shattered fantasies
> into that last long curve of shame
>
> but stepped from the gauntlet of their taunts
> and hid behind the wooden stand
> belittled by their belling, comforted by nettles. [I would end here; the
last
> stanza though well-written tells the reader what can be gleaned from the
rest
> of the poem]
>
> A whole life away yet that last fifty yards
> and the sweet mollification of yarrow
> still mocks all ambition out of me. >>
>
> Wonderful poem, King Arthur, filled with archetypal truth.
>
> kol tuv, Ryfkah
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