The stabilising of the mosses for roads was solved by Blind Jack of
Knaresborough an early Industrial Revolution road builder who, finding the
mosses swallowing his infill without any progress available, cut all the
surrounding heather and tipped that into the moss and built on that. I
understand that some roads local to us are still built on that great raft
technique. This might be one of them hence the shiver you mention.Regards
Arthur.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Carley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2002 9:59 AM
Subject: The Famine Road - responses, and punctuation
> Many thanks for the feedback on this piece - I've been spending too much
> time with 'specialists' and it's good to broaden the horizon.
>
> Bob's reference to 'white space' are an astute summary of the Japanese
> linked verse technique: all the frison, all the communication, lies in the
> unstated relationship/s between stanzas. This is also true within the
> compass of a single stanza.
>
> In this context caesurae and line-break have an advantage over the more
> extensive suite of written punctuation as the mind may construe them
> several ways - another maddening instance of the oriental 'less is more'
> paradox.
>
> Of course it depends on the style of syntax the poet adopts, which in turn
> depends on the nature of the semantic organisation. An elegantly crafted
> Martyn Halsall or David Anthony sonnet might be ill served by stripping
out
> the commas.
>
> Interesting that Caxton made do with three punctuation marks though:
> period, comma and virgule. Leading me to wonder if syntax expands to fill
> the punctuation marks available.
>
> The 'avocado killer' (alleged) was a 'rambler' looking rather like the
> Archbishop designate who, rather than meet my eye or otherwise engage with
> any of the splendid devastation around him, appeared to be wrestling with
> the problems of World Peace and/or whether the avocado he had so enjoyed a
t
> dinner the previous evening might not be regarded as a sentient organism,
> and therefore in possession of a soul.
>
> rags of cloud greying into far off places
>
> Rooley Moor Road is known as The Famine Road as it was a 'make work'
> endeavour paid for by the mill owners of Rossendale and Rochdale during
the
> 'cotton famine' of... erm, 1863 maybe, the American civil war anyway. The
> road is laid over some of the most forbidding moorland in England - either
> sets (square cobbles) or massive stone slabs that are rutted from the iron
> banded wheels of the period. The bulk of the work though would have been
in
> stabilising the ground - when wet the 'moss' ripples for yards with each
> footfall.
>
> The landscape is a Wesleyan post-Apocalypse. To answer Bob's question
> directly: no, I hadn't intended any specific references to 'roads' though
> if pushed would admit to vaguely entertaining Faulkner (?) and Basho -
> 'Tobacco' and 'Narrow'.
>
> Best wishes, John
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "alderoak" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: 28 July 2002 20:39
> Subject: Re: The Famine Road
>
>
> the suspect avocado killer
>
> transformed
>
> into a lycra road skimmer
>
> as usual
>
> your words ripple the pixels
>
> like wind over a mere
>
> I think I almost see it
>
> then I don't
>
> Terri )O(
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Pennine Poetry Works [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of John Carley
> Sent: 25 July 2002 19:13
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The Famine Road
>
>
> Hi all, here's a renga, or a set of solo tanrenga, or something. Any and
> all c&c welcome as always.
>
> Best wishes, john e c
>
>
>
>
> The Famine Road
>
> --
> gulls ply the null space
> here are mountains long since ground into dust
>
> who could own this heritage of home-made guns
>
>
> the suspect avocado killer
> hides behind his map case
>
> rags of cloud greying into far off places
>
>
> beep for the sheep you red Toyota
> rattling like a ruin
>
> too stupid to comply with simple orders
>
>
> men in lycra pedal past
> in search of something punishing
>
> the cotton grass like smoke from rheumy Rochdale
>
>
> footfalls straying from the road
> the lumpen scab of earth a slab
>
> by peat black pools a crow attends a carcass
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