on 17/1/02 8:45 am, James Bell at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> The beauty of an exercise like this is that you can turn out something quite
> different from what you usually do. For better or worse everything here is
> intended, the repetition, the weird rhyme. Just the way it happened.

A nice discursive one, this, James. Ithink if you write a long rambling
piece that's essence is that it is long and rambling, it would be quite
wrong to try to condense or shorten it. We've got cutting on the brain, in
poetry these days, and of course cutting may be a quick rememdy to evade
troubles, but is it always the right remedy? I'm anticipating that people
may say, this is too long, etc but I think the wide range of gossip or
discussion is what makes this poem.

I'm not too happy about 'the classes chatter' because it reminds me of the
rather unsatisfactory tag "the chattering classes" which has never rung true
with me. Usually used by people who consider themselves above such classes
(if they exist).
Good poem, though: it's amazing what is coming out of these random lines
dealt out by Gary (or even chosen by the poets).  Sally-ee
> 
> TALKING OF MICHELANGELO
> 
> has turned desire into whimsical anxiety
> its comings and goings an iamb of all kinds of gossip
> walking in and out of the grocery store
> contained in sealed tins and crackling packets.
> 
> The acceptance is that potatoes all wear jackets
> for all transitions involve a version of death.
> Where snakes shed their skins so do we,
> among our daily artefacts to prime existence.
> 
> Outside each door the classes chatter among themselves
> though the boundary between each one never closes.
> 
> The medicine for each sleeps in separate doses
> unreached until talk gets round eventually to Michelangelo
> and a sense that beauty from his age andours
> could not have long to go, as levity continues to grow.
> 
> Michael and Joe from further down the street
> repeat the wisdom they have learnt, so sweet,
> repeat the words to a drum, its electronic beat
> contrary to each heart it comes to meet.
> 
> Outside the door the classes chatter among themselves
> though the boundary between each one never closes.
> 
> Leonardo, the storekeeper, knows of greater wisdom,
> though only in sound bites and hourly newsflashes.
> Michael and Joe make their passes at girls as they talk,
> come and go in short dresses, exchange all the gossip they know.
> 
> Uneasy minds make blue sky thoughts, force issues as they talk,
> talk, talk and pretend they know as much as Michelangelo.
> Round and round they go as night follows another day
> and nothing will go away until talk returns to Michelangelo.
> 
> bw
> James
> 
> 
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