Hi Arthur,
I like this. The way it makes sense (and the way it weaves its own sense
with its own improbable phrases!).
I sort of hear a kind of Kipling (Rudyard not the cakes!) rhythm in my ear
sometimes (which isn't inapropriate) when I'm reading it aloud. But I find
my tone changes(though just as rhythmically as elsewhere) when I say:
"Should I have chuckled at their childish lack of guile
or accepted all with an aplomb that fashioned Empires" perhaps because I
wanted an ending more in keeping with the poem - instead of the distancing
effect found with the sentiment "Should."
It's as if, for me, I wanted to stay, as a reader, where the poem had taken
me. I read the title as in the present tense, and after all the things the
poem gave me, it's as if I wanted to keep what I'd been given, I wanted to
keep that freshness alive.
(For me, aswell, it illustrates the present-day - continuing & increasing -
globalisation of English, so I don't just see it as belonging to history!)
Any chance of letting the revelry, the delightful character of the poem
itself, continue to its last full stop? Keep with the art. Don't intervene.
Give an ending as enigmatic, as unexpectedly Solomon Islandish as all else
in the poem? Let the poem loose!
Bob



>From: Arthur <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New sub: The Solomon Islands Art of Giving Names.
>Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 10:51:40 -0000
>
>The names referred to in the poem are all genuine Solomon Island first
>names of people, teachers and children I met. The Uminao was an
>inter-island ferry.
>
>
>The Solomon Island Art of Name Giving
>
>
>
>Some imp of tongues had me laugh with Silence,
>
>walk with Sycamore and talk with Fig;
>
>shout Happy Christmas across a market in July;
>
>dine on rice and tuna with grinning Defence Force Raja
>
>drink a Solbrew with Conductor and his wife the sly Medusa
>
>as the moon rose yellow as a pawpaw and the Uminao slid by.
>
>
>
>I have enquired the way from Hickory
>
>played pitch and toss with Dickory
>
>and bandaged bleeding Doc.
>
>I've storied long with Pearl
>
>as his twin, Arboretum, gutted fish
>
>and Emperor smoked a hand roll by the rock.
>
>.
>
>Should I have chuckled at their childish lack of guile
>
>or accepted all with an aplomb that fashioned Empires
>
>and drank a toast with Dignity and Smile?
>




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