Hi Alison,
of course i revise. I'm still working on writing from twenty five years ago.
Well not regularly you understand. But i didn't publish them then and I
still think there's something in them.
I'm not looking for a stable form for texts so much as finding their fit
with the world as i see it. The fit is fleeting and i don't often catch it.
Sometimes i am invited to publish and i do so with trepidation. I co-taught
a short course on uses of photography with Simon Willmoth at Norwich School
of Art and Design a few years back and was quite hilariously taken aback by
Simon's admonition to the students to the effect that there are already
plenty of interesting images in the world, why not work with them instead of
adding to the heap;) So, i write and revise.
Yes, there is a kind of crafting, although i do tend to view craft as
something made for an explicit purpose like a rug or a pot or a plate or a .
. . you know. I think it can be argued that there are poems with explicit
uses. Peter Riley once talked of poetry being something like the bannister
that people reach out for in times of strife or for rites of passage.
I think my passages, if you'll excuse the lewd potential of the term, are
less orientated towards destinations. They are more likely to suggest
departures. In that they are resonant with longing. I like that sense at the
end of a line of a going away and then coming back and beginning again.
There's a saxophonist here called Steve Williamson who i used to enjoy
hearing and watching as he'd step forwards and tear into some jagged solo
intervention and then a look of disgust with what he had done crept over his
facce and he'd stop and take a step back and wince and then step forwards
and try again . . .
But you talk of craft as <sailing into the unknown and sinking> and
something of that rings true here. When i was a kiddy i thought of speech as
something that people needed to do to maintain balance. I certainly used to
view writing along similar lines as a mode of processing the modes of
communication i witnessed and sizing them up with my own experience. Often
those moments of engagement were pretty raw. I'd write a book in a day and
publish it the next, deliberately going into improvisatory moves. I let some
projects go too fast frankly and i regret that partly and know that they are
unlikely to read for what they are.
Now I've become far more than circumspect, a rendition of Stein's patience.
Careful attention to every detail certainly. Trying it this way trying it
that way. As Ian says thinking of the page and the space into which it might
be read.
One reason that i can't often post writing here is that its formatting won't
work on e-mail. Here's one from the 'f o g s' book which *might intrigue Tom
since 'Rollercaoster' in 'Other' is another. Many of them hang in the fat
between discontinuity and continuity. Two versions of the same piece:
Œr a i n i n g h a r d d o w n l i m b o
i n f o s t e e p l e s¹
i n f e r p e e p l e s [sic]
a t t h e c o o t o f a b r a y
b e i n g h o l l o w e d f r o m s q u a t
i t w a s t h a t f u r t h e s t
s h o r t o f a d a y
d i d y o u b e a t h i m
t h e s m e l l o f h u r t w h e t
o r g r o w l o n g e r t h e i r w e a n i n g
f r o m w h a t
a r e t h o s e i m p l a n t s a p o p
u l a r d r u g ?
m a j o r m i n o r w h o s h a r p
e n d s h i s p l e n i t u d e c a n e
i s y o u r t o n g u e a c l o d
w e a p o n t h a t s t a i n s ?
I ³ g e t l o s t ! ² d r i v i n g
L o n d o n t o w n , t h e s e c l i c
h e
c o n s t r u c t i o n s a n d
f l a r e d p u p i l s
b o t h b e t w e e n t h e m e s
a n d w i t h i n t h e m
h a n g a r e d s l o b o f n e o n
p e n i l e l i g h t i n g i n a
p u d d l e
a n d a d o u r b e n t g u a g e
h i l l b e t c l o s i n g
o n e m p t y
t h e s e j a z z t r e n c h i n g
n i g h t s t r e e t s
t h a t w o r d s h a v e n ¹ t t o
o u c h e d
I l o v e y o u r b a t t e r e d
c h i c k e n s
c o m i n g h o m e t o r o a s t
a n d t h a t h o t m u c o i d p l a t t
w h i c h l e g i t i m i s e d f l u
t t e r
b o d g e - j o b o f b e l a t e d
g r a v e ( s ) t o n e t o
r e s o l v e
Œl e n s u t i l i t y h a r d d r a w n¹
Œr a i n i n g h a r d d o w n l i m b o'
i n f o s t e e p l e s
i n f e r s p e e p l e s [ s i c ]
a t t h e c o o t o f a b r a y
b e i n g h o l l o w e d f r o m s q u a t
i t w a s t h a t f u r h e
a t
s h o r t o f a d a y
d i d y o u b e a t h i m
t h e s m e l l o f h u r t ? r u t
o r g r o w l o n g e r t h e r e
w e a n i n g f r o m s w o t
a r e t h o s e i m p l a n t s a p o p u l a r k d r u g h u
m i d
m i s e r y m a j o r ?
o u r l e a d e r s
h i p m i n e r w h o s h a r p
e n d s h i s p l e n i t u d e c a n e ,
i s y o u r t o n g u e a g l
o m w e a p o n t h a t s t a i n s ?
T h e G r e y F l y w h e e l ³ d r e a m s
l o s t ² d ( e ) r i v i n g
C o n d o n t o r n , t h e s e c l i c
h e s p r e - f i g u r e
c o n s t r u c t i v i s t a n t
b o t h b e t w e e n t h e m e s
a n d w i t h i n t h e m
h a n g i n g a r e d s l o b
o f n e o n
f e r a l l i g h t i n g
i n a r a d i a n t p u d d l e ³c
o v e r²
a w e d o u r b e n t g u a g e s
w r i g g l i n g
h i l l b e l t e d c
l o s i n g o n e m p t y
t h e s e j a z z t r e n c h i n g
n i g h t s t r e e t s
t h a t w o r d s h a v e n ¹ t t
o u c h e d !
T r a c e l o v e s y o u r b a t -
e a r e d
c h i c k e n s
c o m i n g h o m e t o r
o a s t
a n d t h a t h o t m u c o i d
p l a t t
w h i c h l e g i t i m i s e d f
l u t t e r b o d g e - j o b o f b e l a t e d
g r a v e ( s ) t o n e t o
r e s o l v e
love and love
cris
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