Hi Arthur,
A real 1930s, 1940s, feel to this! Words like aeroplanes (and not the modern
words jets, or aircraft, or planes) and the reference to Guernica, and the
hint at Dylan Thomas's poem that has a green fuse! And yet the word "telly"
is such a contemporary word! (But the picture is flickering - so it could be
a TV of years ago... H'm, I'm now struggling to try and remember when the
word "telly" became the norm - like wirelss, radio, trannie, tuner - each
word has a time when it was used. (It could be that "telly", tho, belongs
alongside "aeroplanes" - I'm not sure... I've just checked in the earliest
dictionary I have with the word "television" (printed 1959) and "telly"
doesn't appear. But it's not good at recording slang...)
Another point... Ha! I'm reminded of some work I did in a Primary School in
the previous Gulf War where we got a huge picture of Picasso's Guernica
(more than 6 foot tall and goodness knows how long!) and let the children
explore the enormity of what Picasso had painted. In what they said as they
stood and looked they were learning a lot...
But your association of the rituals connected with spring (seed trays
hinting at planting things), the wild flowers already in flower, and the
doves possibly in some courtship ritual, the sparrows (I imagine) nest
building, gives much a much darker appreciation of how war is built into the
world's agenda. It's a frightening thought - even when you say "I pass"
those two words can't imply reaching anything different because, in the last
phrases of each stanza, you infer that one needs the same concluding words
as the other!
But I recognise the total replication in each stanza - the words and
postures of the pontiffs and tyrants echoed by the fuse, and the old
small-screened TV, 14 inch in our house!, being compared to a seed tray are
clever comparative thoughts!
Bob
>From: arthur seeley <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New Sub: Only three days to go
>Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:50:33 -0000
>
> Only three days to go.
>
>The telly mumbles in the downstairs room
>auntie being sombre, commentators pontificate,
>pontiffs comment, tyrants strut,
>pictures flicker as I pass, flags, Guernica,
>aeroplanes, comings and goings,
>paraphernalia of preparation.
>
>The collared doves croon to each other,
>seed trays in the shed, robin rustles in the hedge,
>deep pressures force the fuse,
>snowdrops flicker as I pass, crocuses, daffodils,
>sparrows , coming and going,
>paraphernalia of preparation.
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