Bob, I really like the rhythms of your lines in this poem.By which I mean
that what you put on each line falls so perfectly into both the meaning and
soundforce of the Whole that it reminds me of the way that waves break and
then spread across the sand one after the other, each one covering a little
more or a little less of the beach, working towards high or low tide. This
is a high-tide poem, the lines seeping further across the sand on the
whole, especially in the first stanza.(Though it's nothing to do with the
sea in meaning, theres a feeling about the tide of humanity that this chap
on the train is a representative of and also of wanting to stop the tide
sometimes.
Sorry to have takken a wwhile to respond,
Trish
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Cooper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 12:10 PM
Subject: Before Sunrise, I Consider...
Before Sunrise, I Consider When Waking
that today on the 7-22 from Gypsy Lane to Newcastle
I'm going to sit and listen and hear the bulk of the man
who gets on at Hartlepool, whose breathing's loud
as everything he says, whose laugh's as heavy
as the scuffed NIKE sports bag he always unzips
while he coughs and rummages for the flask of tea -
where each cup's so sweet, so strong, we all can smell it -
and his bacon butties, always well wrapped in silver foil
in his tupperware container with the loudest of lids,
and his chewed up comments about Sunderland's midfield,
the woeful - and he always repeats the word, woeful - defence,
but I won't let him talk about that. No, I'll interrupt, ask
about things we may share, an understanding of cats
or garden birds, or the smell of sleeping children, and how
we rarely listen to the way silence can fill us with wonders
that belong to looking at paintings, or hearing music
as it replaces the sight of an orchestra in our heads,
and how at night, so many miles apart, we might stand
at some open back door gazing at nothing
but clouds as they hurry overhead, with the empty breeze
maybe seeping through the fence, and then shapes
half-seeable in the darkness that seem like us to belong.
Bob Cooper
_________________________________________________________________
Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends
http://messenger.msn.co.uk
|
