Thanks Bob, this is a troublesome poem I'm not even sure myself will
ultimately succeed and may be left in that bulging drawer of paper that any
sensible writer has and approaches warily.


bw
James





>From: Bob Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: New sub: A Small Death
>Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 01:38:42 +0000
>
>Hi James,
>I'm struggling with this one. Somehow the poet doesn't seem to get his feet
>wet! The bird's described alright, I can see it (the poor dark bedraggled
>flop of it) but I feel the writer sort of drifts away into speculations
>that
>avoid saying things - and so the last line seems as if it could say
>something worth saying - but it's a long way from the rain and the writer
>with the binoculars. I guess I'm sort of saying "A Small Death" can be a
>bigger poem.
>Bob
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>From: James Bell <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: New sub: A Small Death
>>Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 12:29:02 +0000
>>
>>Back to a theme I don't seem to have found the bottom to yet.
>>
>>
>>A SMALL DEATH
>>
>>Have seen my first dead bird today,
>>a feathered heap upon the waterline
>>only visible through binoculars, even then
>>I barely manage to identify what it is.
>>
>>It's raining, the sky is grey,
>>the space around the dead bird desolate;
>>an oyster catcher, is the guess,
>>from plumage colour, for there's nothing else.
>>
>>I wonder how it ended there this rare
>>retiring bird I don't know so well;
>>wild creatures tend to die of violence in nature,
>>though this one had not been attacked
>>
>>by playful family dog or another
>>more serious hunter, for no feathers
>>lay around, no signs of torn flesh -
>>just the stillnes - the soft toll of waves.
>>
>>
>>
>>bw
>>James
>>
>>
>>
>>
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