Dear Mike,
               Re Colonisation, I think there is a bit of a conflict between
the idea of a Motherland and the idea of rape/exploitation that perhaps you
need to resolve in a re-write. For me, the idea of the Motherland involves a
deep respect, - it's the country that has borne you and nutured you, for
which you are perhaps prepared to die. So you'd colonise for the Motherland,
rather than colonising the Motherland, I think.
I'm not sure if that dichotomy was intended in the poem to emphasize the
rather macho thickness of the narrator.
Re writing a poem to 'say' something, I don't think I've ever started to
write a poem with the idea that I have some profound statement or
enlightment to impart to a reader. Certainly I feel I want to communicate
something, but it is not some 'superior' knowledge. I think or feel
something, and I write about it. Sometimes I think we have a clear idea of
how we want the poem to go, but isn't it true that often we're not sure what
a poem's going to 'say' till we've finished it? Sometimes, for instance, I
feel the narrator of a poem takes over and steers the piece in a way I'd not
intended - but that feels 'right'. I also feel that some poems are more
about how wonderful language is that anything else, and that seems to me an
entirely valid thing for a poem to 'say'.
  I feel today that people who are clued in to poetry like a certain amount
of ambiguity. They don't like a message rammed down their throats, but
something more subtle. I think that goes with a feeling I've mentioned
before, that today we regard the poet as Everyman, rather than a teacher or
a sage or a prophet on a pedestal. I wonder if it connects with the public's
mistrust of experts and pundits these days -once you had only to dress
someone in a white coat and most people would believe anything he (it was
usually a he) said.
Kind regards,
     grasshopper
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Horwood" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 7:13 AM
Subject: Re: [THE-WORKS] New sub: Colonisation - Grasshopper and others


Hello Grasshopper,
                  Thanks for your comments. I was very interested in your
point about compliance and I must say that I hadn´t myself seen it in that
way, as I had also not thought of it as patriotic. My reasons for using
`spreads her legs ....´ was in the first instance because the geography of
the region really looks vaguely like that and because I´d used body imagery
throughout the poem. `dreaming of new offspring´ extended that image and
also contained, I thought, the idea of the `nation´ (once it exists as a
unified concept) extending its territory, which is what colonisation is all
about. That, of course, suggests complicity in the colonisation on the part
of `the motherland´. But isn´t `the motherland´ rather a concept in the
nationalist mind rather than the actual, real ground beneath our feet, the
land which gets raped in all this. As I try to explain this in prose, and
indeed as I think about in these terms, it does all seem rather convoluted,
the images and what they may or may not `mean´ become wheels within wheels.
I think there are two resolutions to this: 1. either I´ve been imprecise in
my use of the images....or 2. it´s not possible to separate individual
images from the poem and `explain´ them in prose.   This touches very
closely on a point you raised in a recent reply to Shah, I think, concerning
your poem `The Mermaiden´. You asked how important it was for a poem to
`say´ something. I think that was your word. I thought at the time that this
was a great theme to pursue further but it´s so enormous and has so many
side-turnings that I didn´t quite know where to pick it up. It´s relevance
here is perhaps two-fold, 1. does my poem actually express what I mean? do
the images function as I want them to?...and 2. if so, can they be extracted
and analysed in order to discover what they say, or must they be left in
place in the poem to work. Is it in fact possible that an image which works
in the poem may appear (may even really be) imprecise when taken out and
analysed. This would be a poetic version of those atoms that behaved
differently when they were observed in that famous experiment that I´ve now
forgotten the details of.
   I´ve been rambling on a bit and this is enough. I´d be very interested to
hear whether you feel that my `explanation´ of those phrases makes any
sense - I mean can the reader actually get the sense I´ve been trying to
describe.
   I have to add a little comment about the preamble. I agree it´s not
needed. But by God, I enjoyed writing it ;-). You´re absolutely right about
my being self-conscious, too. Can you believe that this was actually the
first time in my life that I have ever used the word that begins with F? It
was no small step, let me assure you, but now it´s been taken I realise just
how easy it is. From now on every poem, every line, will contain a word that
ends with -uck. I have a plan to write one that contains no other word than
that one. OK, silly enough already. it´s time for me to go.

Best wishes,   Mike