Hi Deborah,
Welcome
and Wowee!
Now here’s a poem that gets my mind dizzy with its words!
I really like it!
Each time I get to the end I sort of feel I just want to start reading it
all over again.
I can’t quite get my dictionary’s definition of paramecium to link in with
what the poem is doing but that doesn’t seem to matter too much – it seems
to be a poem that flows through with meaning as a secondary concern to the
energy it creates. But not getting it to link in is part of the point of the
poem isn’t it! So that’s canny!
The only word that baffles me with its inclusion is “amazon” maybe because I
can’t imagine “shelves built for amazons”! Amazons must have had shelves
built for them, I guess… But the notion seems to distract me a little from
the flow of what’s going on – which I take to be something about how
tough/resolute the person has to be – but I can’t justify the word in the
same way I can justify or go with all else I’m coming across here. (Or is
there some connection between times, rituals, dates - or trains and traffic
- and amazons that, in my ignorance, I can’t make?)
And the phrase: "no longer points directions," puzzles me a little too (the
word "directions" sweems strange for a clock!)
The small case “i” is also interesting… I haven’t seen one of them in a new
poem for years! And – less noticably – the lack of full stops – and dashes –
and commas, seems to work OK! But I do tend to want to put Caps on the "Why"
of the first line and the "It's" of the third line... (Maybe I read a
question mark as a replacement for a full stop.)
It’s all such a surprise, a totally different poem to your first one!
As well as enjoying my own response to the poem I’m also wondering how the
“you” the poem is describing might take it – and that’s a fun to do too!
Bob
>From: Deborah Russell <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: As It Is... uff, slight edit...sorry
>Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 10:42:22 -0400
>
>As It Is...
>
>why can't i understand
>your fascination with paramecium?
>it's not as if life needs to be
>complex, confused, disordered - by order
>you count steps, give detailed directions
>you will not stop - you won't allow - just won't allow
>the train to stop, if it does
>you begin again - begin again - begin again
>there is a horrid rash on watchless wrists
>a fleeting reminder
>an old grandfather clock
>no longer points directions,
>handless - as it is, as it is, as it is
>there must be a diary key to unlock,
>unlock my relatively small world
>stocked with all the solutions -
>liquids that polished, bleached and shined
>but shoved back, too far back on shelves
>built for amazons -
>without a good, strong stretch or climb
>they remain never within my reach
>your calendar is a heavy tome
>the places i've never been
>exchanged for routine rituals
>vitamins and newspapers
>emotions dashed about in traffic
>if only i could understand
>your fascination with paramecium
>would you unblock a day
>or continue to pencil me in?
>
>Deborah Russell, 2003
>
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
>http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
_________________________________________________________________
On the move? Get Hotmail on your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/mobile
|
