Bob,

Thanks for the reply; interesting to read and easy on the ear. I would agree
with much of this. And a few phrases such as "Yes, when they can believe
yours" are good ones to turn around in my tiny mind. Hope the washing is
dry. Mine is accumulating. Anyway, the value of location depends on two
other things IMO, firstly whether the reader knows where the place is and
secondly (connected) whether the location is additional information or
whether it is essential for understanding the poem. If the place is
additional e.g. appearing in title or postscript or alongside a fairly beefy
description (for those that don't know the place) or the person knows the
place then it would be churlish of me to withhold it and my original
assertion begins to sound fairly fatuous. More good than bad arises from
including location. It is at worst neutral. However the Anglophone community
is quite widespread. Even the list of thirty or so people likely to read
poems posted here has people from all over. Supposing you start the poem by
saying that you were camped at the Loch at the back of Liathach and the
Pinnacles between Mullach an Rathain and Spidean a Choire Leith, that's
super cool for the five or so that have been there. You could not have set
the scene better. It's still probably okay for the rest because they've
"camped, loch and pinnacles" to buttress their understanding and they're not
Martians and will probably work out enough. They've also got the
cool-sounding names and as you pointed out to good effect that counts heaps.
Might even start to take an interest in that part of the world through the
poems. e.g. Ryfkah uses lots of cool-sounding names in poems and it
adds to the atmosphere IMO even though I do not know them. Proust also
spends considerable pages on the significance of names. However suppose you
started by saying that you slept at the back of Liathach. Although fine for
the five or so that know it, you are probably going to lose the Bundaberg
reader. Is Liathach a building or a person? Then if the next part starts
with the Horns of the Alligin, that's it, they're gone, probably. Then there
is still the composite poem as a separate problem. Depends how you write
poems and how focussed on geology (my anorak is of double ventile- better
than Gore-Tex after years of folding). Sometimes I put in big chunks from
elsewhere. It's all in my mind as I sit at my desk, is synthesised in
imagination - though it is a fine thing to write a poem in situ and would
like to do that more. So with those provisos I would agree with you. As you
said not "all the time every time". So you will see this is a shift from my
original position.  Sometimes the location is evident from details in the
poem. Perhaps the reader can say, "Bet that's at the back of Liathach" or
"Must be the Eiffel tower" and feel clever about it. Unlikely that anyone
will visit anywhere I have written about, but it can be fun gong to places
other people wrote from or about, e.g. Gavin Maxwell's cottage (site) at
Sandaig. I know the book you recommended (by Hamish Brown) from a library
and enjoyed it. Also, met him in a bothy once.

Back to the mangle,

BW
Colin


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Cooper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 6:09 PM
Subject: Re: newsub/walk (slight addenda)


> Hi Colin,
> A slight addenda. Cos I'm sorry - I was nipping through to the washing
> machine inbetween typing paragraphs and I feel one paragraph got written
in
> my head but didn't get completed on the screen! Oh the problems of mixing
> the real world with the poetry world! Unravelling and pegging things out
has
> to happen on the page as well!
> Anyway, to try and clarify...
> I mentioned the Thomas poem "I remember Adlestrop" and declared that it
> wouldn't work without mentioning the name of the place (even though so
very
> few people who love the poem will ever have been through the place, or
know
> where the place is!). I should then have said that knowing the place must
> exist gives an added believability to all else the poem is mentioning.
> Pinning the poem down helps release it in the reader's head. Paradoxical
but
> probably irrefutable! You write: "can they not imagine... their own walk"
> etc? and I'm wanting to say: "Yes, when they can believe yours."
> I guess all "travelling to" poems have their metaphorical connections
> somewhere just beyond where they end. I guess that's why I like this poem
> (and why I'm still writing about it!)
> And it's been a good drying day!
> Bob
>
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