Bob...

I took a few minutes to peruse Lynn Emmanuel's work, five poems, and like 
what I read. I can also see 'the connection'.

I can not say I have a consistent 'voice' or a 'style'. I will say, in the 
last four years, I've written a few thousand pieces. I might have about one 
hundred good ones, total. IMO. Which makes me 'way behind  schedule'.

I'm not sure if I like this one, 'As It Is' because it's fairly new, and I 
am never sure if I like anything I write, unless I read something somewhere 
'down the line' love it, and 'discover' it's mine.  Lol...

Thank god for patient, kind and understanding editors, because I'm too busy 
writing to stop and analyze or even do final edit on my work  sometimes.

I amazed, most of the time, when someone likes the work, so thanks for the 
comments.

Deborah

**************************************

Hi Deborah,
Old fashioned????? Now there's a comment I'd not put alongside the poem 
myself! There's a few women writers in the US who are writing with this kind 
of voice, style, who may raise their eyebrows. Then grin and say "Welcome!" 
Lynn Emmanuel comes to mind, but there's more. Do you know her work?
Ha! And you say to Colin that what you're describing has a name, it's a 
medical condition... I guess I could round up a few folk I've had to work 
with and point them to a hospital queue! LOL!
Bob



>I'm a bit old fashioned, Bob. I think that's been determined.
>Is an acceptable trait? - Deborah
>
>
>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
>

>>
>>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


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