Hi, and
Thanks for the readings and the comments about this piece. I guess, as Colin
mentioned, it was a tough one to get through. (Aren’t there times, though,
when a poem gets itself writ and enthusiasm compels the thing towards other
people? I read a few days ago that Sammy Coleridge did that with his poem
about Khubla Khan. As soon as the ink was dry he rushed up the hill to
Wordsworth’s house and read it – but Willie didn’t say anything and sort of
sloped off to the toilet or something… When he eventually came back,
Dorothy, trying to diffuse the situation, did say she’d call her watering
can her “Khubla Can”! Even tho that might have charmed Willie, poor little
Sammy didn’t do anything with the poem for another 12 years!).
I was trying to play with the notion of truth (not an everyday topic of
conversation) but trying to engage with everyday but not expected things.
People smoking on buses, mangoes, and, at the end, the naked truth that
often has to get dressed up for politeness’s sake. Perhaps I’ve been reading
too many of the metaphysical poets of late and got carried away…
And, Christina, the drug overtones – not something I’d recognised in the
writing. When I look at the thing again – after I’ve had chance to forget it
and get back to it as a stranger – I’ll check out how that strikes me.
And the mango, Colin, is going to get a more "truthful" (ie accurate)
description of it's stone!
And thanks for the reading, Ryfkah, I did wonder how you’d respond… My worry
about formatting was wondering if the indented lines would appear as I
intended (but on my screen they did!). I'll consider whether I need to round
the poem off as much at the end. You could be right...
Once again, my thanks,
Bob
>From: Bob Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: What Verity Says In The Cold Light Of Day
>Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 15:49:53 +0000
>
>For your C&C:
>(If the formatting works the indented lines are to be read as beginning
>just below the end of the preceding lines and, once again, the word between
>*'s is supposed to in italics)
>
>
>What Verity Says In The Cold Light Of Day
>
>If you write about this don’t mention me
>or what I said on the bus when we saw those women
>who made their roll-ups then lit them - NO
>SMOKING is a challenge to some - and there’s no smoke
>without me.
> And don’t reveal, please don’t say,
>I was talking about me, the truth, as we watched
>the ways I’m on the breath, how I drift in the air
>mingling with laughter, their last pints, and truth -
>*doh,* I’ve said that embarrassing word again, a word
>that pays no heed to scientists, or barristers,
>or bishops when their limousine doors close –
>is more like a ripe mango.
> No joke, it’s true. I’m squidgy,
>the most ungentle of fruits, a real handful,
>you get under my skin and I’m wet, I dribble,
>and you suck not caring what others may see
>until the hard white stone is all you hold,
>and if I’m lucky that may get planted in the earth
>by some wet-fingered solemn-faced child
>who’ll soon forget.
> No, don’t let on I’ve said all this,
>say instead that just as beer ferments to its taste
>and tobacco leaves smoulder, and mangoes over-ripen,
>and I’m as anonymous as any whispering angel or demon,
>I asked to borrow your clothes, so I can return
>to where I belong unnoticed. I daren’t leave here naked.
>
>
>
>
>Bob Cooper
>
>PS It may be worth saying that the "Doh" sound is something I saw on a
>Tee-Shirt in a speech bubble above Homer Simpson who had wide eyes and an
>open mouth as he was clasping his forehead. So, as far as I'm concerned
>(and a dictionary or two, I guess) it's now a word!
>
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>On the move? Get Hotmail on your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/mobile
_________________________________________________________________
Worried what your kids see online? Protect them better with MSN 8
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/parental&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=186&DI=1059
|
