and the lost smell of cinnamon is the empire... I am getting more out of it
by looking harder!
SallyE
on 1/10/03 8:52 am, Sally Evans at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Sally adds: this comment makes a lot of sense of Christina's poems, which I
> keep wanting to go on to traditional length and give more of the picture. To
> me this one's atmosphere is from the date, the sailor suits and even the
> polishing all smell of build- up to war.
>
> Christina wrote
>> I think one of my main interests in poetry
>>> may be to try to offer the reader space to interact freely with what's there
>>> without worrying about whether something makes sense or requires this or
>>> that
>>> tone.
>>
>> Mike adds:
>> This sounds very much like what Iīve been trying to do with some of my recent
>> postings, including the latest, Letters. They donīt make literal, everyday
>> sense, but Iīm after a tone or atmosphere that the reader hopefully responds
>> to and can fit to whatever `narrativeī they want to make from the text.
>>
>>
>> You wrote:
>> I'd buy you a drink if you were here:-)
>>
>>
>> Mike adds:
>> Iīm on my way :-)
>>
>>
>> Best wishkies, Mike
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> Hello Christina,
>>>> I like this very much. The piece has a certain tone but I canīt
>>>> find a word to describe it, itīs sad and wistful in part but thereīs
>>>> something
>>>> a bit inimical, almost threatening, about it (or is it just me?) The heavy
>>>> stress on `dead menī after the childlike image and swinging rhythm of
>>>> `sea-saw
>>>> boys in sailor suitsī really pulls me up. Itīs a very good line, so is line
>>>> 3, again with the violent element contained in `rotī. A whole lost world is
>>>> implied in the first stanza, like the lost smell of cinnamon, but the loss
>>>> is
>>>> presented almost like a threat. Thatīs what Iīm trying to say. Do you read
>>>> it
>>>> that way? If this is a working draft, I donīt think Iīd change anything.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes, Mike
>>>
>>>
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