Hi Arthur,
I keep enjoying this!
The first one is Brill! (But, me?, I wouldn't have frets and spumes... one
or the other! LOL!!)
The scene's set well by it tho...
However I found No.4 not easy to read the first time through, and it's
getting harder and harder to get through it! It seems to be too long! It
feels way too speculative. I'd trim it's sails a fair bit. Think "less means
more..."
Bob
>From: Arthur Seeley <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New sub : Missions
>Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 19:18:58 -0000
>
>
>Missions
>1)
>We drink our coffee in the Square,
>talk quietly in the warm November sun,
>watch shadows waver over the cobbles;
>the yellow tower, the pigeon-cluttered tree;
>the hot sax and black fedora's
>last performance of the season;
>the meander and mix of folk;
>the warbling Chaplin's
>battered bowler and biscuit tin;
>the shades of the pusher
>as he drifts from sale to sale;
>the beggar knelt in new trainers
>at the mouth of the tunnel that leads to the shore,
>and beyond it all the wind-piled sea
>frets and spumes along the honey-coloured cliffs.
>
> Albufiera, November 4th 2003
>
>
>2)
> A morte por afogumenta e rapido e silencio.
>
> Death by drowning is swift and silent. Trans.
>
>Message, above a picture of a teddy
>floating face down, in water
>on the packet containing a sugar portion
>in my saucer, slightly stained
>and moist with spilt coffee.
>Nov. 4th 2003
>
>
>
>3)
>Far below the ocean's surface, resting on the seabed off the Portuguese
>coast are Spanish, Portuguese, and British ships that sank during the Age
>of Exploration. The Age of Exploration (15th-18th centuries) is a period of
>great adventure and discovery, where people traveled across the oceans in
>search of new lands, treasures, goods and trade routes.
>Extract from Ocean Technology Foundation, University of Connecticut,
>website.
>Available here: http://www.oceantechnology.org/semapp.html
>
>
>4)
>
>The dazzle on the sea,
>the glittering paving of the waves
>beckoned like an open road.
>
>Men guessed,
>wondered at wide horizons,
>listened to rumors in the market,
>
>on the quayside,
>in the tabernas
>where tales that only wine can tell
>
>roused the pits of them,
>charged the blood,
>fired the fading eye
>
>to see the places that sent them
>whispers of spiced breezes
>from the fevered South;
>
>the thirst for something other,
>something more than,
>something different,
>
>to try
>the paltry limits
>of their time and place.
>
>They dared to dream
>what winds might bulge
>their tall lateens
>
>what seas might pearl
>abaft their tilting caravels
>as they plied the sea- roads;
>
>and dreamed to dare to know
>the pitch of stomach
>at new landfalls,
>
>the catch of breath
>as galaxies unfurled,
>luminesced,
>
>swift and silent
>beneath their shining keel.
> Reading Room, Elulia Apartmenta, Praia da Oura,
> Nov.5th 2003
>
>5)
>Voyager at 90 AU
>The Voyager journey of discovery continues. After traveling through space
>for more than 26 years, Voyager 1 is approaching a new milestone. On
>November 5, 2003, the spacecraft will be 90 astronomical units (AU) from
>the Sun. 90 AU is the equivalent of about 8.4 billion miles or 13.5 billion
>kilometers. It is the only spacecraft to have made measurements in the
>solar wind from such a great distance from the source of the dynamic solar
>environment.
>...Voyager 1 is in a region unlike any encountered in its 26 years of
>exploration. the approach to the termination shock...on November 5, 2003.
> Extract from NASA site available here:
>http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html
>
> Computer monitor screen, Reading Room, Elulia
>Apartmenta.
>
> Nov. 5th 2003
>
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