Hi too Lawrence
to answer openly would land me directly in what I express a fear of, but
please bear in mind that I am not just talking about 'this place', a lovely
Parliamentary sounding phrase that. I'll give an anecdote: I was talking to
a mate tonight who is going through a bad phase and is becoming very angry
about it as he feels that some people in his life have used him badly, I
understood him but expressed too the view that is not just a matter of
people 'getting at you', though there is no doubt that does happen in this
world, blatantly at times, but also that people can have their lives wrecked
by a bored signature of a tired official who knows nothing of the individual
concerned but is thinking rather about their next day off. That violence in
language can be a result of uninvolvement, because words can distance as
well as bring together. People say things, all of us, and don't necessarily
think of the consequences to others. While the idioms of power, in all
spheres, are becoming more and more those of bureaucracy, there certainly
may not be any personal animosities involved, or if, at the most, just the
faintest whiff of them, but the results can be catastrophic to someone else.
Catastrophe, the fall of the stanza, the poem's demise.
Anyhow, my fears are not just about here for sure: I have an increasing
sense about not daring to express +any+ kind of opinion in many fora and
occasions of speech, and I emphasise the +any+, even just to say 'yeah, I
like that' etc. What seems to be becoming the desideratum is the art of not
saying anything. At length.
Best wishes to you too.
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Spectare's Web, A Chide's Alphabet
& Painting Without Numbers
http://www.chidesalphabet.org.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: A Non-Sonnet
Hallo, Dave
_I don't dare say
>openly anymore,"
_repression of speech_
really?
I don't believe you
I'm sorry to say it, but I don't
& I cannot understand what the problem is
it's peaceful here and no one seems to me out to get you
wishing you, seriously, all the best
L
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