Hi rob, I am piggy backing on Helen's response here since the vagaries  of
the system does not send all messages to me.
I remember this poem from its probable first showing on PFFA, (just after
Coniston I think.)
The poetic form is very tight and effective and there is a sparcity that is
to be admired. Given that sparcity the language is quite rich and some of
the phrasing I find exquisite.
I have a problem in that I recognise the poem, (and I feel it is one poem,
each separate section a bell chiming in a peal, as it were ) is about bell
ringing but this is being used as metaphor to access a more metaphysical
level of thinking as Helen pointed out. I have not yet got clear access to
all that is available there. Arthur..




> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 2:46 PM
> Subject: New sub: Wheel, Rope and Bell
>
>

> >
> >
> > Call her: Out of the hunt, middle, in and out at 5, right, middle,
wrong,
> right, middle and into the hunt (4 times repeated)
> >
> > Change-ringing instructions.
> >
> >
> >
> > Wheel, Rope and Bell
> >
> >
> > The Quick Work
> >
> > There are hammers in this
> > and flat swung clamouring
> > bronze flung skyward.
> > Treble and bass,
> > saint-named, stake claims
> > in the course, and every cascade
> > thrown from the high-stone
> > speaks in the steely wind;
> > preaching fear and elation
> > to the opened fields.
> >
> >
> > Dodging
> >
> > Follow through columns,
> > see the twist of the courses:
> > The one bell falling and gaining.
> > In slow, half turn, right, middle,
> > wrong, right, the second half-turn
> > and into the hunt.
> > An echoing silence.
> > Strands of the peal
> > knell wracked in the songbirds;
> > A strange competition
> > threading the thermals
> > with dissonant rainbows
> > of primary sound.
> >
> >
> > The Slow Work
> >
> > The edifice wrought by wheel and rope
> > is of definite time, and its foxlike employment
> > will fall and diminish, wrong and home.
> > The touched observation of circles and calculus
> > must end in nothing, rest in the stone.
> > Out of the hunt, called and repeated,
> > four times repeated, wrong and home.
> >
> >
> >
> > Rob Yeatman
> >
>
>