Hi Grassy
I enjoyed the matter of fact narrative which sits neatly with the bizarre
and nicely unexplained imagery. It feels very American (or so it seems to
me) and very biblical. Love the snakes and stars and the little fox  (makes
me think of the ones in the Song of Solomon that spoil the vines) and
underground awakening that might be an afterlife or a living death. Echoes
too of witchery and the live burial of witches. Oh the righteous, and such a
passive martyr! I'm less sure about Renoir's brush, which feels slightly
over-deliberate and affected. It is an image so distant from the rest of the
poem that it shouts out to me that it is a signifier. Which it may well be,
but I don't know of what. I think it sometimes worth watching the adjective
noun combination. At the beginning of the poem every single noun appears to
have an adjective before it and it feels a bit like a tic. Nice poem. Dark,
mysterious and evocative.
H




>
> >From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: New sub: 3 Mormons or Whatever
> >Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 01:58:25 +0100
> >
> >      3 Mormons or Whatever
> >
> >I was standing on a wide plain
> >scoured by dusty winds, when 3 Mormons
> >came to bury me. They had broad shovels
> >over their dark shoulders, and on each shaft
> >they'd hung a water-skin and a lantern.
> >The water was salt - their lanterns were unlit .
> >I lay down unresisting in the hole
> >they dug for me with murmurous prayer.
> >Under the sandy weight they heaped upon me
> >I slept a little. Slept and stirred and slept,
> >until the sound of their retreating boots
> >awakened me to a night of snakes and stars
> >and a small tan fox with a smiling snout,
> >with a tail as bold as Renoir's brush.
> >
> >                             (grasshopper)
>
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