Hi Arthur,
I don't know many curator's of museums (actually I've only met two that I
can recall) and neither spoke using olde worlde words like Vale! They spoke
as contemporary as you or I!
I know there's a Vale of Evesham and a Vale of York on some maps so the word
isn't just poetick - but in this poem it is petick. I feel you can still
create an incantatory mood without giving up on the 21st Century.
I sense the poem would be even more bold if it were heard in today's
language.
Bob
>From: Arthur Seeley <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Evocation Christina , Bob
>Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:38:40 -0000
>
>Thanks for reading and for commenting.
>There is a lot involved in this piece. I will not go into all my thinking(
>even if I could) but I had been reading about Enheduanna the high pristess
>of Inanna of Ur ( later Ishtar of Babylon and Sumeria). She is the first
>recorded author/poet and hence of interest in many ways. Whimsy made me
>consider a written prayer to Ishtar looking for resurrection, and this is
>the body of the poem. The actual voicing of the prayer takes place in a
>museum by a translator. The language is perforce archaic occasionally hence
>" vale". There is no immediate or obvious response to the "voicing". It is
>the Solstice remember and rebirth is occurring even as we speak. The tulip
>quickening is a flower from the area and yet grown here. As I say whimsey
>has me consider the tulip quickening toward blooming later in spring as
>perhaps, and I emphasise perhaps , a response to the evocation. Certainly
>it is contemporaneous in the poem. You are free to choose! * smile*. Just
>some background you might find relevant. Arthur.
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