Hi - Challenged Mike Of Finland ("and Welcome to The Show...")

A quick answer to your queries (but tell me if I'm wrong, if I'm missing 
your points!)

"luminescent dark" - sometimes there's a brief gleam to the sky when it's 
twilight. There's probably scientific explanations that include all kinds of 
words like refractions, and it probably lasts longer at different latitudes, 
and it might be more noticable when the moon is shedding less light - which, 
in one instance, is what I noticed and mentioned in the poem... I dunno. I 
just know that in my eyes there's a brief kind of gleam to the sky in what 
we call twilight...

The mention of the word "so" twice!
A-ha! (sounds of some Seagoon shouting, "Curses, curses!) I'll try and get 
rid of one! It's often the smallest words that cause the biggest headaches 
for a poem - and you've seen one of the blighters! ("Wait a minute, Min." 
Squelch. "Aaah, Neddy, now it's gone!" etc. etc)

The title - and the way things are repeated (or are similar) is part of 
what, at some level, I hope is going on here -
And so there's all sorts of issues that arrive because of the poem. And I 
think you're getting to them, Dear Challenged Of Finland, and perhaps they 
include:

Is anything repeatable (ask Stephen Hawkings? But the answer changes!)

And, more to the point here, can we ever share such brief, fleeting, 
perceptions with anyone? In the end I feel the poem's leaning to the side of 
saying "possibly not..." But it's offering the question not the answer! (I 
wouldn't mind if someone said "Oh, yes we can!" instead of "Possibly not..." 
I might even feel relieved that I haven't wasted a lot of my life trying!)

But perhaps I'm asking too much. I dunno (yet)

Bob



>From: Mike Horwood <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: This is the only moment
>Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:53:22 +0200
>
> > Hello Bob,
>             I have a bit of a problem with `luminescent dark´ and the 
>repetition of `so´ in the middle of the poem. And I´m a bit lost with the 
>ending question. The recipient of the letter won´t know of this unless the 
>writer of the poem tells them, or gives the poem to read. But either way, I 
>can´t grasp the significance of their knowing or not. Have I missed 
>something? I often do. My last difficulty; what is the ´revealing of 
>grace´?
>p.s. I don´t quite get the idea of the title either. I´m beginning to think 
>I don´t get much. I was going to sign myself `poetically challenged´ but 
>perhaps I´ll just say `challenged´ as a kind of catch-all.
>
>
>Best wishes, `challenged of Finland´ (aka Mike)
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Hi! Hope you're starting to have the kind of Christmas you want and like 
>--
> > and if you've got any space over the next few days and want to give a 
>poem
> > some C & C, a good looking over and talking to, then here's your chance!
> >
> >
> > This is the only moment
> >
> > yet it appeared last night when I’d met Chris outside Kwiksave
> > and we chatted and laughed for ages, the light hesitating moment
> > when the sickle moon just hung there in the luminescent dark
> > and a van’s headlights dazzled so a blackness lasted in my eyes
> > even as I stared in my bag in the kitchen, not seeing my milk or cans,
> > and tonight, when the waning moon has thinned a little more,
> > so, when Venus suddenly appears so bright alongside it,
> > the lilac blossom by the post-box holds the light so close to itself
> > as I slip in my letter to you, like a tongue into a mouth, so confident,
> > the only moment, as when clothes fall so slowly again, gently
> > as my envelope onto the layers of post, and just now, like me,
> > the blackbird on the gatepost, such a loud claim on what matters
> > for such a small bird.  But how will you know of all this,
> > all that’s as secret and trusting as the briefest revealing of grace?
> >
> > Bob Cooper
> >