Bob.. and it is one of the compensations for living in a showery, windy,
cold part of the world that the quality of these changes in light is
particularly high. Every cloud has a silver lining.. ooh err.
Colin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Cooper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 4:41 PM
Subject: Re: This is the only moment - Christina
Hi Christina,
Yes, the nut roast was delish! While the rest of the folk where being proper
and slurping white wine above their dead parrot (ooo'er, I mean Turkey!) I
could indulge in red - and since there was only me drinking the red... In
short a fine meal (and snooze afterwards).
H'm... I'm thinking about your comments. Particularly the words you mention
- sickle moon and then luminescent - I guess I was loving the ways the "ess"
sound, and the sharper "t" and "k" sounds, kept appearing in the first few
lines... "Sickle" is a good historic word (perhaps too historic for me, too
agricultural for a rural poem) and luminescent is very very latinate - and
most of my words are anglo-saxon, I know. But I'm not giving up on what I'm
trying to say... yet!
I think I still do want to recall a very brief moment - and is it fair to
say that light changes so quickly I'm mentioning something that may be
glimpsed for just a minute or two on a day when the atmosphere is just
right? Perhaps I'm remembering too much of days when I took photogrphs and
how, on days of cloud and sun, a landscape could change in a moment - and
never reappear again in the same light - no matter how long I waited! (Hey,
I didn't realise, I feel really passionate about seeing light, and how light
changes what we see!)
Bob
>From: Christina Fletcher <[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: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 07:37:01 EST
>
>
>Hello there, Bob. Hope your nut roast was delicious and accompanied by
>parsnips and tatties? No need for you to hide in a cupboard, eh;-)
>OK, this is giving me some problems and I probably need to read it a few
>more times. It builds up to a wonderful crescendo: I love the envelope and
>the
>blackbird and the last sentence. The poem could almost start for me with
>'and tonight, when the waning moon has thinned a little more,' I know it
>couldn't really but that's when it starts to engage me. The first line
>confuses me
>because I don't know whether Chris is a man or woman (and I think a clear
>picture's important) and I start to wonder whether you've used it because
>it
>skips so well with Kwiksave? Then you're describing something so visual
>and I
>like the interplay of light/dark but not keen on 'sickle moon' or
>'luminescant'. OK, maybe they're exactly the right words but they lack
>the freshness of
>so much of your writing. Anyhow, these are just initial reactions to
>something that needs more consideration.
>bw
>christina
>
>
>This is the only moment
>
>yet it appeared last night when Iā?Td 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 vanā?Ts 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 thatā?Ts as secret and trusting as the briefest revealing of grace?
>
>Bob Cooper
>
>
>
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