Thank you, Doug, Mark, Judy.
The focus, or the seed, of the several slightly different versions of this
that exist certainly language: the starting pointw as quite simply thinking
about the pharse 'it's raining cats and dogs' and thinking about what that
phrase meant. There are several other expanded cliches present - like
'blinding flash' for instance.
Its form, Judy, is still emerging, although the long lines in the e-mail
version are longer than they should be (this is an accident of e-mail
settings). Of the two other versions, one has less, one has more material,
though I must confess I'd resist such a stripping down as Judy suggests.
Interesting your observation about the last line, Mark, no-one's suggested
that yet and its the same in all versions. I'll think about it altho' I did
want a pointedly terse finish.
Thanks all, and hi to Martin, btw. As for Halloween in the UK, isn't one of
these cases of a continental European cultural practice transplanted the US
melting-pot and then exported to the UK via US sales techniques, like Santa
Claus?
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Fugue
> I keep coming back to read this again and again. The reason being the
> richness of the language.
>
> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 9:35 AM
> Subject: Fugue
>
>
> (this is one of several slightly different drafts of a current piece I'm
> worrying at - the full-screen width lines btw are slightly longer than I
> would have them on the printed page )
>
> Fugue
>
>
> It is raining in that country. Cats and dogs. I can touch the curves in
your
> voice on the pet-lovers line. The blood is everywhere I whisper. On your
> pillow you murmur Taste it - it is mine.
>
> Carnivals of carnage on car-parks and streets.
>
> *
>
> I know the ways of kebabs. And the evil eyes of knives. There is weather
> outside, like history, demanding to be let in.
>
> *
>
> Sometimes, when the light shines through you, irradiating muscle,
cartilage,
> the jump-leads of nerve, the flotations of offal, the gauze of skin, the
> dumb beat heart, and all the other addenda and etcetera and excreta
>
> I see, as in a blinding flash , the Divine revelation made flesh.
>
> Like a hundred megatons of halo.
>
> *
>
> That: this. Tvat tvam asi.
> *
>
> There are tyres in that country, and turning wheels. Animalcules are
> remarked of with suspicion. In shop dressers' windows, the police pose as
> models. Go nowhere without your private pocket calculator.
>
> *
>
> The rain is over. The all-clear has sounded.
>
>
>
> Best
>
> Dave
> --
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