Janet
Sorry, I usually like to look but not touch but I thought I'd add a
ha'penny worth to this thread. Your title did remind me of the first
line of a poem by Anton Brassiere, which you may or may not care to
read:
STILL LIFE
My father is asleep in the chair
unaware his tuba is on fire.
On the sofa, as if turning away,
mother stoops over the daily crossword.
The index finger of her right hand is poised
above the keyboard of an electronic thesaurus.
a curl of spit hangs above the page,
giving her the best clue yet to _Old Age_.
The only implied movement is the cat
leaping from the conflagration of my father's lap.
The room has been cleared of the usual
clutter: family photographs, her collection of bells.
Although, in the background there is a bundle
of cast off knitting needles and wool;
and in the foreground a bowl of fruit:
peaches, bananas and shrivelled grapes.
All sense of urgency gone, forgotten,
like the milk pan boiling over in the kitchen.
The eye is finally lead by the human form
to the television set in the corner where _Countdown_ is on,
and where a twelve year old boy, sat before the fire,
has come up with a fine old conundrum.
Rgds
Andrew
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Janet Jackson
Sent: 18 January 2005 14:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: baguettes on fire! (Re: A poem from Jow )
It's good to see something new on here.
I'd love to re-title this
They are at a loss as to why their baguette's on fire
since that line seems to me to sum up the whole poem rather nicely.
Writing like this seems quite a reasonable response to finding oneself
alive in 2005.
But, like abstract painting, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Not everyone has the software one needs to process it and not everyone
wants to program themselves that way.
To my mind this poem seems kind of half-finished, like a sculpture still
emerging from the stone. If it was my work (and I wish it was!) I'd be
deleting the less-interesting chunks of it and changing and rearranging
it to make it leaner and stronger - but Jow might not want to try that.
Janet
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Janet Jackson
<[log in to unmask]>
www.arach.net.au/~huxtable/janet
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