For those who haven't seen it - a wonderful and moving essay by Robert
Creeley - "Reflections on Whitman in Age"
At http://www.vqronline.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/9080
"Whitman¹s ³call¹d back² is quite other than Emily Dickinson¹s brief, last
note to Louise and Fanny Norcross, sent shortly before her death, ³Little
Cousins, Called Back, Emily.² One needs something wherewith to make place
for whatever a life has been, its human summary if nothing else. Did it
matter? Was it all phantasmagoria? Who was finally there? The roll and turn
of the physical waves, their ceaseless repetition, the seeming return of
each so particular, the same and yet not the same‹this is the ³call,² recall
( recoil ), he has come to, an indeterminant spill of memories ³By any grand
ideal tried, intentionless, the whole a nothing.² But one hopes to have been
included even so, to have mattered, taken place, been part of, done ‹as one
says in this utterly merciless country‹ something ."
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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