----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: Christopher Logue's Cold Calls
> Douglas:
>
>> And thanks again to Catherine. Tis rare to hear somebody actually read
>> the
>> book. Cheers.
>
> She didn't quite so much read the book as devour it.
>
> I might be a touch less forgiving if she and I hadn't managed to rip back
> to
> the train and (just barely) manage to pluck her suitcase off.
>
> A near thing though, bro'.
>
> It was quite funny, in retrospect, and I know this sounds like the sort of
> thing people make up, but it was *true*!!!!
>
> {Honest}
>
> Half way between platforms, daughter and I looked at each other, both
> turned
> white as death and promptly ripped back to the train.
>
> It was one of those rare father-and-daughter effective combinations -- I
> jammed my foot in the door of the to-leave-train to prevent it leaving,
> while the Demon Princess worked her way down three carriages trying to
> find
> her suitcase.
>
> (She found it in the third, at about the point British Rail were about to
> chop my left leg off at the ankle to free the train.)
>
> But the *really* funny thing, Douglas, was that the entire time, she was
> *still* clutching her copy of +Finality+ in her left hand.
>
> She wouldn't let it go ...
>
> ... I blame you.
>
> Robin
>
About 14 years ago in 'Disbanded' I said that the true test of a poem was
that it made the reader gasp out loud. It looks like 'Finality' passed the
test. My books are my children and I do my best for them.
Incidentally so far I havent got around to talking about Adam Philips
commenting on poetry on TV on Sunday night. He is a very trendy brilliant
psychoanalyst whose copious prose I find impenetrable but he had a few real
insights on Sunday night.
He said that basically nobody reads poetry any more and the poet must get
his/her satisfaction from the personal knowledge that they have written a
good poem rather than sitting back for applause which will probably never
come.
His other interesting point was that poets/artists tap The Other and that it
is this conversation that produces art. Personally I felt The Other depart
from my head nine years ago and since then it has returned in a few brief
flashes. Living the poetic life is when you are in contact with The Other
every moment of the day, not only when you are writing. I lived it for many
years and miss it now leaving me alone in the world.
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