Yeah, I read John Clare's 'I am' at my mom's funeral. I doubt if it meant
much to my mom, who was rather preoccupied with being a corpse in a coffin
about to be cremated, but the smarmy Anglican priest, who was not at all
uninterested in getting his (then) - seven years ago - 65 quid fee for a
quarter of an hour service - remember too I am a professed Christian - came
over to me and THANKED me for my contribution to the service, in an
incredibly condescending tone.
Apart from a two minute phone conversation the afternoon before he'd never
spoken to me before, and knew nothing about my mom.
Jesus wept, and wept again.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joanna Boulter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: People as a broken objects reassembled:
> I was once sent for, to recite Tennyson's Crossing the Bar at the deathbed
> of an eighty-year-old.
>
> And no remarks about Tennyson, please! -- it was what she knew would do
the
> trick for her, and I was glad to oblige.
>
> Correction, that should read *honoured to oblige.
>
> joanna
>
>
> >> Art vs Real Life? Isn't that a fake binary? I don't see one obscures
the
> >> other; I can see how each might inform and enrich and vitalise each
> >> other.
> >
> >
> > Dear Alison
> >
> > I am not being aggressive here, but I cannot see how or what sort of
> > sub-Leavisite cliches like 'inform and enrich and vitalise' can apply. I
> > don't think they'd be of much comfort (earlier this year my Vixen tried
> > doing a stint as a hospital visitor - she found herself talking to
people
> > almost on the point of death, who were at times in tears, she couldn't
> > handle it, as she just broke down too - what can you say? Maybe
nothing.)
> >
> > I really can't imagine if we went up to the mental hospital and told Umi
> > that poetry was there for her to 'inform and enrich and vitalise' that
it
> > would hold much cachet for her.
> >
> > Sorry, but all the best
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 10:12 PM
> > Subject: Re: People as a broken objects reassembled:
> >
> >
> >> On 19/12/05 9:03 AM, "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > The point of posting this is that at times one realises just what a
> >> > load
> > of
> >> > hot air poetry, and even more so, discussions about poetry can be. I
> > hope
> >> > this doesn't come across as cynical.
> >>
> >> Art vs Real Life? Isn't that a fake binary? I don't see one obscures
the
> >> other; I can see how each might inform and enrich and vitalise each
> >> other.
> >>
> >> Discussions about anything can be a load of hot air; I can't see how
the
> >> human passions and desires and fragilities that they express are not,
> >> however, part of life.
> >>
> >> Best
> >>
> >> A
> >>
> >>
> >> Alison Croggon
> >>
> >> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> >> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> >> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
> >
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