Now the challenge: What is the equivalent of a "high tide" for a
"professional" poet (or most poets). I realize in most cases a "professional
poet" is an oxymoron, or "a moron on an ox" is it?
Stephen V
> Well, according to Brewer's, Stephen, "happy as a clam"
> is a shortening of "happy as a clam at high tide": i.e.,
> when no one's out there gathering them.
>
> Hal Serving the tristate area.
>
> Halvard Johnson
> [log in to unmask]
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> website: http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
> blog: http://entropyandme.blogspot.com/
>
> On May 20, 2005, at 6:09 PM, Stephen Vincent wrote:
>
>> Can you describe a "happy clam", Hal? That one always mystifies me.
>> Might
>> it be Midwestern in origin - like out in the Nebraska prairies and
>> nostalgic
>> for Dutch sea marshes circa 1870. Or an old fashioned "bathetic
>> fallacy"
>> example of the New Critics circa 1958. Oh, yes, I can imagine
>> oysters as
>> happy, growing pretty little Pearls inside. But clams? Help me.
>> Or send me to Google!
>>
>> Stephen V
>> Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
>>
>>
>>
>>> On the other hand, some might be distressed by the general lack of
>>> knowledge
>>> of hip-hop among older poets. Yes, the center doesn't hold, etc.
>>> Things
>>> go flying
>>> off in all directions. But still the world is so full of a number of
>>> things I think we
>>> should all be as happy as clams. Dontcha think?
>>>
>>> Hal Serving the tristate area.
>>>
>>> Halvard Johnson
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>> website: http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
>>> blog: http://entropyandme.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>> On May 20, 2005, at 3:09 PM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>>>
>>>> One of the things I'm distressed by is the general lack of knowledge
>>>> of
>>>> classical music among younger poets. I think I learned a lot more
>>>> about
>>>> form, not to speak of sound, from devouring the canon. There's
>>>> simply a
>>>> lack of complexity to popular music, as lovely or exciting as some of
>>>> it is.
>>>>
>>>> Also distressed at the general lack of knowledge of folk music, and I
>>>> don't
>>>> mean the music of Bob Dylan and Donovan Leitch, profound students of
>>>> the
>>>> tradition. It used to be one of the things that held us together as
>>>> communities.
>>>>
>>>> My Carlos was taken to a Cailith (please, please correct my spelling)
>>>> by a
>>>> then girlfriend of the Belfast Irish variety. He was utterly amazed
>>>> that
>>>> everyone knew all the songs. In the US you'd have to go to a
>>>> Protestant
>>>> church to find the like, and the fare would be hymns for breakfast
>>>> lunch
>>>> and supper.
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>>
>>
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