one thing I notice--the wonderful energy of sound-textures, so much
consonance & even alliteration in many lines--in contrast with the
variety of diction, helps give this a lot of presence
Annie
On Sep 9, 2005, at 12:47 PM, Ken Wolman wrote:
> Really an experiment as well as a scream. I haven't tried to write
> with "connective tissue" in years and I have a feeling there are lots
> of torn ligaments and popped tendons around here. Flaws and all, I
> just need to dump the damned thing.
>
> Ken
>
> THE PESTILENTIAL SONATA
>
> "Hon, this is the South, cholera has always
> been a part of life here."--paraphrased from
> Wendy Taylor Carlisle
>
> Maybe it will be cholera after all,
> a Water Musick to accompany a shrouded gondola
> on the swill canal made in mockery
> of the peril-mocking city--
> a plague to scrub the parishes,
> double over the citizenry who cave,
> hit in the gut, but who shrugged,
> took their chances because they loved
> the benighted place they knew might kill them.
>
> They loved, and who are we to argue with Love?
>
> Maybe plague will come: bubonic, pneumonic,
> breeding among the rats that gnawed
> on the half-submerged In Loving Memories
> in neck-deep water and September heat.
>
> Go head, mes amis--let your imagination
> run to riot: that is why the city was made,
> for dream-trips through desire
> even if the outcome was surely cemeteries
> and the Elysian Fields.
> It seemed like a giant pinball game,
> its flashing lights now shorted out,
> knowing now only how to tilt,
> even perhaps to capsize.
>
> No one will have to say "Bring it on."
> Guests need no invitation beyond what
> we've already dispatched.
> No RSVP required, though it is courtesy
> to send a response.
> Screams are always appropriate
> even if they will be ours.
>
> KTW/9-9-05
>
> --
> Kenneth Wolman
> Proposal Development Department
> Room SW334
> Sarnoff Corporation
> 609-734-2538
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