Lawrence,
Your observings seem sacred, certainly profound in the quietest ways, like
the Quakers in their silent meetings, surrounded by and in nature.
About observing creatures, you write: "The quietness means that not only
will the nonhuman stay, but one will also be unflustered enough to see."
I also appreciated your reference to a small section in Simms' book on
lizards that seems to you "a metaphor for finding poems":
"he speaks of studying lizards to the extent you know where they will be
without thinking about it, you then walk down that path, reach out and take
the creature"
I feel that your lines below beautifully connect with the metaphor---and
extend it to even more levels of meaning:
"if one looks it is often there
i want to increase that"
Thank you for letting us see you at work,
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 6:27 PM
Subject: Re: [POETRYETC] snap - reformat
> It was a good question, matching a poem whose genesis I understood
> somewhat
> and remembered
>
> Also, the way you posed it didn't make me fear knowing too much about a
> process that I fear will leave me with pockets full of dust if I presume
> upon it
>
> I have - sort of - resolved to look more carefully - at everything. Years
> ago I read a book - from memory, it was the peregrine by j a baker - which
> greatly excited me
>
> and i was struck by my subsequent relative success in seeing the red tooth
> and claw in action whether it is a sparrowhawk in the suburbs or a kestrel
> in penwith
>
> if one looks it is often there
>
> i want to increase that
>
> i recall colin simms saying he feels privileged to live among the animals
> he
> studies and writes about; and he said it unreservedly... i want to learn
> from that despite my ignorance, not just animals but everything that's
> rolled round in earth's diurnal whatever - I can't remember the line
> properly
>
> there is, incidentally, a small section in simms' book on lizards that has
> seemed to me a metaphor for _finding poems_
>
> as i recall he speaks of studying lizards to the extent that you _know_
> where they will be without thinking about it, you then walk down that
> path,
> reach out and take the creature (into a bag, to be measured and set free)
>
> i don't want to measure them. i'm happy enough to see something (what i am
> thinking of is that a lot of the writing one does might be seen, from one
> side, to be like that preparation and learning that colin speaks of; and
> that as a result sometimes a poem seems to come; but with the preparation
> one is ready to react appropriately, making it more likely the poems will
> seem to come
>
> i have relatively little time to be out and about, but there's always a
> lot
> going on. in some cases it's a matter of being very quiet and still, which
> I
> try to practice... The quietness means that not only will the nonhuman
> stay,
> but one will also be unflustered enough to see
>
> i recall ambling round a corner to find a buzzard sitting on a hedge by
> the
> red river in penwith
>
> the buzzard was rather cross about my intrusion but i got to see it just
> by
> not making a noise
>
> there are near st ives quite other worlds very near habitation - rosewall
> hill is only a few hundred feet high, but few people go up there & one
> shares it with clouds and birds of prey; and the Hayle estuary is a huge
> stretch of sand at low tide, an extraordinary post industrial wilderness
> which is being redeveloped apace - they used the waste from copper
> smelting
> to make bricks to build the piers & it seems the bricks have a life of 150
> years or so and the whole thing is disintegrating - the sea's coming back,
> the structures are collapsing & the dolphins and birds do their thing
> largely alone, untroubled - compare that to the motorboats further up the
> coast going out to watch seals!
>
> re _reddish_ I hesitated over that a long time. i can see the colour still
> in my memory; and reddish isnt quite it; but to get it _right_ would have
> taken other means that I wanted to avoid because I want to keep it simple
> and stark... nowt to do with blood!
>
> The "neither . . . shows emotion" was the one place that I tapped into
> wider
> implications I think. I thought that was important, not just because it
> was
> descriptive - I've just sat here struggling with myself not to elaborate,
> because there isn't really more to say that is to do with the poem as it
> exists - we could all talk about the poems that got away - but also
> because
> it did do something with the anecdote. i didnt want an anecdote!!
>
> L
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barry Alpert" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005 8:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [POETRYETC] snap - reformat
>
>
>> Thanks for the detailed account of the genesis of your snapshot,
>> Lawrence.
>> I've observed the aftermath of birds having eaten blackberries growing
> wild
>> on my property, but not the spiders which may spin their web within that
>> growth. My initial readings of your text corresponded with your prose
>> gloss ("an attempt to describe seeing a living creature broken across and
>> in a bird's beak"). Looking up the definition of "squelching",
> considering
>> the implications of "reddish", and wondering about the
>> concluding "neither . . . shows emotion" led me to concoct a more
> elaborate
>> scenario than was warranted. I was immediately suspicious of my
>> secondary
>> interpretation, however, and therefore decided to query the author.
>> Barry
>>
>> On Thu, 22 Sep 2005 09:37:29 +0100, Lawrence Upton
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> >Hi Barry
>> >
>> >I witnessed it. I was ambling up the road and looking carefully for
>> blackberries, without success. It's a fairly busy road for walkers and
>> all
>> but the small late sour ones had gone. I hadn't even meant to be there
>> but
>> got caught up in a movement of 120 cows, which brought everything to a
>> pause because they do it at their pace. Fell into conversation with the
>> herdsman and then with another chap coming up behind; and, when the
>> herdsman turned off, we continued walking and talking. It was only when
>> we
>> got to the sea, that I realised I had just followed him! It was ok. I was
>> also just following my nose
>> >
>> >Then he asked the time and rushed off to meet his wife!
>> >
>> >I sat on a rock. Then I walked back, mentally blackberrying.
>> >
>> >It was the bird caught my attention, and I was starting to think how
>> poorly I could describe it. By which time I was so close I decided to
>> stop
>> to keep it there. I'm pretty sure I saw a similar bird in Cumrbia, on a
>> hedge there - though in this case it's a hedge made of granite covered in
>> green growth.
>> >
>> >I was struck by its confidence. LIke a robin in the way it let me
> approach
>> and very unexpected away from town.
>> >
>> >And during this very small parcel of time, it had been studying the
>> >prey.
>> It adjusted its position a little and I saw what it was after.
>> >
>> >I am quite capable of making things up or getting them from books; but
>> this was a sighting
>> >
>> >I was struck by the transformation in a moment. The spider was smashed
>> >up
>> and hanging both sides of the beak, moving a bit. The bird seemed to
>> pause
>> before completing the operation, possibly because of my proximity. I
>> think
>> I was writing the poem as I saw it all happen.
>> >
>> >Until then I had no snapshot poem and had been thinking of the
>> ridiculousness of the situation. I was in an area of special scientific
>> interest also an area of outstanding natural beauty (both official
>> designations) etc etc. There was so much one could write about for 50
> years
>> without moving
>> >
>> >And I was thinking of *moments, wondering how long before this bird
>> >would
>> be wiped out by its own predator... I was thinking of the mechanism of
>> it,
>> and the increase of that effect into a seeming mechanicity because
>> _their_
>> faces are not _our_ faces etc etc
>> >
>> >everything changed, nothing changed
>> >
>> >and the poem changed a lot quite rapidly
>> >
>> >I had not *intended the reading you put into it. maybe it's there! the
> sky
>> is parcelled out high density by birds of prey and the bird may well be
>> dead. It almost certainly soon will be
>> >
>> >I had a sense I had done what I could to get that sense of everything
>> killing everything, of everything being doomed - I had rejected an image
> of
>> drafts playing because there was no intelligence there
>> >
>> >Nevertheless,
>> >
>> >squelching
>> >>both sides of a half-closed beak
>> >
>> >was an attempt to describe seeing a living creature broken across and in
> a
>> bird's beak
>> >
>> >Best answer I can give, I think
>> >
>> >Thank you for noticing the poem
>> >
>> >Lawrence
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>
>> > To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>> > Date: Thursday, September 22, 2005 3:33 AM
>> > Subject: Re: [POETRYETC] snap - reformat
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:46:49 +0100, Lawrence Upton
>> > <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >
>> > >a brightly-coloured bird
>> > >snaps a reddish spider
>> > >from its web among rotting berries;
>> > >
>> > >the silk is broken, disrupted;
>> > >the food is disabled, squelching
>> > >both sides of a half-closed beak
>> > >
>> > >neither bird nor animal shows emotion
>> >
>>========================================================================
>> >
>> > I've read this a number of times with admiration, Lawrence. Did you
>> > observe the incident or its aftermath? I like the way in which you
>> suggest
>> > that both the arachnid and the bird expired (or will do so), if I'm
>> > reading "squelching/both sides . . ." appropriately. Barry Alpert
>> >========================================================================
>>
>
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