David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> says
> I'd largely agree with Halvard on this except for two areas: one is that
> 'accessibility' does matter as a valid word for the disabled, it's where the
> word has real meanings on the most intimate and day-to-day levels and the
> hijacking of it in other respects empties of it of impact.
This suggests an interesting analogy...what if some people are
poetically disabled? Should we include the necessary ramps, elevators,
handrails, etc, in our poetry? Or should our poetry encourage
readers to do what the physically disabled can't, that is, get their
(poetic) legs moving?
What I'd rather it didn't do, is have steps so large that you need
special climbing equipment and years of training!
> In literary matters I'd just aver there is one aspect: where a writing is
> +entirely+ dependent on private references for comprehension, it does not
> matter if a work is arcane to some yet as long as it is publically
> retrievable no matter. This is a Literary Sin: bad, sloppy, self-indulgen=
> t
> writing.
If I understand Dave correctly, the "sin" is writing that is
completely dependent on references that are NOT publicly available.
We might argue that some readers will make their own connections -
but in that case it's not completely dependent.
> There are many poems, poets, that I did not understand on first reading: it
> was not a matter of how many lines (one and a half?? - yer wot!) or how many
> times I had to read them.
Everyone has their own level of tolerance here.
Even if the first couple of lines don't grab me, I will read the
whole poem anyway, maybe twice or three times. If necessary I will
look up unfamiliar words and references. If there is still nothing
happening after that I will go onto something else because, in
my experience, further readings aren't going to help me.
But maybe I'll read it again ten years later and love it!
Most people who have commented here would realise that by
something "happening" I don't mean understanding in the same sense
as understanding a scientific paper or factual article.
I want to connect, "grok", "dig", or "get", but not necessarily
"understand".
If that doesn't happen then sure, we can still analyse the
poet's use of language - but then it becomes an exercise in
reading and writing. That does have its uses but it is not,
I think, what most readers are looking for.
Janet
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Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
Poems at Proximity:
http://www.arach.net.au/~huxtable/janet/proximity.html
"When one acts in accord with the time, the yang energy
is expansive, like thunder going out of the earth and
rising forcefully into the sky, startling an area of a
hundred miles with its rumble, so that all demons flee.
The life-giving potential continues increasing, and the
earth is always covered with yellow sprouts, the world
blooms with golden flowers. Wherever one may walk,
everywhere is the Tao. No happiness is more delightful
than this." Liu I-ming, trans. Thomas Cleary
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