Well, you sprung me a little there, Kasper >g< I have been watching the DVD
of the Travelling Wilburys and listening to their first album (they fell
away after that, in my humble) and I thought I'd break loose from my
realistic lyricism mode and try to weave all my travelling into one poem, so
Dylan probably has influenced me in that mode. (I been listening to him
since the mid-sixties.) The Angel of the North is that great big structure
dubbed a sculpture in North England. & often Chinese cakes are awful! but
they promote their cake-making services with plastic mold replicas, garishly
coloured, in stores. Perhaps even The Forbidden City ... After all, they
have Mao keyrings. And wherever I go - from Bali to back-of-beyond - I seem
to come across small parcels of Japanese tourists taking photos of each
other in front of some edifice. And 'the angel of the north' could apply to
this part of the world too, our Australian north. There are many
well-meaning people who get nowhere with local cultural & ethical problems
and return to the 'big smoke' unfulfilled, whereas there are some quiet hard
workers up here who are truly 'angels' - community nurses, Flying Doctors,
some of the indigenous elders ... Some have been quietly working away for
others all their mature life, never looking for applause or a pat on the
back, but steadfastly helping their fellow man. Secular Angels for sure.
The poem was originally in chopped-up lines, but the line breaks seemed
arbitary and false, so I took them out (also read some Kenneth Fearing
during the week) ... I love prose poems when they work for me, but I can
hardly ever relax enough into the right tone of voice to create one. So,
this is as close as I get. (Robert Bly wouldn't be impressed >g<)
Too much extrapolation? I'll shut up now. I'm obviously pleased to have
written it, so that's a good thing in itself.
Andrew
On 05/09/07, kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> man, the way these sentences progress & flower & boom in themselves is
> a lot like Dylan's weaving, rambling metaphors that seem sometimes to
> be off the top of his head. I enjoyed this a lot, and I enjoy the
> long-line format too.
>
> plus those interviews on Bob were interesting
>
> KS
>
> On 05/09/07, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Before I snap, here's a fun site for Dylan fans -
> > http://video.google.com.au/au/dylan.html
> > --
> >
> >
> > *The Angel of the North is Anybody's Angel*
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The angel of the north is in my backpocket fluffed up with Chinese cake
> in
> > the shape of The Forbidden City …
> >
> >
> >
> > Postcards of desire turn up at the corners of fading memory digitalised
> for
> > ease here in the desert
> >
> > where I pick insects off the arms of infertile clocks and rats run from
> air
> > conditioners on reverse
> >
> >
> >
> > Today's pocket has faded into a holding pattern where bulls tramp and
> dogs
> > camp it up until Good Friday when a killer is shared
> >
> >
> >
> > and the community hits the piss to wash the week down although watches
> and
> > calendars were never replaced when Time ran out
> >
> >
> >
> > The angel of the north farts and hiccups and laughs as he apologises,
> *Oh, I
> > am* so* sorry! *In gathering shadows Japanese smile into Nikons
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Andrew
> > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> >
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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