Snap: Remember the Lakes?
Jeff writes: Max, you will recall
sitting on a bench at Rydal Mount
amidst Wordsworth¹s rhododendrons
(were they?), and
perched on a square pillar
at the bottom of some stone steps
the curious stone ornament
about the size of a basketball
which fell on (and injured) W¹s gardener¹s foot?
and listening to my reading
from one of Rawnsley¹s books of sonnets?
Yes, the Rawnsley who wrote down
what the locals thought of Wordsworth.
You might also recall how R was unhappy
about telephone wires and a large red PO letter box
just below Wordsworth¹s house, and mused
(right where we were sitting/standing)
about ³bee music in the limes².
Dear Jeff, Recall? I do recall our week
back in ¹74 in that rented cottage, five of us.
And the road-kill pheasant you retrieved,
hung in the pantry, which stank us out.
And the rain, the churchyard at Cartmel,
and Ruskin¹s lovely-sad place by the water.
But Rydal Mount? What I recall is
reading about it. Rawnsley?
one of your enthusiasms
I do recall your enthusiasm,
your dragging me scrambling
up the perils of Striding Edge....
yes, I must have been there, partly there.
Max Richards
Doncaster, Vic
Wednesday 16 January 2008
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