I really like this too.
[log in to unmask]http://www.fatmandancing.co.ukhttp://www.myspace.com/fat_man_dancing> Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:40:59 +0800> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: "In Rome"> To: [log in to unmask]> > Brilliant. I appreciate that poem one hell of a lot, Frederick.> > Andrew> > > On 30/01/2008, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:> >> > In Rome> >> >> > The caretaker of the Military Cemetery> > across the Via Zabaglia> > from the Accatolica, where Keats, Shelley,> > Gramsci, etc. are buried,> > can tell you interesting stories> > if you buy him a few drinks> > after his shift, or on a Sunday> > when the heat is great and the traffic slightly subdued.> > He says his charges have their moods.> > Normally satisfied> > with their well-watered lawn, the neat ranks of their graves,> > the shade of the concrete hand with its broken sword,> > they are uneasy when visited;> > collectively upset by ancient wives,> > unfamiliar sons and daughters, unknown grandkids.> > It isn't that they're unfeeling, but their ideas> > of comfort, presence, peace are not those> > of the living. Their perceptions> > are, we would say, blurred. The touring> > schoolchildren who occasionally come> > do not appear to them as bored for life,> > slaves of themselves, but as polite,> > lovely, attentive archetypes> > who nonetheless hear nothing and feel> > no ghostly caress. No more than a tree,> > the caretaker says, do his friends> > regard themselves as rooted and motionless;> > and although these particular dead> > are male, they see action,> > rather as women do, as someone coming> > to them. Perhaps the Gestapo officer> > who shot so many of them, prisoners,> > in the head. And perhaps he does come> > from wherever he lies to the north,> > reluctantly, in horror> > of their illogical welcome, their forgetfulness> > his torment. But they are haunted by the living,> > as if by incipient earthquake; like the cats,> > their familiars. He seems reluctant to say more,> > the caretaker, and you ask him> > if it's only the military dead> > who stir thus. And he says> > he has heard similar reports> > from the staff across the street, where poets lie.> >> > > > -- > Andrew> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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