Thanks, Nathan. I'm not sure about 'hark' either but I wasn't happy
with 'listen'. I often recall a saying attributed to George Barker,
that the beginnings of a poem were like listening to a conversation
down a bad crackling telephone line (you know, those old carbon-fibre
receivers)
Best
Dave
On 15/04/2008, Nathan Hondros <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I find this poem very interesting. Usually, I'm wary about the appearance of
> ghosts in poetry, but this one is well grounded in the physical descriptions
> of the house, then the way "shapes detach from sounds", as though something
> (a ghost?) is breaking free of the corporeal. Not sure about "hark", though,
> but that's just me.
> Good job. I like it.
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 7:16 AM, Patrick McManus <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I sometimes wonder if poetry etc is haunted ??other times I am sure it is
> > -all those poets down the line
> > Watch that ghosting DB
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of David Bircumshaw
> > Sent: 13 April 2008 18:56
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Haunting, refrain
> >
> > Borley Rectory, Douglas, was once celebrated as 'the most haunted
> > house in England' .
> >
> > I'm still trying to get the piece right - it's very hard to write
> > about things on the periphery of sight and vision, you have to focus
> > the out-of-focus. Below is one of several versions of it as now
> > stands, but still not quite there I think:
> >
> > Borley Peripheral
> >
> > Peripheral, the visions
> > of slowly fading ghosts,
> > legacies willed by pictures,
> > prints off plastered walls,
> > vanishing now like steps
> > of blue unfolding smoke.
> > Hark as the night's herded
> > mists creep: a house creaks
> > in timbers to your ears.
> > Shapes detach from sounds,
> > names drift loose from fact.
> > Peripheral, the visions,
> > the vigils that us keep.
> >
> > On 13/04/2008, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > I like it, David, but is Borley a place, a person, or a typo?
> > >
> > > Doug
> > > On 13-Apr-08, at 5:26 AM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > Borley Perceptible
> > > >
> > >
> > > Douglas Barbour
> > > [log in to unmask]
> > >
> > > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> > >
> > > Latest books:
> > > Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> > > Wednesdays'
> > >
> >
> > http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.h
>
> > tml<http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html>
>
> > >
> > > A little planet blues, for the
> > > deathwatch.
> > > A season of rictus riffs.
> > >
> > > Dennis Lee
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > David Bircumshaw
> > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> > http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.22.13/1375 - Release Date:
> > 12/04/2008
> > 11:32
> >
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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