I was going to say something along these lines, too, Millicent, although I was just going to suggest providing some historical context for such a phrase (I keep thinking of wanting to bowdlerize Huckleberry Finn, when it is so an anti-slavery etc novel).
Anyway, Max: I'd leave it in but explain, I think.
Doug
On 2011-03-30, at 8:34 PM, Millicent Borges Accardi wrote:
> Hi Max,
>
> It's the holy grail not to change words!!!
>
> :)
>
> I would not change any author's work. That said, I love teaching "Skunk Hour," A few well-placed "hints" about what lines mean, background information and preliminary prep should take away any surprise or giggles or fixation over the term "fairy" There is a great recording of Lowell reading it--which I use, I believe it is available at
>
> http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15279
>
> Perhaps your wife could do a little preliminary history of the poem and lines, read it herself and then have them listen to the poet read it? I am always amazed by the nuances that appear when a writer reads his own work. I think it would be an amazing poem for a psychotherapy class. So much to analyze.
>
>
> Millicent
>
>
>
> Help me get to 200 "likes" by Tax Day. Click here to "like" my Facebook page. Thanks!
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> To: POETRYETC <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wed, Mar 30, 2011 5:44 pm
> Subject: Re: snap: seasons / question about 'Skunk Hour'
>
>
> Thanks, Vincent. Chris may be right there are lines better snipped.
> While I'm here - a question -
> My wife has in mind reading out Robt Lowell's Skunk Hour in a psychotherapy
> lass. My mind's not right etc.
> BUT can she get her listeners not to worry about the earlier phrase
> bout 'our fairy decorator'?
> suggest she quietly changes fairy to gay, but I know it's a tampering not
> rdinarily to be countenanced.
> Max
> On 31/03/11 8:10 AM, "Stephen Vincent" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Max - a generous, loving Large piece. thank you!
>
> Stephen Vincent
>
> --- On Tue, 3/29/11, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: snap: seasons
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, March 29, 2011, 4:45 PM
>
> Seasons - a toast
>
> Autumn so soon!
> Summer shot through -
>
> just one beach,
> coolish; one
>
> mountain drive.
> Scarcely a single
>
> old-style heat-wave
> when you just lie low.
>
> And Winter soon, more
> funerals of folk my age -
>
> perhaps my own.
> Spring? nothing
>
> I could say that's fresh,
> let alone sing.
>
> Should I be here
> to greet it silently
>
> that would be enough.
> You in your other
>
> hemisphere, you
> topsy turvy
>
> temperate-zone
> northern antipodeans,
>
> in places where Easter
> is a spring festival,
>
> here's health and long
> life to all of us
>
> south and north,
> old and young,
>
> pious or pagans,
> observing the seasons.
>
> Birds are at the apple trees
> competing with us humans.
>
> Max Richards
> Melbourne
> late March 2011
>
>
> --
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
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.html
Just a late night pilgrim
Looking for redemption in the underground.
Lord, won't you help a late night pilgrim
When the morning comes around.
Tift Merritt
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