Yes, guys and ladies. Sound advice.
My wondering about a silent amendment from fairy to gay arose from my sense
that the psychotherapy group my wife is in wd be impatient, and also
doubting that copies of the poem wd be given out, unfortunately. Once you
put a poem in front of a person or group then it is easy to deal with the
odd word or two before getting down to the real business.
Thanks for the link to Lowell's voice, which I look forward to hearing.
From way back I seem to hear him reading something with a sigh in his voice.
When the word nigger in Huck Finn is felt to be a problem I feel with Doug
and presumably the rest of us...
Max
On 1/04/11 2:03 AM, "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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.htm>
l
>
> 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
--
|