It's funny, funny peculiar, but this has been going around my head. It
isn't unpleasant. I haven't lost sleep over it; but I do find myself being
aware of it in an unprecedented way.
That is, I have been aware of myself and my mood as I make poetry; and I
am not feeling cheery.
It's not a word I use. I can imagine using it as a put down. As in: the
trouble with him was that he was always cheery.
I looked it up and, at first, thought it was 19th century USAmerican; but
further searches suggest it originated here somewhere in the 15th century,
so perhaps before a European America, certainly before there could be said
to have been divergence between language usage.
So I am unable to say: ah well it's an American word -- as if that would
explain anything in itself!
I was looking for an explanation for my difficulty with the word, a
difficulty that I had not been that aware of.
Perhaps there *are differences of usage, but non geographical ones. I was
struck by the proposed equivalence of being cheery and smiling. (I'd refer
anyone of that persuasion to consider the number of people who have
committed suicide shortly after appearing to be happy and optimistic.)
To me, and perhaps I have gone all my life misapprehending the word,
_cheery_ can be stored with _heart-warming_. I saw recently and noted that
someone is starring in something heart-warming; and I received that rather
as I received news of the Italian cruise ship sinking. Heart-warming
suggests, to me, shallowness, sentimentality and the ability to behave
like a performing bear, but without being prompted.
Cheery people believe something will turn up. Cheery people, faced with
substantial evidence that someone else is a schmuck, say _oh i don't think
he / she meant it like that_, or something similar.
Doug tried the word _joyful_ -- _(joyful?) noises_ -- of my poetry; and I
would be more than happy with that.
Do know that I have no hard feelings or sense of grievance here; I am just
finding the use of a word by others and the response to my response to it
a bit odd. It may well be me marching out of step, to use an inappropriate
simile.
I reiterate, though, that I find the situations we are in too serious to
be cheery. I have twice laughed out loud at the Steve Bell cartoons in the
Guardian about Alex Salmond and Scottish independence. He's just taking
the piss; and I enjoy it although, in so far as I have an opinion, I am
for the break up of UK. Perhaps all that does cheer me is a hit against
ruling systems.
Yet I can't even take heart from peoples' opposition. I am party to some
of the thoughts of poets who consider themselves politically engaged; and
it does not please me.
Maybe if I had a space ship I'd just leave a note saying _so long and
thanks for all the poetry_
I think an enthusiasm for poetry, or anything, is other than what I
understand as cheeriness. Perhaps for me it is a defiance of low spirits,
but without falsifying the ground note mood.
I could ramble on; but I suspect it is something which is uninteresting
except to me; so I'll leave it.
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: The bar between The Gugh and St Agnes seen from St Agnes
From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, January 17, 2012 16:38
To: [log in to unmask]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't say that I don't smile, Doug
L
On Tue, January 17, 2012 15:59, Douglas Barbour wrote:
> Coming to this late, I share Andrew's concern, but not too much. Anyone
> who can make such (joyful?) noises, has to be able to smile on occasion,
> Lawrence, & so I believe you do...
>
>
> Doug
> On 2012-01-17, at 3:39 AM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
>
>
>> H Andrew
>>
>>
>> I think maybe it is the word _cheery_ which did it for me.
>>
>>
>> And perhaps I was also speaking of poetry rather than life in total;
>> and in particular this mode of poetry. It is verging on the milennial
>> before I have started.
>>
>> Perhaps. Consider me an unbreliable narrator. Maybe.
>>
>>
>>> I find this sad. Yet my cheeriness can be a mask to hide despair.
>>>
>>
>> Aha.
>>
>>
>> But no
>>
>>> cheeriness would worry me - which would make me more glum, I
>>> acknowledge.
>>>
>>> Oh, perhaps all I can say is, Cheer up!
>>>
>>
>> Oh I'm fine. There was a degree of posturing to make a point.
>>
>>
>> But thank you for your concern, Andrew!
>>
>>
>> Eeyore
>>
>>
>
> 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
>
>
> What dull barbarians are not proud of
> their dullness and barbarism?
>
> Thackeray
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
-----
UNFRAMED GRAPHICS by Lawrence Upton
42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
wfuk.org.uk/blog
----
-----
UNFRAMED GRAPHICS by Lawrence Upton
42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
wfuk.org.uk/blog
----
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