PS Dominic
I note that 'verdictive' in contemporary usage seems to stem from
J.L.Austin and, apart from the irony of his being a defender of common,
traditional speech, it also seems imply a kind of collusive relationship
with Cold War politics, the rather buried status of whatever Austin's own
stance on 'the Reds' was seems pertinent, conservatives seem to claim him.
Was he not too responsible for inflicting 'performative' on the
unsuspecting world?
Not that I'm suggesting that you are a secret Cold War warrior !!!!
best
David
On 27 May 2012 07:26, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I like your poem, Dominic, except for 'verdictive', which is the kind of
> usage that reminds me of a time when the USA had 'sociology' professors who
> wheeled out tomes that obfuscated their being apologists for Detroit
> industrial practices in a language that was stuffed with words like
> 'verdictive', no, it doesn't suit the poem!
> I'm afraid I thought Talha Ahsan's poem a dud, sorry, but it doesn't mean
> I support his extradition, though not because he's supposedly more
> sensitive as 'a poet' or because 'he had a private education at Dulwich
> College', as one site mentions, but because firstly, as A.L.Kennedy writes,
> no-one, no-one at all, should be subject to the horrors of supermax, which
> is obviously a system designed to make inmates insane, and in particular
> because the evidence implicating him seems to have been obtained
> illegally.
>
>
>
> On 27 May 2012 00:38, Dominic Fox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> FOR TALHA AHSAN
>>
>> We - poets -
>> are feckless creatures.
>> The perfections of scripture
>> are not in our line -
>>
>> I say scripture: recitation,
>> perfection of recitation, the voice aligned
>> at once with its deepest impulse, everything
>> coming out right -
>>
>> We stammer our verdictives, on which force
>> pivots, may lose its balance. I'm not sure
>> that's what you need to hear.
>> I would be with you
>>
>> somehow, if in profession only.
>> It is one thing to be the fool
>> we all are, another to be taken
>> for an asset. Oh Talha, by the mercy
>>
>> of whatever God, come through in safety;
>> by men's mercy, though it cannot be
>> depended on, be plucked out from the eye
>> of tyranny; be back amongst us soon.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> (for context, see http://freetalha.org/)
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> "We are shallow, mababaw ang kaligayahan."
> -* F. Sionil José*
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
"We are shallow, mababaw ang kaligayahan."
-* F. Sionil José*
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
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