Thank you, Sheila. I live in Cottles Bridge, get my mail in Hurstbridge (because there is no home delivery) and just fell to a bit of bridge pondering I guess.
Bill
On 09/01/2014, at 3:03 PM, Sheila Murphy wrote:
> Bill, even your speaking about this is poetic. I appreciate the story, and
> I appreciate (of course) the poem!
>
> Thanks, Sheila
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 9:00 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Doug. I am thinking of so extending.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> On 09/01/2014, at 3:30 AM, Douglas Barbour wrote:
>>
>>> Saw all Bill.
>>>
>>> I think 'not offering crossability' is what it's all about, &
>> intriguing, indeed.
>>>
>>> I imagine you can extend this sequence should you wish to...
>>>
>>> Doug
>>> On Jan 8, 2014, at 6:03 AM, Patrick McManus <
>> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Bill old lad I saw Kasper's email only when you replied to it - P
>> fretting
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On
>>>> Behalf Of Bill Wootton
>>>> Sent: 08 January 2014 12:29
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Subject: Re: Bridges
>>>>
>>>> Pat, can you not see Kasper's email below? You responded to Kasper's
>> comment
>>>> it looks like to me. I may be stuck but your frets are wobbling it
>> seems.
>>>>
>>>> Funny you mention 'orchardist'. I remember as teacher this came up when
>>>> students came to read the word, probably in Chekhov's 'The Cherry
>> Orchard'.
>>>> 16/17 year olds couldn't pronounce it. Had never seen the word in print.
>>>> They would say it like 'orchid' with no sense that that were
>>>> mis-pronouncing. I suppose all fruit they ever had came from a
>> supermarket.
>>>> My great uncle Jim lived on an apple orchard, in a stilted wooden
>> two-room
>>>> shack with a Coolgardie safe to keep his milk cool, at Harcourt near
>>>> Bendigo, a hundred miles or so north west of Melbourne.
>>>>
>>>> Bill
>>>>
>>>>> On 8 Jan 2014, at 8:06 pm, Patrick McManus <
>> [log in to unmask]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Kasper's email never arrived here!!
>>>>> Bill hope you are not stuck - orchardist sounds a nice job Cheers P
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>>>> On Behalf Of Bill Wootton
>>>>> Sent: 08 January 2014 07:21
>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>> Subject: Re: Bridges
>>>>>
>>>>> Many thanks, Kasper. Final couplet (and indeed final section) is still
>>>>> a work in progress, appended yesterday when I realised the two
>>>>> particular bridges I was celebrating were not ones to put spring in
>>>>> step, they not offering crossability.
>>>>>
>>>>> Bill
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 8 Jan 2014, at 11:36 am, Kasper Salonen <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is magnificent, the majesty of bridges at their best resonates
>>>>>> strongly in these four sections. The hint of myth in the Benezet
>>>>>> story rounds out the mysticism. Not only that, but the lyrical and
>>>>>> yet perfectly disinterested style makes up for the splash of water
>>>>>> that is the final line. I love it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> KS
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>> Kasper Salonen, toiminnanjohtaja
>>>>>> Helsinki Poetry Connection
>>>>>> http://hkipoetryconnection.blogspot.com/
>>>>>> +358505554947
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 7 January 2014 23:05, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Bridges
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> i
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Walk a bridge to connect, to pass
>>>>>>> over a gulf. To be on a bridge is to be
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> neither in one place or another. Rarely destination, bridges embody
>>>>>>> journey.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ii
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Avignon's stone bridge stops mid-Rhone tantalising with just four
>>>>>>> extant arches
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> of its once majestic twenty two.
>>>>>>> Even computer imaging and years
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> of research can't line up remnant piles.
>>>>>>> Must have been zig-zags
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> for added strength, perhaps, in floods.
>>>>>>> Benezet the shepherd it's said,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 850 years ago, with Divine push, hefted and hurled a huge rock in
>>>>>>> the river
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> which became stone one of Pont
>>>>>>> d'Avignon. Benezet's journey ended
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> with his interment within the bridge before its completion.
>>>>>>> Disinterment
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> nearly 500 years later,
>>>>>>> scored him patron sainthood.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> iii
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Just north of Melbourne, two parallel bridges span Arthurs Creek.
>>>>>>> Only one takes traffic.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Burke's duplicated concrete and bitumen bridge towards Nutfield,
>>>>>>> flat and functional
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> but adjacent, original Burke's Bridge, a timbertrestle construction,
>>>>>>> now spattered
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> with leaves and gum bark peelings, blocked at either end with
>>>>>>> boulders, remains
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> the real enchanter. Patrick Burke, orchardist and nurseryman settled
>>>>>>> on 20 acres in 1864.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> None of which explains why supporting posts either side of the creek
>>>>>>> are not parallel.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> iv
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Alighting from a bridge makes you feel lighter.
>>>>>>> Puts a little spring in your step or your tyres.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> You've left somewhere behind. Crossed.
>>>>>>> You're somewhere else. What now?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> But it takes now uncrossable bridges to remind us how well stuck we
>>>>>>> might be.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> bw
>>>>>>> 8.1.14
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Douglas Barbour
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>>> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>>>
>>> Latest books:
>>> Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
>>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
>>> Recording Dates
>>> (Rubicon Press)
>>>
>>> Swept snow, Li Po,
>>> by dawn’s 40-watt moon
>>> to the road that hies to office
>>> away from home.
>>>
>>> Lorine Niedecker
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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