Wow, Andrew, I hope your cousin wasn't infected by Burke's pla g ue. Yes I can imagine a squat item built of that chunky redgum. I will ask around locally more about the bridge.
Bill
On 09/01/2014, at 12:35 PM, Andrew Burke wrote:
> I have a cousin in Melbourne who has a small table made from timbers of the
> original Burke's Bridge.It's a squat, sturdy item with a plague on the side
> stating its origins. It exudes mysterious tales of past passages. I have no
> idea how Patrick fits into family history, although there are copious
> family histories about.
>
> Androo
>
>
> On 9 January 2014 03:30, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> 'Undercover of Lightness'
> http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
> 'Shikibu Shuffle'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
>
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