Yes, great poem, Max. But I dispute the last statement, 'beauty is youth,
youth beauty'. In this old town, there's beauty up and down the main
street, getting out of dusty old utes and paddock-scented 4x4s - there's
even a particular beauty in gnarled old trees leaning out over Murray
River. But, of course, there's also a frisky beauty in the girls flirting
with the boys before they all race off to the big smoke ... Our optometrist
is here but twice a week and she takes shit from no man!
Andrew
On 14 August 2014 09:53, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes I like the beauty zeroing down to 'the woman's' pupils, Max. The light
> and dark works well too. Not sure of enchantment/enhancement but unlike
> you, Pat, happy with the rounding off with a bit of a Keatsian flourish.
>
> Bill
>
> > On 14 Aug 2014, at 1:48 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > AH, but Max, your 'beauty' comes on the heels of a bunch of such terms,
> which as they pile up become somewhat concrete, it feels, that being the
> mystery of language at work. And I really enjoy the sly
> pseudo-self-deprecation at work in the poem, its humour...
> >
> > Doug
> >
> >
> >> On Aug 13, 2014, at 4:35 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Pupils
> >>
> >> The woman at the opticians,
> >> who takes me into her dark room
> >> for intimate transactions,
> >> is exquisite - fine-featured,
> >>
> >> slow to smile, elegant of hand
> >> and hip. She shines her light
> >> and herself deep into my eyes.
> >> saying 'you have small pupils'!
> >>
> >> (My lack of success with women
> >> explained by yet another reason!)
> >> I begin a sly campaign
> >> to survey her pupils' fluctuation -
> >>
> >> now large in the dark, now less
> >> in the well-lit corridor, smallest
> >> out in the public space where frames
> >> are chosen at great expense
> >>
> >> to enhance one's chances
> >> of glamorous enchantment.
> >> She's put on spectacles herself,
> >> as if her looks need some enhancement.
> >>
> >> Fair girl, unframed is best. Fair
> >> young men, fair children - smile on.
> >> Our eyes are all on you, as yours
> >> are on each other. We were young once,
> >>
> >> though scarcely knew it. Old now, leaning
> >> back - yearning back - at our sunset hour
> >> it dawns on us: Beauty is youth, youth
> >> beauty, - that is all we know on earth.
> >
> > Douglas Barbour
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation
> 2 (UofAPress).
> > Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
> >
> > Something else is out there
> > godamnit
> >
> > And I want to hear it
> >
> > C.D.Wright
> >
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
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