Thanks for comments, esp A Burke’s…
I now see the naked mole rat is a threatened species!
Dear Nautilus Reader,
Naked mole rats and swordfish run amok in this week’s Nautilus chapter, chewing conspicuous holes through the line between perception and perceived.
Our Best,
The Nautilus Team
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and
http://uglyanimalsoc.com
M among the seattle squirrels
On Nov 20, 2014, at 10:45 PM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Moles certainly get up the noses of some gardeners -so to speak!!cheers P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Andrew Burke
> Sent: 20 November 2014 06:11
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: 'The Mole'
>
> Like it too, Max. Particularly the homely last image! Great 'leaping'
> ending.
>
> Andrew
>
> On 20 November 2014 15:52, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Like it, Max. One suggestion. In stanza 9/10, Max, could the 'were' be
>> dispensed with somehow?
>>
>> eg
>>
>> Over the back fences
>> moles went through fields
>>
>> at liberty.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>
>>> On 20 Nov 2014, at 3:33 am, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> The Mole
>>>
>>> To the back lawn at Mead Close
>>> Cottage, Orchard Lane, Old Boars Hill, in which I froze with family,
>>> winter of 1980,
>>>
>>> and on into the spring
>>> when all was wakening,
>>> the moles of Oxfordshire
>>> sent a strong burrower.
>>>
>>> Wonderful the small black
>>> mounds of loam out the back
>>> that his invisible might
>>> created in the night,
>>>
>>> the unstoppable force
>>> of that soft blind mouse-
>>> like creature! We beamed.
>>> The landlord schemed -
>>>
>>> he and his family
>>> in the large front property
>>> wanted perfect turf
>>> for summer croquet.
>>>
>>> They knew about property -
>>> wasn't he a law don
>>> at Oxford University?
>>> where college lawns
>>>
>>> had solved the whole mole
>>> problem to eternity
>>> by pouring mole-poison
>>> down mole-holes stealthily!
>>>
>>> Shame on the tenants,
>>> mere Australians,
>>> siding with moles
>>> against Old Boars Hill's
>>>
>>> venerable practices!
>>> What could we do but sigh?
>>> Over the back fences
>>> were fields moles went through
>>>
>>> at liberty. Wandering there
>>> in Victorian times some
>>> local poet dreamed how
>>> a scholar-gypsy haunts the scene.
>>>
>>> While I dreamed, my son attended
>>> Matthew Arnold School that term -
>>> without being taught
>>> a single poem.
>>>
>>> His sister dropped her jacket
>>> at the back fence where
>>> a cow almost ate it.
>>> And that was our Oxfordshire.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> 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-s
> hikibu.html
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