Liked it, Bill - and understood it all. I think 'portable' works - or it
did for me. I have a nephew here who is a lone builder - remodelled a back
shed into a wonderful studio for me, but didn't like people interrupting
him :-)
I'll send him the poem, see what he makes of it.
Andrew
On 19 February 2015 at 09:58, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks, Pat, Max, Doug. Jim is my father. 'Portable', Max, was meant to
> convey that he carried all his tools upon his person and his person moved
> with them. No returning to the tool shed or car to pick up stuff. Maybe it
> is not quite the word I seek. The fete, Doug, was full of toffs or at least
> white collar fathers, who wouldn't have known a hammer from a pencil
> sharpener.
>
> Bill
>
>
> > On 19 Feb 2015, at 4:42 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yes, neatly told, Bill. I was at first not sure if you needed all the
> description of the fete, but then the conclusion worked...
> >
> > Doug
> >> On Feb 18, 2015, at 8:11 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> One of your best, for me, Bill.
> >>
> >> Unfolds and concludes nicely nicely.
> >>
> >> 'portable' refers to what he carries? the toolbar?
> >>
> >> (I thought Jim was your neighbor but at the end he's family.)
> >>
> >> Max
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Feb 17, 2015, at 13:00, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> With four hammer blows
> >>> the three inch nail is flush.
> >>> That's counting the set-up tap.
> >>>
> >>> When the power goes off now
> >>> on a building site, carpenters
> >>> knock off for the day.
> >>>
> >>> In Jim's time, you just
> >>> got on with it. Power
> >>> was for the Sparkies.
> >>>
> >>> Stripped to the waist,
> >>> cracked leather tool bag
> >>> aproning his slight paunch,
> >>>
> >>> Jim put in steady days
> >>> on Bendigo housing blocks,
> >>> armed with his smooth,
> >>>
> >>> wooden-handled hammer,
> >>> nail punch, black-handled
> >>> builder's square rammed
> >>>
> >>> in his belt, flick-hinged
> >>> carpenter's rule and stubby,
> >>> flat, red pencil. A portable
> >>>
> >>> one-man constructor.
> >>> Even as I homeworked
> >>> over a desk as a teenager,
> >>>
> >>> on weekends, I knew
> >>> his presence, nails jangling
> >>> in that tool bag, interspersed
> >>>
> >>> with regular hammer blows,
> >>> some backyard project
> >>> always on the go.
> >>>
> >>> The fete on a Saturday
> >>> at the local grammar school,
> >>> saw well-heeled mothers,
> >>>
> >>> cardiganed fathers haggling
> >>> for bargains. Away from
> >>> trimmed doilies and napkins,
> >>>
> >>> a makeshift side-show
> >>> offered a pound note
> >>> to anyone who could drive
> >>>
> >>> a nail into thick board
> >>> in five or fewer blows.
> >>> I had to insist.
> >>>
> >>> Jim bought Choc Wedges
> >>> for the family, all five of us.
> >>> Proud, was I, as punch.
> >>>
> >>> bw
> >>> 17.2.15
> >
> > Douglas Barbour
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation
> 2 (UofAPress).
> > Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
> >
> > that we are only
> > as we find out we are
> >
> > Charles Olson
> >
>
--
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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