Um yeah, that was a good joke back then; not so much now…
That first line makes for a good example of how what you bring to your reading affects your interpretation….
Doug
> On Sep 21, 2016, at 4:32 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Well, Doug, I'm sorry to hear of your experience, and of others worse. I
> was just trying to get down to the pool quickly in my opening. Have been
> reading John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, his black poodle in 1960. In
> the deep south, he comes across someone who threw his kid in the pool and a
> passerby says Tried that with my wife but they keep making it to the side.
> Read that after my poem though so it doesn't inform it.
>
> Bill
>
> On Thursday, 22 September 2016, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> I take Max’s point, but as someone who was thrown into the water as a
>> child & luckily held up by a friend of my father’s, since I didn’t know how
>> to swim yet, that opening seemed rather violent, & I expected something
>> other than what followed.., which was a bunch of neat descriptions…
>>
>> Doug
>>> On Sep 21, 2016, at 7:11 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]
>> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Thanks Max, Andrew, Pat. Yes, conditional opening, 'if' implied.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, 21 September 2016, Patrick McManus <
>>> [log in to unmask] <javascript:;>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> what action!!!did anyone just drown/sink??cheers |P
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 20/09/2016 23:56, Bill Wootton wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Throw everyone in the pool. They adopt
>>>>> a stroke almost immediately. Most
>>>>> freestyle it, face down, propelling from prone,
>>>>> alternate overarming, scissor kicking,
>>>>> Australian crawling, ice smooth repeaters:
>>>>> nose, nipple, knackers, knee; leaning sideways
>>>>> to draw unhurried breaths as they barrel
>>>>> ahead, barely creating a ripple.
>>>>> More casually, backstrokers reverse
>>>>> themselves, lean back from supine positions,
>>>>> thrusting faces, stomachs, genitals skywards,
>>>>> expecting no impediments, like so
>>>>> many half-animated, drifting logs.
>>>>> Double-arming butterfliers launch themselves
>>>>> from underwater, splay-grasping air then
>>>>> fresh wet territory, bound-leggedly
>>>>> threshing, projecting their exuberance.
>>>>> Now there's us lot. Tentative foragers,
>>>>> parting water in front of our noses,
>>>>> groping forward, too soon sweeping backwards
>>>>> to hips, legs frog-kicking, heads under dipped,
>>>>> emerging, for a snatched breath, bent-backed,
>>>>> and a fresh go at it. Maybe this time ...
>>>>>
>>>>> bw
>>>>>
>>>>
>>
>> Douglas Barbour
>> [log in to unmask] <javascript:;>
>> https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>>
>> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations
>> 2 (UofAPress).
>> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>>
>> Four or five couplets trying to dance
>> into Persia. Who dances in Persia now?
>>
>> A magic carpet, a prayer mat, red.
>> A knocked off head of somebody on her broken knees.
>>
>> Phyllis Webb
>>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Four or five couplets trying to dance
into Persia. Who dances in Persia now?
A magic carpet, a prayer mat, red.
A knocked off head of somebody on her broken knees.
Phyllis Webb
|