Ah, hell Bill, I think you’re right, & that I’m wrong all the way through (& knew it once when I had it rightI suspect). Otherwise, the poem is based on ‘reality’…
Nelson Ball just died, a lovely man, who was a great minimalist.
(I suspect the porpoise got in there because of a line in bpnichol’s martyrology; it i after all th dolphins at the mall I was thinking about.).
Doug
> On Aug 21, 2019, at 4:24 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Doug, it looks odd to see you here referring to porpoises in Australia.
> Googling, I note that we do have one species of porpoise but there are 14
> species of dolphin here (32 worldwide) and dolphins are far more prevalent.
> They have prominent elongated beaks and a hooked or curved dorsal fin as
> opposed to the porpoise’s triangular fin. Porpoises are generally more
> portly, dolphins leaner. I’ve seen many energetic dolphins, mostly racing
> and cavorting alongside boats or ferries and once, at Noosa Heads, saw a
> couple out beyond the waves I was bodysurfing. I reckon it is more likely
> you saw a dolphin too.
>
> Anyway, your poem has retained its indentations and spaces and sense.
> Confined pleasure a different beast from open wild writhing.
>
> Bill
>
> On Thu, 22 Aug 2019 at 5:37 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> The Dolphins in the West Edmonton Mall:
>>
>>
>>
>> walking early evening
>> small australian seaside town
>> with no purpose
>> watching the sea
>> splash rocks below see
>> a porpoise leap
>> perfect curve
>> carved eons ago
>>
>> *
>>
>> in the pool at West Edmonton
>> malled dolphins play short
>> stopped short
>> whenever they start
>> a whitewater skid across a surface so enclosed
>> their leaps might curve the same perhaps as always yet
>> they cannot leap laze
>> up to breathe curl
>> around each other below the surface touching fast
>>
>> the water kept clean (is salted ?
>> & they kept together do in their way
>> play
>> they are consumed demonstrating
>> their exploits at 1:10 4:00 7:30
>>
>> midway
>> between profit & less
>> than enough room in a short
>> pool in
>> the middle of all these stores
>>
>> Byzantine politics brought them here
>> for byzantine profits missing
>> the sea what they see
>> missing humanity lost
>> myths that 'gong-tormented sea'
>>
>> saw raw beauty in the early morning
>> before the paying crowd in they play
>> tricks
>> colored ball floating apart from them all
>> they make
>> a person smile & thus complicit
>> imprisoned
>> in a story never part of
>> their ongoing song sung
>> thru the ages of humanity
>>
>> that moment
>> ary glimpse in waves of living curve
>>
>> (the planet
>> moving was
>> another world
>> elsewhere
>>
>>
>> [Hoping it keeps the lineation & indents.]
>> Douglas Barbour
>> [log in to unmask]
>> https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>>
>> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations
>> 2 (UofAPress).
>> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>> Listen. If (UofAPress):
>>
>>
>> ON THE LAKE
>>
>> reeds
>>
>> stalk
>>
>> reeds
>>
>> Nelson Ball
>>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Listen. If (UofAPress):
ON THE LAKE
reeds
stalk
reeds
Nelson Ball
########################################################################
To unsubscribe from the POETRYETC list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=POETRYETC&A=1
|