Robin is right that in conflating the man with the work I've skewed Tom
Raworth's work a bit--the humor in it would be more characteristically deadpan
rather than gut-busting. Though the same might be said of Tom's fish-goggles
private performance at Romana Huk's wonderful event. Randomly, from the book
nearest me on the shelf, _Catacoustics_ (Street Editions, 1991):
ERZULIE
falsity
death
dangerous work
what is done
is its form
what if imaginary things
did what we could not understand?
"europe" freud laughed
a feat of detection
or just a guess
let the set designer
be advised
even the trash
must advertise
straight lines
me and my shadow
generations to come
news happens suddenly
not enough time
to waste on people
in europe people are not moved
until in stable condition
doctors could not decide
his level of consciousness
for he spoke no language
looking through a camera. . .
Stopping arbitrarily too. Even in this book, which TR once described to me as
"wail to wail" one of the effects of the "disjunction" is surely "comic," the
feeling of walking along on a rug that's being constantly pulled out from
under you, perpetual revision of memory-sense. It's only slapstick-guffaw if
you're allowed to stop (as rarely here in the spacings and the doodles).
Without being allowed to stop it's a movie-effect, as Barrell has noted, and
one i'd say that's vaguely chaplinesque, that doing what is ordinarily done
but confronting obstacles in the dance that leave you doing it over and over.
But it's not even that I meant to mention. What distinguishes TR's work (for
me) from others doing similar things involves not only the deftness of this
movement--important to be nimble Pound once told his daughter--but also
particular lines (eg "europe" freud laughed) or possible groupings of lines
(eg. "even the trash/must advertise") and their clarity and wit ("deadpan") in
passing by--their ear for the phrase, idiom. The larger functions of
narrativity etc. in longer passages and books are also worth discussing, though
I don't have time (or perhaps skill enough) to do so here and now
as i'm off to play basketball and no doubt that local nuisance the librarian
will once again elbow me in the head thereby relieving cris cheek and others of
the need to let out any of the hot air stored there
best to all
happy weekends etc.
Keith
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