On Mon, 10 May 1999, Peter Riley wrote:
>
> >To:Peter Howard <[log in to unmask]>
> >From:[log in to unmask] (Peter Riley)
> >Subject:Re: Heterodox brick wall syndrome help request
> >
> >Prynne primer part one.
> >
> >Poems, 1999, first page, first poem.
> >
> >Begins--
> >
> >The whole thing it is, the difficult
> >matter: to shrink the confines
> >down. To signals, so that I come
> >back to this, we are
> > small / in the rain
> >
> >
> >
> >What's the problem? Seems clear as daylight to me.
> >And maybe a clue to all that follows.
> >Of course people don't like being told they're small. But they are.
> >Especially in the rain.
> >
> >/PR
>
>
>
-- or rather, they're small because they contrive reflexively to seem so.
Hence, "to shrink...so that I come / back to this". This is
particularly marked, since 'shrnk' is made transitive. And the sense of
seeming small can be -swapped- for merely being in the rain. We entitle
ourselves to seem so.
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