Chris Vallance wrote:
> Being deliberately provocative can I suggest that in order to keep
> everyone's feet on the ground poetry publishers should refuse to accept
> manuscripts that do not contain at least one poem that could be read at a
> wedding or a funeral. Let's, in a limited way, give the punters what they
> want.
Hard to disagree here: the last few funerals I attended could have used, I
thought, a bit of poetry. And there are certainly some poets whose work
fits the bill admirably--Ted Hughes, for instance. Actually, the day I
heard that Hughes had died I pulled out his poem "View of a Pig" & read it
aloud to my family, who were duly moved--I'll quote the opening stanzas
below:
The pig lay on a barrow dead.
It weighed, they said, as much as three men.
Its eyes closed, pink white eyelashes.
Its trotters stuck straight out.
Such weight and thick pink bulk
Set in death seemed not just dead.
It was less than lifeless, further off.
It was like a sack of wheat.
I thumped it without feeling remorse,
One feels guilty insulting the dead,
Walking on graves. But this pig
Did not seem able to accuse.
It was too dead. Just so much
A poundage of lard and pork.
Its last dignity had entirely gone.
It was not a figure of fun.
Too dead now to pity.
To remember its life, din, stronghold
Of earthly pleasure as it had been,
Seemed a false effort, and off the point.
Too deadly factual. Its weight
Oppressed me--how could it be moved?
And the trouble of cutting it up!.....
all best --N
Nate & Jane Dorward
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109 Hounslow Ave., Willowdale, ON, M2N 2B1, Canada
ph: (416) 221 6865
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