I wrote the following as much as a warning to myself, as something to re-direct
my own energies, as much as a polemic against Other Poets. It seems relevant-ish
to the discussion. ?
Growing up and then living as an adult in a semi-rural,
semi-urban landscape is not always a guarantee that you will
write about that world. For many the imagining of even the
suburban world they know intimately is impossible: they have
to give in to the temptations of the poetic City or The
Countryside. Such poets do not live creatively in the place
that their body lives, and this may well have an effect on the
intensity with which they write (for bad, but yes perhaps for good). There
may also be a kind of snobbery about this, the same
snobbery which is as disdainful of the bungalows in Stephen
Spielberg's films as it is of the extraterrestrials. To many
poets, it seems, suburbia (and the car, as part of that) is the really
alien land, and they are silent about it.
Richard
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Subject: Re: Place Locality Environment
Author: cris cheek <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date: 11/02/2000 10:19
hiya,
liking this thread and its transports.
Personal projections here would find me knowing the impact that travelling
of all kinds has made on my writig. Speeds and modes of transports have
directly taken part in the syntactical strategies I employ. Not necessarily
high speeds. I do like walking and have practiced slow walking, a wonderful
perceptual shifter. Sianed and I planned an annual slow walking of London
Bridges race. The idea being that the person who finished last and took the
longest time to walk the bridge whilst moving continually 'forwards' was
the 'winner'.
The set of pieces I',m about to issue under title 'f o g s' are all pieces
written whilst walking or driving in fogs. Sometimes I like to see how far
along a street I can go with my eyes closed, sometimes where i end up! I've
been driving cars since I was seventeen and do about 25000 miles per year.
Plus I travel for average 15 hours each week by train. Before I drove I had
a motorbike for a couple of years. I ride a bike in the forests sometimes,
trail crashing, off into waist-high ferns and along mud gullies. I enjoyed
skiing until aged eighteen (every year since 6 yrs) and trained at downhill
when they'd take us up to the top of a glacier (this was Andermatt Swiss
Alps swiss side of Gottard Pass) take away our ski poles and with crash
helmets on we'd plunge downhill. Also deep snow off-piste skiing with
iridescence of snow streams in corner of vision. But I haven't done that
since 1982 - pity. john's just back from skiing and iffin he's readig
here might chip in on that. Closest, apart from body-surfing in heavy seas,
I've come to high octane sports.
Have been considering getting some roller skates after going skating
several times recently with my son. He's into sk8boards and there's a great
park near us.
Anything for mobilities and motilities of the whole body (yes that's
including the mind).
love and love
cris
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