 |
 |
Yes, the Creeley poem came right back into my consciousness not too long after his death.'Drive', a kind of mantra for the act of living fully, paying attention, being in the move of it: Autumn & the juice returns. The rhythm. Slap on the ball. Drum beat patter against floor, against asphalt. Youth re- enfolds. Leap taken, not taken. Jump shot, long shot, lay- up, fake here, fake there, drive. "Drive", one never stops saying: Backyard, Elementary, Junior, High School, College, Pro. The rhythm of one's life, one's season, the delivery: one's shots, one's defenses, one's gifts: the high arc of the ball drifting down: In memory, Robert Creeley, passed this year. Alison kindly published this piece with my photograph of a basketball hoop in the current issue of Masthead http://masthead.net.au/issue10/vincent.html Along with other images from my Ghost Walks series of texts and images. (Lot of other good stuff in the Masthead issue, by the way, including many people on this list!) By the way, remember the movie, "Drive, He Said" - Jeremy somebody. I forget the movie "Forget the movie, he sd," So it bounces, too Stephen V > Yup, and it's the actual driver who's got his eye on the road. > Interesting to see the poem as two voices in one head, let's say > inspiration, even afflatus, and craft. Tho not limited to poetry, of > course. And the two voices, whatever the moment of the poem's making, > are certainly in Creeley's head--he's incorporated his friend. > > Mark > > At 09:53 AM 3/29/2006, you wrote: >> It's not uncommon in this part of the world for people to address the >> driver of, e.g. a bus, as "drive" - as in saying "cheers, drive!" when >> getting off the bus. So it's also possible to read the "drive" in the >> last section in the vocative. >> >> It's intuitive to take the break between the sections as indicating a >> shift in speaker; but I guess another way to hear the break is as an >> unvoiced "y'know, really..." - the first speaker is getting carried >> away, imagining what it might be like to "buy a goddamn big >> car...y'know, really...*drive*", maybe taking his hands off the wheel >> and waving them around to indicate the expansiveness of the concept. >> At which point "John" interrupts... >> >> Dominic >> >> On 3/29/06, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>> I Know a Man >>> >>> As I sd to my >>> friend, because I am >>> always talking, -- John, I >>> >>> sd, which was not his >>> name, the darkness sur- >>> rounds us, what >>> >>> can we do against >>> it, or else, shall we & >>> why not, buy a goddamn big car, >>> >>> drive, he sd, for >>> christ's sake, look >>> out where yr going. >>> >>> >>> >>> Note: Creeley found it amusing that his one poem that made it beyond >>> the realm of poetry readers and students into the realm of pop >>> culture is usually misread, as in the film title. He claimed that the >>> I of the poem says the word "drive," the rest is John's. Makes it a >>> more interesting poem (tho far from my favorite of Creeley's), but >>> hard to imagine how even a pretty good reader would get this. >>> >> >> >> -- >> Shall we be pure or impure? Today >> we shall be very pure. It must always >> be possible to contain >> impurities in a pure way. >> --Tarmo Uustalu and Varmo Vene