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Max, Though I've read a number of books by Paul Blackburn and even published a short piece on him in a festschrift edited by Pierre Joris, Gil Sorrentino told me I didn't really "get" PB. Indeed, I never met him or witnessed a reading, though I have heard quite a number of narratives about him. Therefore I yield the floor to Pierre Joris and Mark Weiss. Barry On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 08:49:35 +1000, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Blackburn died so young! >Is this a fair sample? (from epc buffalo) chosen for its cemetery ref... >Max > >Tanks > > > > >Houses three stories high > >or block homes of apartments > > both with steep Norman roofs > > > > >The fish swims in the river > >and shares it with other fish > > The cabbages have a garden > > to share with the lettuce and radishes, > > the tomatoes > > >The cow has a small pasture > >and grazes it by herself > > > > An old man lies on a sack >on > > a hillside in the sun > > after lunch . > > watches the train whip by > > > >The dead lie in the cemetery near the tracks > >share earth with the other dead > >and do not look at anything > > > >A barge on the river barges past, the wash flying > >The fish swim in the river > > They share it with the barge, > > the fishermen . > > > > >late Aug / 1968 > > >[1975] >Quoting Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>: > >> Max, >> >> Nicely handled. I can remember being unexpectedly drawn into Cortland as I >> was driving >> across the state of New York, surprised to find myself researching the house >> in which the >> poet Paul Blackburn lived as he was dying of throat cancer. A graveyard was >> visible from >> the rear of the house. >> >> Barry >> >> >> On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 16:08:46 +1000, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> >> wrote: >> >> > >> >Cemetery Road >> > >> > >> >Off Yarra Street, turn right >> >(mind the oncoming traffic) >> > >> >and the first three or four houses, >> >new, on the left all look desirable: >> > >> >fresh, elegant, at home already >> >among the sun-glinting eucalypts. >> > >> >The second is still for sale - >> >couldn't we downsize here? >> > >> >Further from town, fewer rooms, >> >affordable, livable. Roses; quiet. >> > >> >But who wants to live on Cemetery Road? >> >After the houses there's that open space, >> > >> >parcelled out in graves and grave-sites. >> >Not far to go when the time comes. >> > >> >The ultimate in downsizing. >> >Observe the waiting plastic frames: >> > >> >piled, each a little larger than a grave: >> >once the grave is dug you don't want it filling with rain. >> > >> >I sense my pallbearers' black shoes, polished >> >that morning, sinking in soft clay at my grave's edge, >> > >> >the awkwardness with ropes, the tilting >> >and lowering, settling down there, now >> > >> >and forever. The muddied shoes step back >> >discreetly. Rose petals flutter on my lid. >> > >> > Wednesday 1 October 2008 >> > >> > Max Richards, Doncaster, Victoria >> > > > > > > >------------------------------------------------------------ >This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au