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I think this a very fine poem, Dominic, although I wonder too whether a
close liaison with the language of Geoffrey Hill does not show through a
little in places, I'm thinking of lines such as:
"Covetousness makescovenant with itself, renews its vows
each episode. There’s comedy in that."

while the appearance of a 'bounder' in these 'ere days is a bit reminiscent
of Hill's own awkwardness with the colloquial, rather than yours.

But I like the poem's dialogue with (self-questioning) self.


2009/6/29 Dominic Fox <[log in to unmask]>

> i)
>
> Charity, you asked for that: tact
> never a strong point. Consider yourself snubbed
> by moral imbeciles, lesser imaginations,
> the scale of valuation going right up
> to its asymptote. Nobody knows /
> everyone knows. Pivot on the bar.
>
> ii)
>
> You’re going to be living with yourself,
> albeit in separate apartments, the makeshift
> partition rattling in wartime Morse.
> Steptoe is crushing. Covetousness makes
> covenant with itself, renews its vows
> each episode. There’s comedy in that.
>
> iii)
>
> Tactless but not artless. Some would say
> demonic, aggrandizing a minor imp,
> mascot of common turpitude. So tell me,
> nameless self-accuser, who made you
> chief of sinners? Rather a graceless bounder,
> hopscotching to perdition across the coals.
>
> iv)
>
> Say you have lost, Perdita, a fat pearl;
> lost or dissolved in vinegar. Say we
> are the dead, as some of us might well be,
> no longer credit-worthy; iris scans
> to confirm ongoing probate of remainder.
> Remind me: where exactly did we leave things?
>



-- 
David Bircumshaw
"Nothing can be done in the face
of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
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