Yes and welcome from Patrick the geriatric poetaster from Raynes Park
-London
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Douglas Barbour
Sent: 22 May 2012 21:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: First post
Yes, welcome.
And what Roger said.
And then, to get the fiction going a bit more, for more fun: I see why the
passive constructions for the 'I', but maybe more active ones for all those
others that come in the first lines of the couplets?
Doug
On 2012-05-22, at 6:34 AM, Roger Collett wrote:
> Welcome Bill,
>
> Just a tip.
> When you post here don't cut and paste from Word.
> Use a text file from something like Notepad and you wont get the surplus
linefeeds.
>
> Nice to have a new subscriber.
> Roger Collett
> Arrowhead Press
> http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/
>
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>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Wootton"
<[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 1:17 PM
> Subject: First post
>
>
> Hi all.
>
> Geez you are a hard lot to tap into. Thanks Max, Uche et al for walking me
through the subscription minefields.
>
> Now, is this what I do? Attach a poem and await comment?
>
>
>
> Surrounded by Competents
>
>
> Everyone seems to know what to do.
>
> I am bewildered.
>
>
>
> Stepping in to the breach seems so natural for others.
>
> Whenever I do, it’s as a rabbit in the headlights.
>
>
>
> The hands of others manoeuvre and tinkle.
>
> Mine hold, at best.
>
>
>
> Everyone’s a player or wants to be.
>
> I spectate.
>
>
>
> It seems so natural to get involved.
>
> For me, it’s always an effort.
>
>
>
> Competent tradies do and do and do.
>
> I am awed by their air of efficiency and sureness.
>
>
>
> I panic into offering what unskilled assistance I can.
>
> Initiativelessly.
>
>
>
> Even opinions seem ready on the lips of others
>
> While mine, such as they are, I have to summon.
>
>
>
> Are they kidding? I wonder.
>
> My natural tendency is to wait.
>
>
>
> My blood pressure is lizard low.
>
> The world seems full of pulsing bubblers.
>
>
>
> Tentativeness is both my opening and fallback position.
>
> Footholds are all I gain.
>
>
>
> Cooking: I still can’t quite acknowledge
>
> the transformation from raw to plateworthy.
>
>
>
> Cars: how the hell do they work ?
>
> At 55, I’m no closer to knowing than I was at 5.
>
>
>
> Turn the key, flick the switch.
>
> I accept the consequent changes ignorantly.
>
>
>
> I suppose it is pleasant enough. I wouldn’t say
>
> I’m wide-eyed. More even-eyed: seeing without discernment.
>
>
>
> So long as the world doesn’t betray my naiveté.
>
>
>
> Bill Wootton 15.4.12
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.h
tml
Why can’t words mean what they say?
Robert Kroetsch
