Why Ive always visited in what you Aussies (laughingly) call 'winter'...
Doug
On 2013-03-01, at 3:18 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks for clearing that up, Lawrence. I was seeing a train too but it doesn't really matter I suppose. 'Fire hills' around here could either be white-yellow parched grass hills or grassfire-blackened ones in this, the hottest summer Australia has ever had, officially. In Birdsville, they had 31 days of temperatures over 40 degrees. Not quite that bad round Cottles Bridge, 38 ks north of Melbourne but bloody dry just the same. So celebrate your sogginess in Somerset.
>
> Bill
>
> On 01/03/2013, at 5:49 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Hi Doug
>>
>> I didn't get Bill's, so I'll work from the copy in yours. (Later, it
>> did come through but wasn't onforwarded to my “workhorse email”
>> where I was reading. It is here on this email
>>
>> Start again
>>
>> Hi Bill, Doug, Patrick
>>
>>> Except for the hedges (which imply some keptness), this could be an
>> Australian pre-bushfire piece, Lawrence.
>>
>> Aha. Interesting. Coincidental. It's Somerset. Soggy Somerset.
>>
>>> Is there a reason all lines but the first are indented one letter
>> space?
>>
>> No. I shall examine my sent copy. The word processed version is
>> standard.
>>
>>> And is the switch to present tense in the fifth line deliberate?
>>
>> Well, it isn't a switch to present tense. One tends to say
>> “understood” in such circumstances, yes, well, we do, and
>> obviously you lot do; but it is ok like that I believe.
>>
>> As it happens: I understand. Now: I understand. ie nothing has
>> changed Thus, as it happened, I could say I understand; and then I
>> could refer to that in the past without changing the tense to agree
>> with it. It becomes clear if you put speech marks round “I
>> understand”; but that isn't necessary. I really wanted that odd
>> 'call' to the present tense, against the demotic use of tense, to pin
>> down / picture the force of the images
>>
>>> I like 'That's many yards' which tells well of movement when your
>> eyes want arrest.
>>
>> Good. I'm pleased. I wrote that almost immediately and then
>> worried... Glastonbury was far behind before I turned the page – and
>> it never was near thank the vacuum
>>
>> Thanks for the interest
>>
>> Doug
>>
>>> I thought 'train,' even as the poem says 'drove,' Lawrence, that
>> speed of passing the bush.
>>
>> I know what you mean. It was a coach, London - Penzance via Falmouth.
>> Going fast as we neared the coffee break
>>
>>> Not sure what 'fire hills' are, although those men could be read as
>> firefighter after a fire (at a farm?)…
>>
>> I'm not sure what they are... I was just now coming back into London
>> and looking at all the distortions and reflections in the window and
>> thinking there might be a film there... Odd effects of being in a
>> coach; only the driver sees clearly.
>>
>> I doubt they were firefighters or that there was a fire, though it's
>> a nice idea.
>>
>> Indirect sunlight most like
>>
>> In a back-channel exchange here (near here!) some time ago, I said
>> that I have seen a ghost and have no belief in them. It's what I saw.
>> Hills of fire if you like. The brain making sense of what it sees and
>> getting it wrong with distortion and reflection and unwanted light.
>>
>> All a matter of seconds but grabbed and written fairly truthfully
>>
>>> It's a true series of quick snapshots, though...
>>
>> Patrick. Er... I have misjudged Raynes Park
>>
>> L
>>
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
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