Hi, Rebecca.
> I'll have to consider your comments
> on context, perhaps I could revise this so it could exist
> independently of that context.
Actually, in the wake of chris's comment (and chris, you know perfectly well
that you dote on flattery as much as I enjoy flattering you -- call me Uriah
H.) it occurred to me to wonder if it didn't +already+ exist independtly of
brit-po. Some bits certainly work out of context. You could, as a
shortcut, float it on a list which is totally unaware of the context, and
see what happens. Seems to me the best bits are too good to lose in the
welter of cyberdust.
> Though it's often the case when
> something is first written that the particular situation
> in which it originated clings in vestiges and has to be
> subsequently removed.
Or can be dramatised and incorporated -- there are two ways of solving the
problem. Partly, it's a subset of the "Occasional Poem" thing.
I once had a similar problem, with a collection of poems called _Stamping on
Schrodinger's Kittens_. This was quite innocuous anywhere EXCEPT the
Shakespeare Institute at Stratford. Where it could have caused a whole
series of disasters, too personal and horrendous to detail. (Though I must
say that that's the only time in my life when I *know* I was watched through
a pair of high-powered binoculars.)
It would be so much easier if one could simply change names at will, as
Berryman revised whatever-she-was-called to 'Lise' in "Berryman's Sonnets"
> And, yes, you're right it is an
> exagerrated Mr. B, like a recent poem I wrote imagining
> Wallace Stevens at a Rotarian luncheon wherein I called him
> "Mr. Mum," though saying that I am looking over my shoulder
> wondering if some of the other mr. b's on the list will
> suddenly begin feeling abused.
Could anyone on this good-humoured and civilised list +possibly+ take
offence at *anything*?
Cheers,
Robin
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