Fun poem, Joe.
I say some poems can mean if they want to, but they don't have to mean to be
a poem. A rock can be given meaning (Uluru, pet rocks) but a rock doesn't
need to mean to be a rock.
Andrew the Meaningless One
On 27/11/2007, joe green <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Maybe doing this is better.
>
> My mojo all gone I wish I were Ashbery.
> No, not the poet. I'd have a haberdashery
> Ashbery's Haberdashery down thirteen flights.
> We're closed all the days and all of the nights.
> We'd have derbies and Panamas and the finest fedora
> And a curious headdress from far Bora Bora
> And a nautical hat that's most like a whale
> And none of it, sadly, quite yet for sale.
> Cause that's just what happens. That's how it goes.
> Without rings and your fingers or bells on your toes
> You close up the shop and go down to the zoo
> And patiently stare at a panther or two.
> As they patiently stare right back at you.
>
> I'm with the readers who look for meaning. A poem ain't a rock.
>
>
>
> On Nov 26, 2007 7:52 PM, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Good ol' Ron S has done some research for me (and you) again. Here's the
> > last para of a review of John Ashberry's selection for his last ten
> books:
> >
> > 'I concede that £12.95 is a steep price to pay for what many will
> consider
> > to be insurmountably baffling. But bafflement is part of the condition
> of
> > modern poetry, and if there's a modern poet you need on your shelves,
> and in
> > your head, it's Ashbery. As Geoffrey Hill - also an essential poet -
> once
> > said, public toilets have a duty to be accessible, poetry does not.'
> >
> > I love the Hill quote. The rest of the review is interesting - read it
> at
> > http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/poetry/0,,2216060,00.html
> >
> > Nicholas Lezard hails the later work of one of the truly essential
> poets,
> > John Ashbery
> >
> > *Saturday November 24, 2007
> > The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>*
> >
> >
> > *Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems*, by John Ashbery (Carcanet,
> > £12.95)
> >
> >
> > My frustration is that some readers keep looking for meaning in poetry.
> Why
> > should a poem have to 'mean'?! A tree is, a rock is, a wedge-tail eagle
> is,
> > a poem is.
> >
> >
> >
> > Andrew
> > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Joseph Green
> The Pleasant Reviewer
> Headmaster, St. John Boscoe Laboratory School
>
> Switchboard Captain, Hollywood Colonial Hotel
>
> All complaints shall be directed to:
>
> Camelopard Breathwaite
> The Fallows, 200 Fifth Avenue, Fredonia City
>
> "That's Double Dependability"
>
> Brought to you by Zenith Trans-Cosmic Radio
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
|