Cheers Max 'The Mid-Life Crisis Red Sports Car???' how about the 'The
Late-Life Crisis Red Sports Car'+blonde
Me I was very attached to my old Vespa which finally died coming back from a
trip in Norway -all those years ago!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 01 August 2008 02:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: snap 30 July 08: tidying myself away-poem for max
Patrick, have you been on a motorbike lately?
I still pine for a little red sportscar, but it's far too late.
There's a picture book in shops just now called
The Mid-Life Crisis Red Sports Car
or some such.
best from Max
Quoting Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>:
> For max
> CLEAR OUT
>
> when he
> her ancient
> doddering
> pensioner husband
> actually got it together
> to clear out his old junk
> all his effects of years
> she was impressed
> but less so
> when he ran off
> on a motor bike
> with that blonde
> from down the road
> without even
> saying goodbye
>
>
> pmcmanus
> q301
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Patrick McManus
> Sent: 30 July 2008 07:53
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: snap 30 July 08: tidying myself away
>
> Max enjoyed this tied in with my two years or so continuous spring clean
-hm
> some more poems material here
> Cheers Patrick
> Ps don't take it too far -no nice coffin smartly laid out in the garage in
> readiness (with screws etc
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 29 July 2008 23:47
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: snap 30 July 08: tidying myself away
>
> Tidying myself away
>
> Actuarially, the paper says,
> I should live another ten years or so,
> my wife a further twenty or thirty.
>
> Therefore it is befitting
> I should consider her future
> and prepare to . tidy myself away.
>
> No woman wants to come home
> from her man's funeral
> to a house empty of him
> but chocker with the clutter
> of the person just disposed of.
>
> We all know widows choking still
> over the old boy's shoes, hats,
> trousers, jackets and coats.
> They can't face meeting them
> on some codger kitted-out
> at the local op-shop.
> Best if I prune my wardrobe now
> to some bare necessities.
>
> When at retirement I packed up
> my old office, I trashed - well,
> as much as I could bear to:
> quite a few files, unsorted clippings,
> unread publishers' catalogues.
>
> I called in three book-dealers:
> one by one they scanned the shelves,
> made their slim selections -
> 'most of this stuff's unsellable -
> nothing's deader than old critics',
> paid me chickenfeed, trundled away.
>
> Browsing in their shops these days,
> I'm often drawn to familiar book-spines,
> check the prices - unsellable, these too?
> So far I've held back from rescuing them.
>
> At home in the garage, meanwhile,
> stand grim metal cabinets I said I'd sift,
> once I'd reconciled to their deadness -
> old lecture scripts, 'research' ingredients
> gathered from afar, never baked.
>
> More unsorted notes and clippings,
> from which once I thought to analyse,
> anatomise, synthesise
> where culture was drifting.
>
> It was me that was drifting.
> Have I stopped clipping?
> And printing out clues from websites?
> I'm not that retired.
>
> In my little office off the garage
> the dogs have just enough space to snooze;
> the rest - cartons of once necessary
> items, yet to be sorted,
> like the boxes the op-shop workers find
> on Mondays on the pavement.
>
> Classics on cheap paper that long waited
> my freedom - Proust, late James
> still expecting in fine my late nod.
> Tapes of great portent
> for superseded tape-players.
>
> Signed copies of books by five decades
> of half-talented acquaintances.
> My own unsold books.
> If a fire swept through here,
> what a mercy. But first,
> I'd better do some sorting,
> trashing. Ideally, all will be dispersed
> the day this old body is tidied away.
>
> Max Richards
>
> Doncaster, Victoria
>
> Wednesday 30 July 2008
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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