I challenge this "ageist" thing, Judy (if you're not joking) - if a retired
person can't indulge in a little self-mockery (as I understand Andrew to
have been doing) then PC Orwell rules OK. So 65+s "fiddle and fart" - I know
I do. It's an observation, that's all. I've got plenty of ageist
observations about young urban folks, specially girls, who are often
incredibly rude on the street nowadays: like, nobody else exists. But hey,
they're not all like that.
mj
_______________________________________
But I am but a nameless sort of person
(A broken Dandy lately on my travels)
And take for rhyme, to hook my rambling verse on,
The first that Walker's Lexicon unravels
- George Gordon, Lord Byron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Prince" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Blake poem
>I challenge your tone [yes I know you're being humourous] about retired
> folk, 'Droo; it's ageist and makes me [can't speak for others] feel
> negative
> about retired folk. I hope we can be positive about folks who we don't
> feel
> are young. Our cultures [yours and mine] have a low opinion of old folks.
> It's a damaging stereotype and one of the most persistent, if we buy into
> it or accept it. Thanks for considering the issue.
> Now to your poem. I like it much much better! It's smooth, still very
> visual, and now makes clearer the narrative whole [start, middle, finish],
> so that the 'feel' and fact of your theme and point stay sharp.
>
> Natch, tho, I always 'cut' redundancies and distracting excursions, so
> I've
> removed them, below. My opinion only, acourse! Figured you'd like that
> ;-)
>
> Best,
>
> Judy
>
>
> 2009/4/2 andrew burke <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> What do retired people who write poetry do but fiddle and fart around
>> with
>> their own words. Here is the latest and perhaps last version of that
>> lumpy
>> text I threw at you earlier this week. Thanks to Judy, Patrick, Doug,
>> Frederick and anyone else who addressed the mess for me. Off list, Andrew
>> Taylor also helped steer me right.
>>
>> The Poetical Works (title)
>>
>> Forty six years on
>> and still I warm my hands
>> over it. It opens me out like
>> a choir singing rounds
>> in eighteenth century London.
>
>
>
>>
>> I take it down from the shelf to
>> remember her, sophisticated lady
>> in a Sydney harbourside mansion who
>> placed Blake's poems in my hands
>> patted their flimsy skin, aged veinless patina.
>> 'We know you'll enjoy this, boy.'
>>
>> I went down my own back roads
>> through cities and fields,
>> an awkward pelican landing
>> on this seat this morning
>> remembering my bottle-scarred muse alive
>
> with Blake's pulse in the skein of days.
>
>
> ----------------------------------[altered by jp]
>
>
>>
>>
>> Thanks all.
>>
>> --
>> Andrew
>> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
>>
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