*Poetic Diary of a Clairvoyant Neanderthal in the Ardeche*
"Didn't see that coming!" "Who knew?"
Bourgeois affectations, these parrots of parlance
forgetting the node of Knowing
sited above the back of the tongue, locked midbrain.
We rooted useful otoliths,
cosmic clocks under pterodactyl eggs, Eiffel's
draped folly. "If you invent it,
you must continue to use it," one of you said.
Indeed, through the scrumming rocksoil,
the river delta drowns, our words like mouth-poison,
we stayed here, and, staying, found
we'd eat one another, until we learned to say no.
You've deified mind and body
the skin of cabernet grapes, silky light cocoons.
Some of you reached and will reach more
boredom with maps, mating, stars, studies, artful talk.
You have always trusted your eyes.
When they fail, you see the people you've never seen.
You see prehistoric prophets
gutting your cool fish, roasting your rosemaried lambs
at each religion's guillotine.
You think we cannot say your words
though we've said them in night-rhyming jasmine blossoms,
your heart-windows lifted in sleep,
and we told the morningbirds to talk you awake.
------------------------------
Judy
2009/6/2 Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]>
> Judy, I cannot dissert on anything, as in person I dribble & forget - what?
> words, words. I do cook a decent curry & other things though. I usually
> drink Côtes du Rhône as a good Saint Emilion is beyond my humble
> pensioner's
> purse. And I live nowhere near there but in the Ardèche near Vallon Pont
> d'Arc, where they found the Grotte Chauvet in 1994, with the world's oldest
> cave drawings, if I am not mistaken. B/c me for address.
> votre humble serviteur
> mj
>
> Du siehst mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit.
> Gurnemanz
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Judy Prince
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 4:05 PM
> Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
>
>
> Martin, please prepare your dissertations on Brathwaite et al as you're
> preparing dinner for me and a friend who may be taking you up on your
> invitation to visit...around 20 July. You do live close to St. Emilion,
> don't you?
> Yippeee!!!
>
> Judy
>
> 2009/6/2 Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Perhaps I should have written "not so well known internationally any
> more"
> > (though I stand open to correction here, being not so conversant with all
> > the trends of the moment) and "in the Anglo-American poetry world Derek
> > Walcott..." When I first started exploring modern poetry Brathwaite was
> an
> > important figure - then the wind blew in the other direction and Walcott
> > became more famous. Though confusingly the Chadwyck-Healey 20th Century
> > English poetry CD-Rom only includes Brathwaite. So it goes, probably
> > something to do with licensing fees....I personally think poetry is more
> > like Hegel's burrowing mole of revolution and that - like great music -
> it
> > takes time to reach those who become ready for it and unconsciously look
> > for
> > it. The DOA theory is erroneous because that vast monster, language,
> takes
> > its time to ingest and regurgitate. But as Hal says, a poem only needs
> one
> > reader. In each case that is "me".
> > mj
> > Du siehst mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit. - Gurnemanz
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Martin Walker
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 11:13 AM
> > Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
> >
> >
> > Bra(i)thwaite, Stephen? Methinks you got your West Indians mixed up ;-).
> > Edward Kamau B. is as you say not so well known, but in the poetry world
> > Derek Walcott has been much read and fêted. And has poetry ever - at
> least
> > since bardic times - been much more than a diversion of the clerisy &
> > purveyors of high-class entertainment to the ruling caste, he asked
> > wickedly?
> > mj
> > Du siehst mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit. - Gurnemanz
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Stephen Vincent
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:06 AM
> > Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
> >
> >
> > I been thinking - and maybe others have, as well - that a poem does not
> > exist in any of the public spheres (online, print, etc.) until it
> 'breeds'
> > a
> > review and/or critical response in the eye/ear in a similar or entirely
> > separate public channel (online,print, etc.) And something continues to
> > grow
> > from there.
> >
> > I am thinking that most poetry, no matter how well or diligently written
> > has become absolutely frivolous. Frivolous because it has no visible, or
> > useful function in the culture(s). It's just dead on arrival! The
> > mechanisms
> > for making it so appear entirely devoid of vitality.
> > At best Hermes is talking to Hermes.
> >
> > Until such public means (call and response) are constructed (again), no
> > matter our skills and muse fidelities, in terms of any longer being a big
> > public animal, we be sweeping salt. (i.e., there is much work to be done,
> > and why the weekly poetry snap here can be and is valuable).
> >
> > Whatever his graces, flaws, etc. I suspect Padel was able for a bit to
> > play her ruse on Braithwaite and make it persuasive was because not many
> in
> > this world had read his poetry. Where issues of sexual harassment are -
> and
> > rightly so - required literacy and training in multiple (academic,
> > corporate, etc.) environments. And consequently publicly persuasive and,
> > for
> > a time, ruled this discussion
> >
> > On this this joyous note!
> >
> > Stephen V
> > http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> >
>
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