Pretty
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On Jun 2, 2009, at 12:25 PM, Judy Prince
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> *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
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> 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 Vallo
>> n 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 Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"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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