I wish I'd kept quiet about that. Literacy came to me late, and I'm still
catching up.
No wonder I misunderstand things.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 4:40 AM
Subject: Re: Forward for RFL
I'm just shocked that Jamie hasn't heard of Down With Skool.
On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 5:41 AM, David Bircumshaw
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And a very beautiful clipped resonant withdrawn open poem too.
>
> On 7 October 2011 17:56, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>>
>> "Caterpillars which
>> curl up as question marks. "
>>
>> Ah, the thing. Dearths of a Naturalist.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7 October 2011 12:28, [log in to unmask]
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> If you're interested:
>>>
>>> http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n22/rf-langley/to-a-nightingale
>>>
>>> Test (missing some italics) below:
>>>
>>> Nothing along the road. But
>>> petals, maybe. Pink behind
>>> and white inside. Nothing but
>>> the coping of a bridge. Mutes
>>> on the bricks, hard as putty,
>>> then, in the sun, as metal.
>>> Burls of Grimmia, hairy,
>>> hoary, with their seed-capsules
>>> uncurling. Red mites bowling
>>> about on the baked lichen
>>> and what look like casual
>>> landings, striped flies, Helina,
>>> Phaonia, could they be?
>>> This month the lemon, I’ll say
>>> primrose-coloured, moths, which flinch
>>> along the hedge then turn in
>>> to hide, are Yellow Shells not
>>> Shaded Broad-bars. Lines waver.
>>> Camptogramma. Heat off the
>>> road and the nick-nack of names.
>>> Scotopteryx. Darkwing. The
>>> flutter. Doubles and blurs the
>>> margin. Fuscous and white. Stop
>>> at nothing. To stop here at
>>> nothing, as a chaffinch sings
>>> interminably, all day.
>>> A chiff-chaff. Purring of two
>>> turtle doves. Voices, and some
>>> vibrate with tenderness. I
>>> say none of this for love. It
>>> is anyone’s giff-gaff. It
>>> is anyone’s quelque chose.
>>> No business of mine. Mites which
>>> ramble. Caterpillars which
>>> curl up as question marks. Then
>>> one note, five times, louder each
>>> time, followed, after a fraught
>>> pause, by a soft cuckle of
>>> wet pebbles, which I could call
>>> a glottal rattle. I am
>>> empty, stopped at nothing, as
>>> I wait for this song to shoot.
>>> The road is rising as it
>>> passes the apple tree and
>>> makes its approach to the bridge.
>>>
>>>
>>> At one level this is RFL being more mainstream than a mainstream poet
>>> would dare to be. Some will remember "The song of the chiffchaff" as
>>> part of
>>> Willans/Searle 1950s-era satire of soppy English teachers in Down with
>>> Skool. So maybe it's fitting that the poem should be a Forward winner!
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> David Joseph Bircumshaw
>> "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe
>> is
>> that none of it has tried to contact us."
>> - Calvin & Hobbes
>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
>> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
>> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> --
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is
> that none of it has tried to contact us."
> - Calvin & Hobbes
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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