And may I add my encouragement. I was thinking of many things earlier when
I read it first and didn't say what I should. It's something to take on
such an iconic verse.
Well done.
And saying that I risk it sounding patronising. It's not meant that way.
Finding something worth saying and saying it elegantly of something
perhaps otherwise unremarked in the discourse of poetry
Well done.
L
On Wed, January 25, 2012 16:22, Douglas Barbour wrote:
> Not in the mind's eye, but nice to just go there, with the dog, daily.
> Yes, a response, Max.
>
>
> Doug
> On 2012-01-25, at 4:03 AM, Patrick McManus wrote:
>
>
>> Thanks Max-Lucky ducks
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Max Richards
>> Sent: 24 January 2012 23:54
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: snap: the lake isle of ruffey
>>
>>
>> The Lake Isle of Ruffey
>>
>>
>> All this time I haven't mentioned
>> the tiny island in our little lake!
>>
>> Indeed it's overlook-able - from
>> several hills. Its trees and reedy
>>
>> banks look just like onshore. Too small to feel worth visiting
>>
>>
>> for a stroll of, say, ten paces, or squeeze in nine bean-rows.
>>
>> The Irish poet never made it
>> to his lake isle, except in his
>>
>> imagination. This one figures in the mind's eye scarcely,
>>
>> let alone the deep heart's core. No, all it's good for is ducks
>>
>>
>> to hatch a clutch remote from night predators like the rare fox.
>>
>> An owl of course well might
>> drop in darkly before the brood
>>
>> has been led by Mother wadd- ling down to their tentative
>>
>> first paddle and even more risks. This lake isle no doubt was formed
>>
>>
>> by the same earth-moving machines as made the lake
>>
>> from the creek valley and raised the dam that holds water back
>>
>> from its old free run all the way down through Templestowe to the Yarra.
>>
>>
>> The signs say No Swimming
>> for Humans, and Discouraged
>>
>> for Dogs. Should yours swim there, avoid contact with its wet coat -
>>
>> stormwater drains feed the lake - it's far from pure.
>>
>> Pure, though, our feelings
>> for it, wherever we view
>>
>> it from, especially its overlooked islet unvisited by humans.
>>
>> What I hear right now's no owl but
>> a tawny frogmouth sounding Ommm.
>>
>> A child might wonder whether,
>> should he make it over the water,
>>
>> wading, then dog-paddling, he might be the first to burst
>>
>> up the bank into the secret interior there to shelter
>>
>> his own islanded self, and still get home in time for tea.
>>
>>
>>
>> Max Richards, Doncaster Vic
>>
>>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10
> .html
>
>
> What dull barbarians are not proud of
> their dullness and barbarism?
>
> Thackeray
>
>
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