Oh good
I thought I was being nerdy
L
On Sat, May 19, 2012 19:37, Sheila Murphy wrote:
> Lawrence, what a bonus! I awoke to your beautifully educational missive!
> Several features of the locale were new to me, notably the names and why
> (including Agnes). Thank you for this. I've saved for rereading and
> reminding.
>
> The explanation of the terrain, its fit into the English and not-English
> elements, provides a very fine frame around what is an extremely fine
> poem!
>
> Thanks, Sheila
> On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>
>> yes, it all seems to have come through in an odd order
>>
>> I don't think I'll say anything
>>
>>
>> they've been werry good to me they have
>>
>> L
>>
>>
>> On Sat, May 19, 2012 17:34, Douglas Barbour wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, it did, at least to me
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> (but then I cant see much of the time if mine get through, so...).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Doug
>>> On 2012-05-19, at 7:04 AM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> didnt seem to get through
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------- Original Message
>>>> ----------------------------
>>>> Subject: Re: Perconger
>>>> From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> Date: Sat, May 19, 2012 11:45
>>>> To: "Poetryetc: poetry and poetics" <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> ----
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi Chris (and Sheila) and thanks for your comments.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am not quite sure what constitutes English in a good way poetry;
>>>> but I'll not argue.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I shall now tell you more than you may want to know
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is England but... It is Scilly. Scilly is in the extreme
>>>> south-west of Britain, about three hours off the coast of Cornwall,
>>>> or twenty minutes if you go by air.
>>>>
>>>> Cornwall is not England whatever the English say. Scilly is. Not
>>>> that it matters except in terms of dealing with the buffoons who
>>>> rule us.
>>>>
>>>> Relate it, if you will, to my many poems about the bar between St
>>>> Agnes
>>>> and The Gugh. That bar creates two coves, bays, whatever between the
>>>> two islands - there is basically a drowned valley between in which
>>>> a bar has formed. (Two asynch tides)
>>>>
>>>> The southern cove is called The Cove. It used to have a different
>>>> Cornish
>>>> name which I have either forgotten or never knew. The Cove is
>>>> undeniably an English name and Cornish hasn't been spoken on Scilly
>>>> for many centuries. The Gugh, too, is English, I believe, though not
>>>> current. Agnes
>>>> means off-island and is nothing to do with a female saint --
>>>> something like ek enes, but there is no surviving record of that
>>>> formulation
>>>>
>>>> Off The Cove is Covean (from Cove Vean, one word English, one word
>>>> Cornish, Cornish syntax): small cove
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The northern cove is called Perconger, and we arrive by swerve or
>>>> shore and bend of bay at my title. Perconger is what the islanders
>>>> have done to "Porth Conger".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Porth is landing place. Can't tell you what conger means. (I have
>>>> posted poems about Periglis where I like to spend my time stroking a
>>>> cat. Porth Eglos, landing place by the church -- of, if you
>>>> translate sloppily, Church Cove)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> You come in to Perconger past the rock that looks like Queen
>>>> Victoria's
>>>> old age profile, between the sometimes islands and go to the quay on
>>>> the west side of the porth
>>>>
>>>> When there's a bar, and there is something of one for much of the
>>>> day, it is due south and you can sit and look at it on a bench on
>>>> the quay, where I sat writing en plein
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Geologically Scilly is related to Cornwall, mostly granite and in
>>>> some places littered with erratics from the big glaciers which
>>>> didn't quite make it that far.
>>>>
>>>> Speak of The Variscan Orogeny if you want to sound knowledgeable, a
>>>> geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic
>>>> continental collision between Euramerica (Laurussia) and Gondwana to
>>>> form the supercontinent of Pangaea. Unquote. I just looked it up
>>>> because I couldnt remember when it was. Times blur as you get old.
>>>> Laurussia was
>>>> of course named after me; where I lived in those days; but I missed
>>>> most of mountain-building because of writing.
>>>>
>>>> It's pretty poor as mountains go, these days, but there is a
>>>> noticeable granite spine, here and there from Devon westwards -- no
>>>> distance in N American or Australian terms, but it sometimes defeats
>>>> First Great
>>>> Western
>>>> Railway.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The granite goes under the sea between Lands End and Scilly, so
>>>> tough do-do to all those who expect to see Merlin floating in on a
>>>> leaf, and forget all the stories of a hundred and forty churches and
>>>> the city of Lions drowned
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Almost everything I have written about, in what you have seen here
>>>> --
>>>> apart from the 575s a while back, which were from when I lived in
>>>> Cornwall
>>>> -- relates to places within a mile of each other on Agnes
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Right then. That'll teach you.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It is an ancient mariner
>>>> He stoppeth one of three
>>>> The other two go on ahead
>>>> He stoppeth only me
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> (Frank Muir)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am though happy to speak of this all day and night should you
>>>> consent
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> best
>>>>
>>>> L
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, May 19, 2012 07:57, Chris Jones wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I hesitate to say this, but, I am finding these very English in a
>>>>> good way, or perhaps a way I like. I haven't seen this coast but
>>>>> find myself wanting to go... is this south west coast?? Maybe, I
>>>>> could make it there, but not now. But I searched and found some
>>>>> photos.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 19/05/12 04:32, Lawrence Upton wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> The bulky slip for the revenuer's boat,
>>>>>> here still, unused for its purpose now, steep, with a more
>>>>>> salubrious paved landing place out to the left, a boat on
>>>>>> there, angled.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> An extensive tumble of rock, weed-blackened,
>>>>>> up to the height of another boat, on grass, upon a trolley, an
>>>>>> inflatable, and then there's overgrowth of dense bramble right
>>>>>> to the top of what is visible here.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A concrete quay, atop and round the old,
>>>>>> white markings for hoi polloi; and steel posts for chains to
>>>>>> control crowds; parcels; packets to be collected; plastic sheets
>>>>>> and sacks of various forms; all most tidily clean in a way
>>>>>> suggesting work's getting done and life is being lived with good
>>>>>> effort.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A slightly rippling sea through burnishing light,
>>>>>> scatterings of markers upon its moving shine, tethered rowing
>>>>>> boats in scintillation up to the shrinking tombolo. Columns of
>>>>>> Scilly
>>>>>> Whites near to The Gugh coast edge, cultivated plots
>>>>>> outweighted by noise from others which have self-planted for
>>>>>> years of being untended, unstraightened, left.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [Scilly Whites are a type of daffodil]
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----
>>>>>> Lawrence Upton
>>>>>> Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
>>>>>> Goldsmiths, University of London
>>>>>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>>>>>> ----
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> Lawrence Upton
>>>> Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
>>>> Goldsmiths, University of London
>>>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>>>> ----
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> Lawrence Upton
>>>> Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
>>>> Goldsmiths, University of London
>>>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>>>> ----
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Douglas Barbour
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>>> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Latest books:
>>> Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
>>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
>>> Wednesdays'
>>>
>>>
>> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press
>> _10
>>
>>> .html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The postliterate sensibility is offended by anything that isn’t
>>> television, views with suspicion the compound sentence, the
>>> subordinate clause, words of more than three syllables. The home and
>>> studio audiences become accustomed to hearing voices swept clean of
>>> improvised literary devices, downsized into data points, degraded into
>>> industrial-waste product.
>>>
>>> Lewis Lapham
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>> Lawrence Upton
>> Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
>> Goldsmiths, University of London
>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>> ----
>>
>>
>
-----
Lawrence Upton
Visiting Fellow, Music Dept,
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
----
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