PS Bear with my ramblings: I'd just finished re-reading 'The Changeling',
with its false fools and self-fooled. I can see why Eliot set such store by
Middleton's verse, with its iambic conversations.
On 3 July 2013 09:28, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I learnt only the other day that the celebrated 'Thom the World Poet', of
> Austin, Texas, he of the flowing robes and beard, was originally Tom, a
> Street Poet, of Melbourne, Aus. Beggary and poetry go close together, which
> is why the language of middle falls flat. I knew a guy once, a real Poor
> Tom, who only spoke in verses, doggerel rhymes, of how ill the world
> treated him.
>
>
> On 3 July 2013 07:14, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Let me get this right, Max. You paid a Korean beggar with a credit card?
>> Or you signed a petition deploring leglessness perhaps? Know what you mean
>> about the muttering anyway; easier to resist in Eurospeak. I like 'towering
>> bustling crowd'.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>
>> On 03/07/2013, at 10:04 AM, Max Richards wrote:
>>
>> > Beggars
>> >
>> > Outside a Seoul department store,
>> > the Buddhist priest smiles in our eyes,
>> > proffers an amulet and blessings,
>> > extracts coins and a signature.
>> > Our coins are not enough. Too bad.
>> >
>> > Legless, the Korean beggar,
>> > torso dressed in inner-tube rubber,
>> > propels himself by hand
>> > through the street crowd
>> > behind a box on wheels.
>> >
>> > Music resounds from his box,
>> > cheery, counter to his spectacle.
>> > The towering bustling crowd
>> > responds mostly with ignore,
>> > a little with charity.
>> >
>> > Yesterday's beggar was the same
>> > but without music. Would he
>> > have done better or worse?
>> > Tomorrow's beggar? -
>> > but we will be flying home.
>> >
>> > Melbourne's beggar is tall,
>> > his winter coat dark as his beard,
>> > cap thrust forward, muttering,
>> > convincingly derelict.
>> > As we select which cafe door
>> > to enter, he is easy to ignore.
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> **
> 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/
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
**
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/
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
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