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POETRYETC  September 2013

POETRYETC September 2013

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Subject:

Re: 'Disposals: Sky Burial, After Cremation, Service, For Whom the Bellbirds Toll'

From:

Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Poetryetc: poetry and poetics

Date:

Wed, 18 Sep 2013 10:11:31 -0400

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

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Also liked 'and beyond is the back of beyond,' where we all end up I suppose.

But did wonder, a bit, about the deliberate choice of such 19th century discourse in that 4th section…

The impetus of the whole, though: very neat.

Doug
On 2013-09-18, at 2:50 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Liked the idea of inquisitive dolphins in all this, Max. In part 3, the line 'personal, truthful - consolingly' jarred a little for me. Part 4 is the highlight, worth a stand-alone guernsey. 'Non-being/needn't be unbecoming' very good; blend of philosophy and your customary lightness of touch.
> 
> Having just driven home through Arthur's Creek and in the shadow of Mount Disappointment, I must say the bellbirds seem to have disappeared. Poetic license I take it. 
> 
> Bill 
> 
> On 18/09/2013, at 10:47 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>>    Disposals
>> 
>>    1.Sky Burial
>> 
>> High in the Himalayas
>> denied wood for a pyre
>> 
>> or place for a grave,
>> sky burial is practiced.
>> 
>> Say farewell to father,
>> this life being over,
>> 
>> excarnation achieved;
>> recite the prayers
>> 
>> at a discreet distance;
>> leave flesh to the vultures -
>> 
>> they deserve to eat well.
>> Bones harbour no disease.
>> 
>> Father's soul is somewhere
>> altogether elsewhere.
>> 
>> 
>>   2.After Cremation
>> 
>> Your ashes, if they're to be
>> scattered at sea,
>> 
>> should first be mixed 
>> with rose petals generously.
>> 
>> These will prolong the ceremony
>> and increase its beauty.
>> 
>> But the marine service
>> that will do this for a fee
>> 
>> warns that - were you once
>> a dolphin-watcher on the bay,
>> 
>> should conditions on the day
>> suit, and the spot be likely -
>> 
>> your friends and family
>> may be surprised by
>> 
>> the sudden upsurge
>> of one of those dolphins
>> 
>> mouth open wide
>> as if curiously
>> 
>> alive to the possibility
>> of salt-water ash and rose-petal tea.
>> 
>> 
>> 3. Service for One Who Sang
>> 
>> When the singer-songwriter died young,
>> many beside family and friends
>> attended his funeral.
>> 
>> The old church on Agitation Hill,
>> Castlemaine, was packed,
>> mourners stood in the doorway.
>> 
>> The organ did not play that day -
>> a women's choir, the Chat Warblers, sang 
>> their open-air spirituality.
>> 
>> The voice of Michael Kennedy
>> himself sounded through the p.a. -
>> personal, truthful - consolingly.
>> 
>> His widow had rare strength to speak
>> while her toddler clung to Grandad,
>> and we recalled the modesty
>> 
>> of her lost one's many talents,
>> which even included pottery
>> and instrument-making.
>> 
>> His illnesses were not dwelled on,
>> but were part of his chronology
>> in the memorial booklet.
>> 
>> A double lung transplant!
>> for a man who sang! and 
>> sang to the end so touchingly.
>> 
>> Michael row the boat ashore,
>> he had sung and we now sang:
>> River Jordan is chilly and cold,
>> 
>> Chills the body but not the soul.
>> River Jordan is deep and is wide,
>> I've got a home on the other side.
>> 
>> [Christ Church, Castlemaine, 26 August 2013]
>> 
>> 
>> 4. For Whom the Bellbirds Toll
>> 
>> Buy me a plot, last-home-buyer, book a late
>> berth in the burial ground by Arthurs Creek*
>> under the gums where wattle-birds cooee.
>> 
>> Yonder glooms the watershed dividing range:
>> Mt Disappointment nods to Mt Despair,
>> and beyond is the back of beyond.
>> 
>> A better place than most to be seen dead in,
>> it will take no getting used to.
>> Bid me an imperturbable bye-bye:
>> 
>> tears need not be spilled. Dearest,
>> I must go without thee. Non-being
>> needn't be unbecoming - mine nor anyone else's.
>> 
>> Friends, gather this once on the cemetery 
>> slope, near the grave-digger's galvo shed.
>> I wiil have absented myself from this send-off.
>> 
>> Bundle the burdensome remainder
>> in a deep-dug undisturbable bed; see to
>> a slab of blue-stone, please, so bones stay put.
>> 
>> If the day is warm, bellbirds may be
>> about their repetitious business,
>> tolling as if for me…and thee; for all.
>> 
>> 
>> *http://www.flickriver.com/photos/73169559@N00/5043270799/
>> 
> 

Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]

Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).

Something else is out there
godamnit

And I want to hear it

	C.D.Wright

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