Bill, even your speaking about this is poetic. I appreciate the story, and
I appreciate (of course) the poem!
Thanks, Sheila
On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 9:00 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Thanks, Doug. I am thinking of so extending.
>
> Bill
>
> On 09/01/2014, at 3:30 AM, Douglas Barbour wrote:
>
> > Saw all Bill.
> >
> > I think 'not offering crossability' is what it's all about, &
> intriguing, indeed.
> >
> > I imagine you can extend this sequence should you wish to...
> >
> > Doug
> > On Jan 8, 2014, at 6:03 AM, Patrick McManus <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> Bill old lad I saw Kasper's email only when you replied to it - P
> fretting
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On
> >> Behalf Of Bill Wootton
> >> Sent: 08 January 2014 12:29
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: Bridges
> >>
> >> Pat, can you not see Kasper's email below? You responded to Kasper's
> comment
> >> it looks like to me. I may be stuck but your frets are wobbling it
> seems.
> >>
> >> Funny you mention 'orchardist'. I remember as teacher this came up when
> >> students came to read the word, probably in Chekhov's 'The Cherry
> Orchard'.
> >> 16/17 year olds couldn't pronounce it. Had never seen the word in print.
> >> They would say it like 'orchid' with no sense that that were
> >> mis-pronouncing. I suppose all fruit they ever had came from a
> supermarket.
> >> My great uncle Jim lived on an apple orchard, in a stilted wooden
> two-room
> >> shack with a Coolgardie safe to keep his milk cool, at Harcourt near
> >> Bendigo, a hundred miles or so north west of Melbourne.
> >>
> >> Bill
> >>
> >>> On 8 Jan 2014, at 8:06 pm, Patrick McManus <
> [log in to unmask]>
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Kasper's email never arrived here!!
> >>> Bill hope you are not stuck - orchardist sounds a nice job Cheers P
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> >>> On Behalf Of Bill Wootton
> >>> Sent: 08 January 2014 07:21
> >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Subject: Re: Bridges
> >>>
> >>> Many thanks, Kasper. Final couplet (and indeed final section) is still
> >>> a work in progress, appended yesterday when I realised the two
> >>> particular bridges I was celebrating were not ones to put spring in
> >>> step, they not offering crossability.
> >>>
> >>> Bill
> >>>
> >>>> On 8 Jan 2014, at 11:36 am, Kasper Salonen <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> This is magnificent, the majesty of bridges at their best resonates
> >>>> strongly in these four sections. The hint of myth in the Benezet
> >>>> story rounds out the mysticism. Not only that, but the lyrical and
> >>>> yet perfectly disinterested style makes up for the splash of water
> >>>> that is the final line. I love it.
> >>>>
> >>>> KS
> >>>>
> >>>> ---
> >>>> Kasper Salonen, toiminnanjohtaja
> >>>> Helsinki Poetry Connection
> >>>> http://hkipoetryconnection.blogspot.com/
> >>>> +358505554947
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> On 7 January 2014 23:05, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Bridges
> >>>>>
> >>>>> i
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Walk a bridge to connect, to pass
> >>>>> over a gulf. To be on a bridge is to be
> >>>>>
> >>>>> neither in one place or another. Rarely destination, bridges embody
> >>>>> journey.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ii
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Avignon's stone bridge stops mid-Rhone tantalising with just four
> >>>>> extant arches
> >>>>>
> >>>>> of its once majestic twenty two.
> >>>>> Even computer imaging and years
> >>>>>
> >>>>> of research can't line up remnant piles.
> >>>>> Must have been zig-zags
> >>>>>
> >>>>> for added strength, perhaps, in floods.
> >>>>> Benezet the shepherd it's said,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 850 years ago, with Divine push, hefted and hurled a huge rock in
> >>>>> the river
> >>>>>
> >>>>> which became stone one of Pont
> >>>>> d'Avignon. Benezet's journey ended
> >>>>>
> >>>>> with his interment within the bridge before its completion.
> >>>>> Disinterment
> >>>>>
> >>>>> nearly 500 years later,
> >>>>> scored him patron sainthood.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> iii
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Just north of Melbourne, two parallel bridges span Arthurs Creek.
> >>>>> Only one takes traffic.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Burke's duplicated concrete and bitumen bridge towards Nutfield,
> >>>>> flat and functional
> >>>>>
> >>>>> but adjacent, original Burke's Bridge, a timbertrestle construction,
> >>>>> now spattered
> >>>>>
> >>>>> with leaves and gum bark peelings, blocked at either end with
> >>>>> boulders, remains
> >>>>>
> >>>>> the real enchanter. Patrick Burke, orchardist and nurseryman settled
> >>>>> on 20 acres in 1864.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> None of which explains why supporting posts either side of the creek
> >>>>> are not parallel.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> iv
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Alighting from a bridge makes you feel lighter.
> >>>>> Puts a little spring in your step or your tyres.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> You've left somewhere behind. Crossed.
> >>>>> You're somewhere else. What now?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> But it takes now uncrossable bridges to remind us how well stuck we
> >>>>> might be.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> bw
> >>>>> 8.1.14
> >>>
> >>
> >
> > 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
> > Recording Dates
> > (Rubicon Press)
> >
> > Swept snow, Li Po,
> > by dawn’s 40-watt moon
> > to the road that hies to office
> > away from home.
> >
> > Lorine Niedecker
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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