Yes, like the sense of season, Max, and rhymes like doubting/outing. Not sure if we should expect more regularity, Doug. Maybe the irregularity echoes the sprawl in snowy times spent far from home.
Bill
> On 4 Dec 2014, at 8:18 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> You the dog guy, Max.
>
> I like the off rhymes/rhymes in most of the triplets, & miss them where they don’t appear;it seems to be the knack of the thing. And its tale…wagging…
>
> Doug
>
>> On Dec 3, 2014, at 9:51 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> December
>> I rise in the dawn
>> like Yeats’s old
>> peasant woman,*
>>
>> the dogs underfoot
>> rousing Heaven -
>> but not, if I’m quick,
>>
>> wife and neighbors -
>> they deserve later
>> waking than this.
>>
>> Food bowls: at the ready.
>> Silent now the dogs are
>> scoffing steady,
>>
>> then - rain or fine
>> gale or storm
>> snow or shine -
>>
>> they race in turn
>> outside for their first
>> squat of the day.
>>
>> Once this is done
>> the day settles down
>> to my long cup of tea,
>>
>> their long sprawling
>> on the mat, doubting
>> me over their next outing.
>>
>> *
>>
>> After snow you walk
>> warily avoiding slopes
>> anticipating slips
>>
>> especially if like
>> me you met it last
>> decades since - oops -
>>
>> exhilarated first
>> at the bright white light
>> crisp layer on everything,
>>
>> penetrated next
>> by the sharp chill
>> where skin’s exposed
>>
>> or garments thin,
>> cuffs too loose
>> or wind insinuates.
>>
>> One day’s enough
>> for winter - please
>> can spring come now?
>>
>> *
>>
>> December’s pretty lights
>> are up and on -
>> they promise
>>
>> artificial cheer
>> until the festive season
>> expires with New Year.
>>
>> If you have credit to spend,
>> prepare to spend it now
>> before your maxed-out card
>>
>> reaches its end
>> and spoils that Twelfth
>> Night afterglow.
>>
>> Think of your cousins,
>> Kiwis, Australians,
>> sweltering through shopping,
>>
>> snow-capped Nativities,
>> perspiring Santa’s padding,
>> perverse summer activities
>>
>> like feasting on roast meats
>> and hot sticky pudding,
>> under sun that’s scorching.
>>
>>
>>
>> *'Song of the Old Woman'
>> http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/rare_1930s_audio_wb_yeats_reads_four_of_his_poems.html
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>
> that we are only
> as we find out we are
>
> Charles Olson
>
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