haha I missed all the allusions to sex -simple me cheers P
On 17/08/2016 07:10, Bill Wootton wrote:
> Thanks for your thoughtful observations, Millicent. I certainly was not
> aware of the calibre of the allusions you point out. Thanks Max for the
> correction too. Definitely 'none' not 'one' would have been aware, is what
> I meant to say. Also a bifurcated 'nib' not 'rib' was at the working end of
> dipping pens and even the later 'cartridge' pens. Max would know that I
> have been a fan of the Western genre for some time and I did slip those
> words into the final stanza deliberately. But I can see how they may be
> interpreted as being on a different sexual spectrum. Of all the penmen I
> mention, only one, as far as I know, ended up being gay, the O figure.
> Those first three were primary school friends, A and K were secondary
> school and G, much later, was a fellow teacher. O is the only one who
> 'crossed' so to speak, with me from primary to secondary school but we
> drifted apart midway through secondary school. In primary school we had
> been quite close and had even experimented sexually in low-key sorts of
> ways, ie without touching each other. The reason I know he was gay was
> overhearing him and seeng him in company with his 'like' in a Carlton bar a
> few years after school had finished for us. We didn't speak. I don't think
> he even saw me.
>
> Maybe there is something in what you say but I think 'lusting' is too
> strong. I did admire each of those guys in their turn and their handwriting
> seemed to reflect a certain solidity of character. But it's not the clutch
> of the pen I recall, nor even the posture, with the exception of A, who did
> have to contort his arm to get the required forward slant. It is more my
> memory of the rich blue ink on project paper books which we used or even
> exercise books. In G's case, he took union minutes for me when he served as
> secretary to my president of a local school branch.
>
> Not sure if anyone needs to know all that, but thanks for the attention
> again, Millicent and Max. Nowadays, few people would even see the
> handwriting of their friends I suppose, in the keyboard age, much less
> recognise it or store it in memory.
>
> Bill
>
> On Wednesday, 17 August 2016, Millicent Borges Accardi <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> The poem is almost a subtle allusion to gay sex. A schoolboy discussing
>> handwriting and lusting after the other boys in secret:
>> one of the above would have known
>> what I was up to.
>>
>>
>> I'm reminded of one of Eduardo Corral's poems about a violin. . .
>>
>>
>> So many allusions: riding bareback, stirrups, bifurcated rib, forearm
>> sprawl, the longer he went at it, pressed so hard, K's tight, neat
>> "script" Even Peter Sellars (spelled differently, I know), the openly
>> gay theater director. . .
>>
>>
>> A school boy watching the other students's muscles flex as they practice
>> handwriting and imagining more.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> millicent
>>
>>
>> On Aug 16, 2016, at 14:34, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]
>> <javascript:;>> wrote:
>>
>>> L pressed so hard on his bifurcated nib
>>> that it splayed, sending out a shadow script
>>>
>>> B's bright text stood up vertically
>>> looping over lines playfully
>>>
>>> O's letters raced; ps and qs lost their
>>> bulbousness the longer he went at it
>>>
>>> Each of these styles I endeavoured
>>> to replicate for as long as I admired the writer
>>>
>>> A's left-handed lurch to the right
>>> required a forearm sprawl
>>>
>>> K's tight, neat script anticipated
>>> his composed later life as a dentist
>>>
>>> G's letters leapt left and right randomly
>>> Hard to emulate but I gave it a shot
>>>
>>> None of the above would have known
>>> what I was up to.
>>>
>>> In between adoptions, my own script
>>> tentatived on lined pages until
>>>
>>> I latched on to a new cursive hero
>>> to marshal my letters.
>>>
>>> Peter Sellers could be any man
>>> but drew a blank at himself
>>>
>>> No bareback writer, my ideas
>>> trotted out but needed stirrups.
>>>
>>> bw
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