Fair comment, Doug. Actually I cut a bit from the original draft comparing
the upshot of blown secrets to stages of grief, feeling that was too
explanatory. With the Pell business, the secret IS told, many years later,
‘This is what happened to me and this is the guy who did it and this is
what I lived with under pain of incredible shame.’ That’s where the
self-loathing comes in too of course, but this poem would need to shift to
another gear to explore that I think, where it has already changed horses
mid-stream a bit from its light beginnings.
Bill
On Thu, 7 Mar 2019 at 5:35 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> It’s interesting & sounds about right, Bill, but the poem feels a bit too
> open for me, too explanatory (when the secret keepers have none)? I see how
> the Pell situation marks one boundary, but there the secret is never ‘told’
> (to anyone) so much as noticed/known, & hidden by many, each on his own.
>
> So, I wonder if fear, loathing, & silence need a space in the poem
>
> Doug
>
> > On Mar 6, 2019, at 4:58 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks, Sheila, Patrick. Shocking secrets have been exposed and tried and
> > discussed here with the Archbishop Pell conviction.
> >
> > Bill
> >
> > On Wed, 6 Mar 2019 at 8:28 pm, Patrick McManus <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> cheers Bill yes those secrets! keep toppling!
> >>
> >> On 05/03/2019 21:23, Sheila Murphy wrote:
> >>> Sure says it well and does it, Bill. Yes!
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 2:03 PM Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Listen.
> >>>>
> >>>> Do you want,
> >>>>
> >>>> Lennon asked
> >>>>
> >>>> or was it McCartney,
> >>>>
> >>>> to know a secret?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Of course you do.
> >>>>
> >>>> Who wouldn’t?
> >>>>
> >>>> Access to closed knowledge,
> >>>>
> >>>> you’re all ears.
> >>>>
> >>>> A stillness hovers ...
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> then pow– you’re in the know!
> >>>>
> >>>> Your eyes rocket
> >>>>
> >>>> back in your head,
> >>>>
> >>>> hands flutter up
> >>>>
> >>>> to your lower face.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Unlike gossip,
> >>>>
> >>>> top secrets stun.
> >>>>
> >>>> Gossip you weigh up,
> >>>>
> >>>> not whether to tell
> >>>>
> >>>> but who to tell first.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Gossip wants out.
> >>>>
> >>>> Secrets burrow in
> >>>>
> >>>> and fester.
> >>>>
> >>>> No longer are you
> >>>>
> >>>> gladhandler.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Some secrets are so tight
> >>>>
> >>>> they cling to the secretist
> >>>>
> >>>> but the best secrets
> >>>>
> >>>> – and the worst – are shared
> >>>>
> >>>> with just one other,
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> setting up a bond, a deal,
> >>>>
> >>>> compromising the receiver.
> >>>>
> >>>> There are good secrets of course,
> >>>>
> >>>> surprise parties and whatnot
> >>>>
> >>>> but bad secrets outsizzle them.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Are there ever good grounds
> >>>>
> >>>> for secret spilling?
> >>>>
> >>>> Is the Pope a Catholic!
> >>>>
> >>>> All bets are off
> >>>>
> >>>> for secrets thrust upon.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Loyalties recalibrate
> >>>>
> >>>> when closet skeletons
> >>>>
> >>>> spill into light.
> >>>>
> >>>> O Secrets,
> >>>>
> >>>> you world topplers.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> bw
> >>>>
> >>>>
> ########################################################################
> >>>>
> >>>> To unsubscribe from the POETRYETC list, click the following link:
> >>>> https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=POETRYETC&A=1
> >>>>
> >>>
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>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
> https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations
> 2 (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
> Listen. If (UofAPress):
>
> The outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your
> apartment into a taxicab.
>
> Fran Lebowitz
>
>
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>
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