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  #21  
Unread 05-15-2014, 09:33 PM
Allen Tice's Avatar
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His "Idle Demon" is on my coffee table.
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  #22  
Unread 05-15-2014, 09:38 PM
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Perhaps my favorite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee View Post

THE JUDGMENT

I dreamed the judgment came to me by night
They stood around my bed, severe of mien
And asked one question “what is enstatite?”

“It is an orthorhombic pyroxene,”
I said, and as I spoke I heard the jangle
Of planets crashing down the cosmic seas.

I added hastily: “Its cleavage angle
is eighty-seven (more or less) degrees.
If it were fifty-six, not eighty-seven

We should, quite clearly, have an amphibole.”
At this they swept me, singing up to heaven,
Where angels’ hands received my battered soul.
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  #23  
Unread 05-16-2014, 09:26 PM
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Ed Shacklee Ed Shacklee is offline
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MY HEART IS LIKE AN ONION
By R.P. Lister

My heart is like an onion, you may peel it if you will,
But you will not find a kernel like a protoplasmic pill;
In the middle of my middle lies another middle still.

Many layers has that onion; I have peeled them one by one
From the fading of the planets to the setting of the sun,
But the task is so enormous that it hardly has begun.

You could peel it for a fortnight, you peel it for a year,
But the end that you were seeking would still be nowhere near,
Though you peeled in utter frenzy, crying madly, is it here?

There is nothing in the middle, say the wise ones, and they sigh;
There is nothing in the middle say the wise ones, and they lie.
There are forty million middles, and every one is I.

And some of them are virtuous, and some of them are ill,
And every tiny layer – you may peel them if you will –
Conceals another layer that is even smaller still.
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  #24  
Unread 05-16-2014, 10:04 PM
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All engineers know (or should know) about infinitesimals -- long "banned" from calculus -- but now back via something called non-standard analysis. RPL had such a capacious curious cerebrum he likely knew all about them from things thought and written long before they were "banned."

They are (like Sappho's 'more golden than gold'), smaller than small.



vvv

Last edited by Allen Tice; 05-17-2014 at 12:18 PM. Reason: suffix it to say, 'twas nothing much
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  #25  
Unread 05-17-2014, 08:57 AM
Lance Levens Lance Levens is offline
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God bless you, Steve. I'm not that familiar with the poetry but what I have read gives me such hope and renews my faith in the power and purpose of verse. Thanks you for bringing him to our attention.
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  #26  
Unread 05-17-2014, 11:21 AM
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I attended the Service of thanksgiving for the life of Richard Percival Lister on Friday 16.05.2014 at Mortlake Crematorium. Many of Richard’s friends were present, and hymns and tributes were interspersed with poems that Richard had chosen: ‘To Be Alive’, ‘Ballade of a Non-Starter’ and ‘Darling Death’ were included.

Tributes by Ruth Simmonds, John Mead and Reginald Wynniat-Husey were full of vivid memories of Richard, his love of travel and his talent for friendship, and his determination to enjoy life to the full.

After the Service, all met up again to share our experiences of our times with Richard. I heard many wonderful stories. Many thanks to all here on the Sphere for your words and tributes to Richard, which I printed off and took with me for people to read.
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  #27  
Unread 05-18-2014, 02:15 PM
Susan McLean Susan McLean is offline
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I was sorry to get to know his work only after his death. I managed to track down a copy of The Idle Demon and enjoyed reading it. It was particularly fun to read some good ballades, a form that isn't used much these days, and he also has some excellent triolets. Usually I cannot say that reading a book of poetry is fun, but his poetry was. It was interesting to see that he had published so extensively in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly, which would never take that sort of light verse these days.

Susan
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  #28  
Unread 05-19-2014, 10:47 AM
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Richard enjoyed this publication last year. He was so good at describing London in his poems and his novels.

http://www.freewordcentre.com/blog/2...london-summer/
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  #29  
Unread 05-20-2014, 10:41 PM
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"Enstatite is one of the few silicate minerals that have been observed in crystalline form outside our Solar System, particularly around evolved stars and Planetary Nebulae such as NGC 6302. Enstatite is thought to be one of the early stages for the formation of crystalline silicates in space and many correlations have been noted between the occurrence of the mineral and the structure of the object around which it has been observed."....

"Enstatite and the other orthorhombic pyroxenes are distinguished from those of the monoclinic series by their optical characteristics, such as straight extinction, much weaker double refraction and stronger pleochroism. They also have a prismatic cleavage that is perfect in two directions at 90 degrees. Enstatite is white, gray, greenish, or brown in color; its hardness is 5–6 on the Mohs scale, and its specific gravity is 3.2–3.3." Both from Wikipedia

However, : 1,2 - prismatic at cleavage angles of 87º and 93º. .... Yes! ....Also.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee View Post


THE JUDGMENT

I dreamed the judgment came to me by night
They stood around my bed, severe of mien
And asked one question “what is enstatite?”

“It is an orthorhombic pyroxene,”
I said, and as I spoke I heard the jangle
Of planets crashing down the cosmic seas.

I added hastily: “Its cleavage angle
is eighty-seven (more or less) degrees.
If it were fifty-six, not eighty-seven

We should, quite clearly, have an amphibole.”
At this they swept me, singing up to heaven,
Where angels’ hands received my battered soul.
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  #30  
Unread 05-21-2014, 01:35 PM
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Ed Shacklee Ed Shacklee is offline
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I wonder who among us would be interested in seeing a book of R.P. Lister's collected or selected poems published? Would it help, do you think, for a publisher to know there are X number of willing buyers ready and waiting for such a book?

Sign me up, for one.

Best,

Ed
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