That's a lot of exceptions. I dunno about nostalgia, maybe you're right. But The Beatles evolved dramatically in, essentially, 6 years. You know, we weren't around then, and I'm certainly not saying they weren't influenced, but I've never seen anything like that. And the fact that I think they averaged something like 2 to 3 albums a year... It's typical I suppose to like The Beatles, but they were pretty fucking good.

Thank you, Walter, for these! Both pieces blend perfectly with waking here in the Australian bush. Atavistic. Theta waves.

C

I bear Yoko Ono no particular ill-will and even see your point, if there is a great deal of similar material from the same era I would gravitate toward as a general rule. Per the Beatles and rock 'n' roll more generally, there's a place, and a crucial one, for three chords and the truth, dick-out mayhem, and, really, imagining a world in which one's face is a Maserati, which might be just what the doctor ordered.

As a child, I would have been severely chastised, simply for tossing a candy wrapper onto the ground. My mother would have added a commandment: "Thou shalt not litter." The summoning forth of such a profane image as this...how it would have saddened her.

We set the bar high.

J

The only reason for publishing this poem is name recognition. She is a curiosity. A distorted mirror into Lennon's artistic soul.

The poem is not short enough.

There is absolutely no chance that this poem would survive Erato criticism. Ono's success was that she loved John Lennon and he loved her. That's it. Her art is little more than a footnote.

Well, I've always felt there was more than a little of the pompous ass in John Lennon. And Jim, there seems more than a little of the blatant sexist in your remark.

And there is certainly nothing denigrating Mother Earth in the poem, unless you think that shit is inherently bad.

Eratosphere seems such a predictable place sometimes.

Nemo

Still, one must appreciate of the brevity.
 

I, for my part, was suspicious on hearing Ono had a poem in Poetry. I fully expected to read something without merit whatsoever; yet with a little effort to set aside my admitted bias, I did not even mind it. I am far from being head over heels; yet, to my surprise, I was not struck over the head by an abomination through and through. I honestly could not have fathomed, before now, that I would ever say such a neutral thing of her's in Poetry. Who knew?

Because John was pompous? You're not? I am. For sure. Let's get real and look at the work. Mostly my opinion about The Beatles is chemistry. Wings and the plastic ono band, was like running away from home. Sorry Walter. I will keep it mind. I think on their own they're all good. But come on... Who had the first number one song after they broke up (not that it's so important, but it makes me smile)?

Nemo -- Sexist? Was I too flippant? I do apologise for not being deferential to others who find her music/art inspiring. I’m usually pretty good about that but not this time. I couldn’t begin to argue the merits of Ono’s recordings because I’ve never been able to warm up to any of it. But not for lack of trying. I’ve tried. And tried. And tried. I have a somewhat adventurous nose for music but my tastes have limits. Two of them are 1) It must be warm, and 2) It must be accessible. I don’t find either in her work. What I have been able to bear listening to is coldly, discordantly atmospheric at best in my opinion.
I don’t doubt that there is an audience for the art that Yoko Ono puts out. My point is that she attained her following almost exclusively as a result of her relationship with Lennon. Is that sexist? If it is, I have a blind spot to correct. Don’t we all?

Yes, I am aware of the many shortcomings Of John Lennon (pomposity was one of his lesser flaws). And Yoko Ono still loved him. In my eyes that reflects well on both of them.

Yes, more or less, from time to time, the eratosphere can be a predictable place. But it can also be the opposite. Like now, for example.

If I have misjudged Yoko Ono and there is good poetry to be shared that I’m not aware of, I’d like to know. The poem that appeared in Poetry was not offensive in anyway. It just turned me off. I have tried to understand her artistry. I gave it a chance. It never clicked -- not even a little bit -- for me.

I will give Yoko Ono credit for her activism and for keeping the activist spirit of John Lennon and the dual vision of peace and love alive all these years. John was galvanized by her. She made him the activist he became.
x

I think Yoko herself has said that she never thought/intended her music to have wide popular appeal, and that her marriage to John caused her music to be listened to a by millions of people she never expected to like it, which in turn led to her being ridiculed. She never blamed the wider audience for not liking her music, but always thought of it as a niche sort of thing that somehow got exposed beyond the niche because of John's fame.