[Marion Shore]

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea,
Sitting home in Amherst,
Writing and sipping tea.

I never got a tan;
I never had much fun;
I'm off to the Bahamas.
To get some surf and sun.

Emily Dickenson, I Never Saw A Moor

[Donna English]

My take on The Red Wheelbarrow

The Wheelbarrow Overturned

Dear Editor, I’m writing in the hope that you haven’t started printing up my book.
There’s been an accident. I’m such a dope, and worrywart. Please search the poems and look
for a scribbled note within the stack, for my handyman and gardener, Jose.
It wasn’t on my desk when I got back from mailing you the manuscript that day.
It regards a broken wheelbarrow I had, a note to urge Jose to fix the thing.
Imagine my embarrassment, egad, if published, all the ridicule it’d bring!

You likely saw the problem that I mention. My worry probably seems a little silly
But thanks for your indulgence and attention!
With warm regards,
yours truly,
Billy Billy

[Marion Shore]

Donna, that's hilarious!

[Max Goodman]

a palinode retracting a palinode


Philip Larkin: “Toads Revisited” Revisited

It's true that most guys in parks
Are feeble-witted old jerks,
But what was it made me dream
Not working would make me them?

Cemetary Road's no less foul
With my in-tray and secretary. Hell.
I was less wrong the first time, yes, sir.
And my rhymes were closer.

[peterjb]

Aubade

I’m out of work and can’t afford to drink.
Waking at five, a while before the dawn,
I look out through the window east and think
Grim, dreary thoughts of being dead and gone.
For all I know my pillow may tonight
Receive my head for the last time. It’s right
To face death squarely — yes, I’ll kick the bucket,
Be food for worms or flames, an absence, nil.
But why go on and fill
Fifty lines with death-dread? Pointless. Fuck it.

[Martin Elster]

Originally Posted by Donna English

My take on The Red Wheelbarrow

The Wheelbarrow Overturned

Dear Editor, I’m writing in the hope that you haven’t started printing up my book.
There’s been an accident. I’m such a dope, and worrywart. Please search the poems and look
for a scribbled note within the stack, for my handyman and gardener, Jose.
It wasn’t on my desk when I got back from mailing you the manuscript that day.
It regards a broken wheelbarrow I had, a note to urge Jose to fix the thing.
Imagine my embarrassment, egad, if published, all the ridicule it’d bring!

You likely saw the problem that I mention. My worry probably seems a little silly
But thanks for your indulgence and attention!
With warm regards,
yours truly,
Billy Billy

Donna,

That's priceless (not the wheelbarrow, though).

Martin

[Martin Elster]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

Yes, oddly enough I did. But it's not the weird format that gets to me. It's the crackerbarrel philosophy which isn't philosophy at all. I keep seeing Walace Beery saying it. And spitting profoundly. That IS the guy |I mean, isn't it. The old guy in 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'?

This could be one of a short series - Great Works of Art I really dislike. Or a long series. Long enough to include all the works of Schoenberg for a start. Oh, and every painting by Mondrian except one. Any one since they are all inexactly the same. Oh, and that film, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour'. Oh and...

There are actually one or two Schoenberg pieces I like (from his early period when he still wrote tonal music), but the later ones I could take or leave (mostly leave).

As for Mondrian, I'm with you. How much can you look at colored rectangles?

[John Whitworth]

Some lovely Larkin. Why does he lend himself so much to this kind of exercise?

[Orwn Acra]

Well I think Mondrian is fantastic. I use to make shirts based of his designs. People LOVED them and they were so easy to make. I probably have a picture of me wearing one somewhere on this computer.

[John Whitworth]

Show us your shirt, Orwn. Mondrian obviously missed his metier; he should have gone in for designing clothes. Anyway, I did say I'd have ONE painting. The rest you could do yourself.

I never think of those who are continually great at all.
I thnk of all those Mondrians on my wall.
I think of them for quite a bit.
And then I think jack shit.