[Alex Pepple]

Dear Eratosphereans,

It is my pleasure to announce the return of Paul Lake as an Eratosphere moderator. For those of you new in these cyber spheres, Paul was once upon a time, co-moderator of our Metrical Poetry forum. You can expect to see more of him over there again, ... & elsewhere in 'Roving' mode.

So, join me in extending a warm welcome back to Paul!

Cheers,
...Alex

[ChrisW]

Wonderful news! Welcome back, Paul! Fortunately, as a participant, you never really left, but welcome back in the capacity of moderator.

[Tim Murphy]

Yes, this is great news. With the addition of Paul, Sam, Rhina, David, and Oliver, we have almost filled Clive's shoes! Welcome home, Paul.

[Wild Bill]

Excellent news. Congratulations, Paul, and congratulations to all of us.

------------------
Bill

[nyctom]

Hello Paul:

We have such different perspectives--based on what I have read of your comments on here and our own back-and-forth discussions in Gen Talk and Mastery--but you are always engaging and thought-provoking even when I disagree with your positions! I am, however, a big fan of civilized debate, and look forward to more of the same with you here.

Good to have you back.

nyctom

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

I'll ditto Tom. I remember a certain free verse vs metrical poetry debate...and that my impression of Paul flipped 180 degrees after reading the following excellent poem he posted on General Talk:

<dir>From the Valley of Saying

<dir>"For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its saying where executives
Would never want to tamper . . ."

W. H. Auden, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”</dir>

A dagger and a poem: sword and pen
Proverbially paired beneath his head,
Great Alexander slept, the fever-dream
Of Homer’s epic peopling his sleep
With Greek and Trojan action-figures till,
Arising from his bed, he left the deep
Valley of mere saying with his men
And landed on the plains of Illium
To blaze new chapters of an Illiad
Across their length in Greek and Asian blood.

And when his battle-weary army balked
On India’s plains, the all-conquering king,
To quell their mutinous mutterings, turned back
To plot new marches in a fresh campaign
To mix all men as in a loving-cup--
Though not before life imitated art
And like the hero of his bedtime book
The boy-king stormed off to his tent and sulked
Over spoils lost and curbs on his domain.

Inflamed by Homer’s words and images,
Three continents were fired in the kiln
Of one imagination till they held
Neither Greek nor Jew, Persian nor Scythian,
As learning Greek or taking Eastern wives,
All men were married in one brotherhood
Beneath the kingship of one lord and God.
The logos walked with Christian, Stoic, Jew
Down valleys where effete executives
Maintained their little stretch of Roman road,
Collected taxes, and in off hours read
St. Paul or Plutarch, Homer or Hesiod
To salt the tasteless tedium of their lives.


Paul Lake</dir>

Now if he'll only post more of his poetry...



[This message has been edited by Curtis Gale Weeks (edited September 05, 2003).]

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

BTW--I just stumbled on this link, a decent introduction?

review of Walking Backward

[Kate Benedict]

Let's hope so! Red carpet, Paul.

[Paul Lake]

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. I'll try to rove as much as I can, though what I keep discovering is that by the time I've gotten to a newly posted poem, it's already been commented on wisely by other Spherians, making any advice I might offer redundant or superfluous. Nevertheless, I'll try to add my two cents worth where it might do some good.

By way of further introduction, I'll post two poems on this board, since Curtis Weeks has suggested a post something.