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08-31-2001, 08:12 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 6,761
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Tim's contribution inspired (!) this throwaway:
To a Poor Old Yeoman
sucking a thumb in
the field a filthy one
of them in his mouth
It tastes foul to him
It tastes foul
to him. It tastes
foul to him
You can see it by
the way he gives himself
to the filthy nail
still dark with dirt
Uncomforted
a cursing of raw thumbs
seeming to fill the field
It tastes foul to him
------------------
Ralph
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08-31-2001, 01:30 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: New York, NY USA
Posts: 3,699
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Tim:
Bob is right; I agree the last line should be cut. But I will say that I absolutely love "so much depends" (and "this is just to say"). Sure, what followed (not necessarily by WCW) denegrated quickly into incoherent babble, but there is something both so evocative and provocative about that poem that will fascinate me years from now. It is like looking at Rothko: sure, easy on the surface to poke fun at.But I remember sitting for three hours one day, staring at a Rothko canvas until I could see the scrubbing and the layers of paint and the slight variations in the brushwork and color and found myself having a wonderfully serene moment with the world. Robert Motherwell, on the other hand, just makes me itchy--like much of Ezra Pound makes me want to beat him with a large and heavy tome--maybe the collected Cantos. LOL. And WCW is hard to parody: that denseness is not as easy to capture as it looks. But thanks for the smile.
nyctom
PS Ralph, I am still cracking up over the "It tastes foul to him etc"--so thank you for another smile.
[This message has been edited by nyctom (edited August 31, 2001).]
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08-31-2001, 05:49 PM
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Master of Memory
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Claremont CA USA
Posts: 570
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This is probably too in-group to qualify, and it's not so
much a parody as a burlesque of an early poem by a famous
contemporary poet, but here goes.
BABY LIEBNITZ
He tells me he's published in Partisan
Because he's pink; in Evergreen because he's hip;
In Commentary, Jew; in Hudson, aesthete:
Everywhere, and all the time, and he keeps track.
He holds up one thick little bibliography
To show me he's published all over the world,
And there's no mercy in his voice, no humor
In the watery grey eyes blurred by mastheads.
He asks me to tell him all I can remember
Of Lionel Trilling, his idol; he talks of the feuds
In New York and what came after,
The loss of his publisher, the loss of his fellowship,
The stacks in the library smelling of failure
And reference books, the lists of editors and quarterlies
So long he wrote till his notebook filled with addresses.
"Here they publish, here they publish and not perish."
And he points down at the expensive coffee table
Littered with class mags. He touches my sunglasses,
Tells me I should never disparage
The thick lenses that guard the eyes of the intellectual.
Tenderly his fingers wander over his bookcases,
And he says how obscure I am, how unread.
We stand to end this first and last interview.
Sweaty, 300 pounds, five feet two,
No bigger than an elephant, he pats my back,
Kisses my fountain pen, shows me the door,
My hypocrite writer (my Zimbabwe, my friar),
Myself made otherwise by 200 pounds and all those BANNED POSTBANNED POSTBANNED POSTpublications.
[This message has been edited by robert mezey (edited August 31, 2001).]
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08-31-2001, 05:58 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: South Florida, US
Posts: 6,536
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Robert, I'm so out of it I have to ask WHO IS IT? Absolutely brilliant, but entirely too in-group for this rube from North Dakota.
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08-31-2001, 08:25 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: The United Arab Emirates
Posts: 983
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I'm running late for work, but at the mention of Pound, I thought Tim and Alan might like this:
<u>Ancient Critter</u>
Alan is acummen in
Lhude whinge "O Man!"
Stanzeth cut and spittle sput
and how the crit doth damn.
Cry: Alan.
Filleth breeks and sloppeth cheeks
"He's cut my poem like ham!".
Shouteth Timmy, "Oh it's himmy!,
Damn, your cuts Alan!"
Alan, Alan, 'tis 'cos I am your fan,
I edit out my psalm.
I hope you don't mind
Nigel
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09-01-2001, 12:20 AM
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Master of Memory
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Claremont CA USA
Posts: 570
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Alan, I don't think many people would recognize
it even though it makes fun of a quite famous
poet. I took off on an early poem of Philip
Levine's called Baby Villon, about an
old prizefighter.
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09-01-2001, 01:07 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Athens, Greece
Posts: 3,205
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I'll be away from the computer till mid week, but I look forward to reading more great stuff when I return!
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09-05-2001, 03:53 PM
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New Member
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Ridgecrest, CA USA
Posts: 15
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Veni, vino veritas, circumambulaveratis.
-Jack
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09-06-2001, 12:04 AM
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Member
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: London, UK
Posts: 554
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They piss you off, those mouthy brats
Who storm the top deck of the bus,
Glaring from under baseball hats,
All body odour, grease and pus.
But let's be honest - who'd deny
That surly teens are nothing new?
In years gone by, both you and I
Were stroppy, spotty bastards too.
So as another Coke can hits
Your head to torrents of abuse,
Ignore the sportswear-sporting shits
And swear you'll never reproduce.
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09-06-2001, 04:59 AM
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Lariat Emeritus
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fargo ND, USA
Posts: 13,816
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Now THAT'S a good Larkin parody. (In Clive's case can the last line be said to be self-serving, or even exculpatory?)
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