On 23/05/12 21:42, Peter J Ross wrote:
> In alt.arts.poetry.comments on Wed, 23 May 2012 20:39:05 +0200,
> Gwyneth<
gwy...@patchword.com> wrote:
>
>> On 13/05/12 23:35, Peter J Ross wrote:
>>
>> Hi Peter,
>
> Hello Gwyneth!
>
>> Sorry to have left it so long before commenting, and not
>> sure I have much to say that will be of any use, but it's
>> good to see a poem here that appeals enough to make
>> me want to comment.
>
> To some extent, this was an artificial draft, devised to be
> comment-worthy. However, after ten days, you're the first commentor
> who can read a newspaper story without being confused by all the
> complicated disyllables, so it may be time to give up on AAPC.
You've been saying that for years.
So far, neither of us has given up.
> (Is
> that a loud cheer I hear? The boys could cheer even louder if they
> didn't drool at the same time.)
That's the sort of unpleasant image I expect from you.
>
>> If I've screwed up the formatting, it's because I drafted
>> this off line.
>>
>>> All about arrivals
>>> ------------------
>>>
>>> /The Waltons/, Darwin, /Pinafore/: we know all
>>> about sisters, cousins and aunts, and yet
>>
>> Although I recognise all three references, I only really
>> know /of/ them, and what I know of them doesn't seem
>> to be similar or connected enough to actually establish
>> a time/place/atmosphere etc. for me. (But see below.)
>
> There are big families in all three.
There's a fairly large family in Pride & Prejudice; certainly
lots of sisters, a number of cousins and a couple of aunts.
The pòint is that I didn't even have a time frame for the Waltons.
>
> I might cut it down to "his sisters and his cousins and his aunts"
> without citing sources.
>
>> Coupled with the word "arrivals", and the upcoming
>> "generations", I am expecting this to have some
>> connection to births/family/inheritance that I don't
>> really find in the next two stanzas.
>
> So the airport setting isn't detectable. OK. That's useful.
Despite the fact I travel quite a bit by plane, 'arrivals'
conjured more trains and maternity wards than anything else.
>
> Births, families and inheritances are meant to be part of it.
>
>>> we teem thick as the termite generations
>>> we poison with TV retunes and West-End shows:
>>
>> Don't like the repetition of 'we' at the beginning of the
>> lines. You're using an inclusive pronoun, but don't feel
>> I'm onthe same wavelength, so it's unsatisfactory.
>
> Agreed.
>
>>> but not social insects only, heirs too fly back.
>>>
>> I'm not sure why (or how) we poison termite generations
>> with TV retunes etc., although that doesn't bother me
>> too much.
>>
>> The awkward grammar of that last line does bother me,
>> though. Would anyone ever actually say that?
>
> I can speak it in a way that clarifies what I mean, but you're right
> that it doesn't work on the page.
Oh I can make sense of it, but it's unnatural.
>
>>> * * *
>>>
>>> The engine stutter suggests an old plane,
>>
>> This line starts to suggest a whole settting of time and
>> place that is bolstered by the rest of the stanza.
>
> Good.
>
>>> nothing fancy, seen before heard, forcing
>>> the family out to shadow our eyes with one hand,
>>> brush off hot flies with the other, leaving
>>> no obvious hand free to wave or welcome with.
>>
>> This sounds good, but I have a suspicion that I would
>> shade my eyes and brush away the flies with the same hand.
>> I really can't imagine doing it otherwise, but I guess
>> that must just be me.
>
> The only good idea in this "poem" is the three-hands joke, so if that
> doesn't work it's bonfire time.
I don't agree. And I think three hands has become too firmly
associated with Zaphod to be particularly useful.
>
>> (Note I also instinctively use
>> 'shade' and 'brush away' - I know what you're saying,
>> but our language isn't quite in step.)
>
> I prefer "shadow" to "shade" because an image is involved.
>
> I think you're right about "brush off".
>
>> I'm not sure "hot flies" is 100% successful for me -
>> it adds a potentially comic element that is probably
>> a distraction.
>
> I've been watching an old documentary about a friend of mine who lived
> in Kenya before I met him. There's a scene in which he's sitting on
> his porch, dormant and immobile except when his hand flicks up to
> chase away a fly. That's the kind of thing I wish I could convert
> into poetry.
>
>> This would make a stronger opening stanza: it has plenty
>> of mirroring in S3, and would leave your current S1 to
>> serve as a separator as well as allowing it to suggest
>> who might be in the plane.
>
> OK.
>
>>>
>>> * * *
>>>
>>> I'll be no man's bride until a begoggled captain
>>
>> Again, the "begoggled captain" (though I might prefer "pilot")
>
> All pilots are begoggled. It would be redundant.
They don't wear goggles these days, so it helps fix a time.
But certainly "begoggled captain" sounds better.
>
>> reinforces the idea of setting that "The engine stutter [...]"
>> has triggered.
>>
>> (I wonder if some of the problem is that you started with
>> /The Waltons/ which has no associations for me.
>
> You could watch an episode or two, but my idea was that everybody
> knows that /The Waltons/ is about a large family.
Never assume 'everybody knows'. I think I had it mixed up with
/The High Chaparral/, /Anne of Green Gables/ and the /Little
House on the Prairie/, the only one of which I know (knew?)
anything about is /The High Chaparral/.
>
>> Having
>> just read up on IMDB, it seems it might trigger the right
>> associations for other people. This raises the question of
>> just how much we can rely on our readers sharing our
>> cultural references.
>
> For purposes of comment and critique, you can be (and indeed have
> been) helpful just by Googling the references, but I wanted to try to
> include a reference that wouldn't need to be looked up.
The little I knew wasn't enough. But I expect it's an age
and location thing.
>
>> Perhaps it's worse that I was making
>> inaccurate associations - I knew enough to think I didn't
>> need to check for details.)
>
> Hector of Troy had numerous sisters, cousins and aunts, so perhaps he
> ought to be in the poem instead of these ephemera.
I wouldn't have associated him with a big family. But I would
have known that I might find it useful to read a little more
about him. I doubt, though, that his large family would have
been what I found if I'd look him up.
>
>>> tells me it's all about the next, not this flight;
>>> the engine stutter, the obvious hand,
>>> our redface sibling or shadow-eyed moralist:
>>
>> Your compounds and composites are always interesting, but
>> I'm not convinced about redface / shadow-eyed.
>> Why not red-faced / shadoweye ?
>
> Euphony. Too many consonants in "redfaced siblings", not enough
> consonants in "shadoweye moralists".
I like "shadoweye" as it sounds sufficiently like "shadowy"
to make me think such a person is not to be trusted.
>
>>> what can they teach us better about our next flight?
>> This is slightly awkward, but perhaps not so much so as
>> to be distracting.
>
> I expect my writing of English to range from adequate to impressive,
> so there's something wrong if it becomes awkwark.
Worry more if it becomes an aardvark. (yes, I'm having
trouble with my glasses again!)
Seriously, it doesn't sound like anything any normal
person might say, although the sentiment makes sense.
>
>> In general, I really like the voice.
>> One thing about your poems/narrators is how strong and
>> consistent the voices always are.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Tell me that they're also varied, and I'll be the happiest writer
> alive.
OK: The voices you use are varied. I wish I knew
how you did it.
> Variety is what I aim for. If you don't like this poem, the
> next one is likely to be about as different from it as is humanly
> possible.
I look forward to reading it.
Which is not to say I disliked this.
g.
>
>> I think that's all been more comment than critique,
>> but for the moment I have nothing more to add.
>> Thanks for posting.
>
> Thanks for commenting.
>