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Wednesday 10 June 2009

A New Light

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File:Rain falling.JPG




The sandpapery candor of Bobby Dylan
Strikes a jejune note all of a sudden

Throw my ticket out the window
Throw my sneakers out there too

Mama said there’d be days like this
When rain pencils the sky

With an air of biological rigor
And visibility is grimly minimized

Tiny puffs of smoke speckle it
The harmonic spectrum is muffled

The tall white dog stands in the road
Shivering and shaking the water off

The scene makes the usefulness
Of an infinite tolerance evident

Too late I see the value of being
Resolute in a new light



File:22 Regen ubt.jpeg


File:Rain on a smoke tree leaf.jpg






Rain falling: photo by Axel Drouin, 2005

Rain falls: photo by Tomasz Sienicki, 2004


Rain drops on a smoke tree leaf: photo by Kris Miller, 2004

12 comments:

Billy said...

I love that Dylan song. Nice poem Tom.

TC/BTP said...

Thanks Bill.

I like the song too, and I'm sure Bobby won't mind my changing suitcases to sneakers. (I was in those days a frequent contestant in ragged schoolyard basketball combat.)

Equally I've hoped the Shirelles would not mind helping out with that one classic line from a song whose lyric will never cease to amaze:

Mama said there'll be days like this,
There'll be days like this Mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there'll be days like this,
There'll be days like this my Mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
I went walking the other day,
Everything was going fine,
I met a little boy named Billy Joe
And then I almost lost my mind
Mama said there'll be days like this,
There'll be days like this Mama said
(Mama said, mama said)
Mama said there'll be days like this,
There'll be days like this my Mama said & c.

Zephirine said...

the usefulness
Of an infinite tolerance


if only!

I like this one too, and the Footsteps. Another terrific batch of poem/image combinations today, thank you Tom.

TC/BTP said...

And thank you, Zeph.

Yes, I'm still working on that tolerance bit.

George Mattingly said...

Very nice poem, Tom. Sneakers, suitcase, suspenders, anything.

Dale said...

The second rain picture is amazing. Electric storm here in Austin tonight. Listening to Dylan's Modern Times: "Ain't talkin', just walkin'" and:

"Well, the whole world is filled with speculation / The whole wide world which people say is round / They will tear your mind away from contemplation / They will jump on your misfortune when you're down."

Rio Pat said...

Was directed here for the PW poem, and then I found the Cornell piece. Now at random reading and catching up. Saw some recent pieces in the Corpse and wondered what you were up to -- now I know. Good to be back in the flow. Always a fan, Pat in Monte Rio

TC/BTP said...

Yo Pat,

Nowhere to go but the flow, good to be back in it with you. Watching the River Flow...

Dale,

... and glad to hear you and your brood survived the flood.

George,

Suspenders: the best suggestion yet. Anything to hold one up.

Let's throw it all out the window!

Tom Raworth said...

Good to see this, Tom.... the first couplet stuck in my mind for many years...... Tom

Stu said...

The poem and photos have cast my day in a new light (no joke). Thankyou, Tom.

TC/BTP said...

Thank you Tom and Stu
To be sticking in your mind and/or recasting your day
Were I a poem or a picture, say
Would be all I'd want to do

("Lines Cast in the Water Closet of The Dumbfoundry")

Anonymous said...

love the images...!!