Saturday 27 February 2010

William Empson: Let It Go


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Morning by raworth.





It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange.
The more things happen to you the more you can't
Tell or remember even what they were.

The contradictions cover such a range.
The talk would talk and go so far aslant.
You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.





Morning by raworth.






Let It Go: William Empson, from Collected Poems (1949)

Morning (7.1.10): photos by Tom Raworth, 2010
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7 comments:

  1. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE27 February 2010 at 08:04

    Tom,

    Lovely poems to find here -- Empson, Blake, Larkin, maybe E.K. Chambers in your heart set mind in this English direction (or TR's photographs here, what a world he's looking at over there ('across the pond')! Pictures all light, dark edges in the poems, words & things in verbal/visual balance.

    2.27

    grey whiteness of clouds above shadowed
    ridge, motion of green leaves on branch
    in foreground, wave sounding in channel

    more than consequence, same
    phenomena for example

    this sequence in this order,
    material life, visual

    grey-white clouds reflected in channel,
    shadowed green of ridge across from it

    ReplyDelete
  2. Melissa27 February 2010 at 08:57

    rain, tsunami warning
    the morning
    rises

    ReplyDelete
  3. ~otto~27 February 2010 at 16:02

    twisted-good

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous27 February 2010 at 17:52

    I thought you might like this.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo4XYwG24cM

    Ms.N

    ReplyDelete
  5. Curtis Roberts27 February 2010 at 20:04

    I read the Empson poem during a drive earlier today before encountering more snow than I'd ever seen in one place (location: Tuxedo Park, NY) and various resulting difficulties (no electricity, no heat, general impassability issues). I reread the poem and reviewed the images several times during the day. They stayed in my mind, never left me, and now I've purchased Empson's Collected Poems. So it's been a pretty good day, all things considered. Thank you for the introduction and greetings from the Holiday Inn, Suffern, NY, which is currently experiencing an odd and unexplained Winter Olympics television outtage. Consequently, we're tuned in to the current psychokiller bio screening on TLC.

    ReplyDelete
  6. TC28 February 2010 at 05:14

    The sequence in this order: every comment here adds something to the phenomenal picture (material life, visual, faith, twisted, morning, snow).

    ReplyDelete
  7. aditya5 March 2010 at 11:23

    Both the paragraphs are a delight to read.


    You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.

    I liked reading it thoroughly. Over and over

    ReplyDelete