tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1999918723185852618..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Andrew Marvell: Green ThoughtUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49599739632297595512012-08-23T21:15:55.082-07:002012-08-23T21:15:55.082-07:00It is indeed a common green, the green of common n...It is indeed a common green, the green of common nature's lifeblood. Yes, that wisp of cobweb in the top picture, so delicate; and the patches of white resin on the fir cones.<br /><br />Granted the observed flora of the Yorkshire estate of the poet's employer Thomas Fairfax, at the confluence of the Wharfe and the Ouse, probably provided the immediate particulars, still the uncommon strength of this poem must derive from the quality WB here names --<br /><br />"What a thing the imagination is for Marvell! Wiping away the whole order of steady resemblances in a stroke."<br /><br />Over the past five months I have learnt that withdrawing from "pleasure less" (that absence of presence) sometimes seems the best or even only way (when there is little pleasure, much pain), still it's that crucial next step, the one Mr Marvel manages more deftly than anyone else has ever done, the [re]creation of green worlds in the mind, that's so very hard to negotiate... without treading upon the flowers.<br /><br />The Mind, that clumsy muddy-boots clodhopper-in-sprite's clothing.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-44367405669482260222012-08-23T13:21:51.931-07:002012-08-23T13:21:51.931-07:00"Annihilating all that's made
To a green ..."Annihilating all that's made<br />To a green Thought in a green Shade"<br /><br />What a thing the imagination is for Marvell! Wiping away the whole order of steady resemblances in a stroke.<br /><br />Thinking about the Cromwell posting some weeks back, it's strange to think that the author of those subtle lines and ambiguous figures reveals such an unruly energy here - creation swallowed up by unreal verdant shadows, caught in a thought's density.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-32192483903530025042012-08-23T11:02:23.327-07:002012-08-23T11:02:23.327-07:00Green toilet by Ursus americanus.
Susan, what a g...Green toilet by Ursus americanus.<br /><br />Susan, what a green cascade. Aditya, profound needlework.<br />Stephen, on tip.<br />Tom, Mr. Marvel.<br /><br />Dream Lover Undreamt<br /><br />I hadn't seen, thought, or dreamed you,<br />much less asked you, for some dream time.<br />Yet here you were, flesh and dream composite.<br />Not another day, today.<br />Some crowded place at dusk, lights coming on,<br />a scene that fades pretty quickly<br />to your face registering surprise<br />but not displeasure when I ask you<br />if you would like to watch with me and Mother<br />a movie about some history. Your face then,<br />lovely young matron with daughters and husband<br />elsewhere of course, nodded such a sweet assent<br />to what became a comically grim descent,<br />a nightmare yet unfolding bright flashes of you<br />yielding now a veiling and unveiling through your eyes.<br /><br />Mother had the news on, floods in full cry,<br />house the usual organized chaos.<br />Some laughs at that, shy nods at familiarity.<br />I fiddled too long with the video machine,<br />tape unspooling like squid spaghetti.<br />Without a bite, we two bowed out<br />to drive you home not to famished children<br />or husband exactly. We drove to your decoy parents,<br />a pair rented for a backwards nightmare<br />set in a flooded farmscape, or was it <br />a fishing village loud on a summer night's tide?<br />The shock and anger the old folks expressed<br />overpowering their glazed, futile hospitality,<br />to see me stupid, staring even<br />as you undressed your fine, sun-cured features,<br />tall, lithe and shameless<br />you were -- who was I?<br />I backed out to face the neighborhood, knowing,<br />relatives all full of taunts, a vengeful shivaree,<br />Mother's car shoved into the flood, a tin plate served me<br />slop I half-enjoyed until a grinning crone added<br />that there might be something added.<br />To which a young smirker sneered, "Yeah,<br />pigshit poo-poo!" Too literally true.<br />I could have laughed at the crude double negative<br />had it not been meant for me and my last meal.<br /><br />And who were all these shades, your family?<br />Who were you with your husband<br />when you were with me -- to hell with the video-player?<br />Let the dream remind me, wound, unwound and rewound,<br />of a dreamscape, love, that could and cannot be.larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-53191571836221733262012-08-23T06:55:46.147-07:002012-08-23T06:55:46.147-07:00Tom,
So great to SEE these greens in these photos...Tom,<br /><br />So great to SEE these greens in these photos, READ Marvell's "green Thought in a green shade" (again, just now, here).<br /><br />8.23<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />ridge, black shape of black pine branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> discover the object, to see <br /> these elements better<br /><br /> perhaps in each other, each<br /> other’s, then in such<br /><br />grey white of fog against top of ridge,<br />shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52316831622789799962012-08-22T22:06:22.674-07:002012-08-22T22:06:22.674-07:00wonderful green!
forest trail dead-end
the pine n...wonderful green!<br /><br />forest trail dead-end<br />the pine needles point<br />in every directionadityahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16078144194220301083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-29437368485794414832012-08-22T15:35:30.286-07:002012-08-22T15:35:30.286-07:00They were unhappy no matter what I cooked that sum...They were unhappy no matter what I cooked that summer up at the City Watershed. Everything propane. I made cobblers, lasagna, cookies, and more-- all from scratch. But they liked watching when Craig made Arapahoe Glacier slide a bit with his explosives on the fourth.<br /><br />At the food meeting, it was brought to my attention (they begged) that they preferred boxed mashed potatoes and hot dogs to tofu scramble and brown rice. I had wondered why they didn't act so hungry and figured that they were just overtired, possibly dehydrated, until one afternoon I spied and saw them (all) riding around on the dump truck without their shirts. Looked tough.<br /><br />Highlights were finding ancient stone hunting blinds that the pica had taken over, seeing ptarmigans, and gazing into the icy turquoise lake after the lunch dishes were done. There was nothing I missed, Siamese cat by my side.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-57817414204084306282012-08-22T15:07:55.796-07:002012-08-22T15:07:55.796-07:00Mr. Chant has an eye for mysterious details. Mr. Chant has an eye for mysterious details. Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62051023277817177682012-08-22T15:03:18.408-07:002012-08-22T15:03:18.408-07:00The green Thought
I want to grab
minus the Shade
c...The green Thought<br />I want to grab<br />minus the Shade<br />coming off the mirror<br />and that person<br />stranger that listens<br />to the pine fir spruce<br />their cones their needlesSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-52509160509976213082012-08-22T13:16:03.488-07:002012-08-22T13:16:03.488-07:00Wondrous the poem and marvelous the photographs ta...Wondrous the poem and marvelous the photographs taking me back to where I used to live.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59926398370687011542012-08-22T12:33:20.670-07:002012-08-22T12:33:20.670-07:00Love that cobweb in the first picture.Love that cobweb in the first picture.Jonathan Chanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03647746685252448938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-27380388930492015452012-08-22T11:26:28.829-07:002012-08-22T11:26:28.829-07:00a common green!a common green!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-44154495476314394992012-08-22T11:15:36.111-07:002012-08-22T11:15:36.111-07:00The marmot has flattened its belly to maximize the...The marmot has flattened its belly to maximize the pleasurable transfer of heat.<br /><br />It must be morning, the sun just warming the rock, awakening the blood of the marmot.<br /><br />It is the 24th of August on the day of the picture. The mornings are getting cooler, this far north.<br /><br />It seemed unkind to sequester one's marmot in a shade, even a green shade, this morning.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-21913198438385699762012-08-22T10:46:40.228-07:002012-08-22T10:46:40.228-07:00Hair by Clairol
dress by I. Magnin
shoes by Nike
c...Hair by Clairol<br />dress by I. Magnin<br />shoes by Nike<br />coffee: Starbucks<br />nails by biting<br />school by accident<br />family by fate<br />lunch: two slices of Muenster<br />view: fluorescent<br />idea: small disguise<br />thought: greenSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-31801808923683205662012-08-22T10:21:47.485-07:002012-08-22T10:21:47.485-07:00Oh Ursus americanus
your bouquet of fur
in all tha...Oh Ursus americanus<br />your bouquet of fur<br />in all that green<br />the whole world waiting<br />for your breath<br />into action they go<br />there in the other<br />greener parts<br />ferns branches rivers<br />mountain places<br />the little buck waits<br /> marmot whistling<br />slate rocks warm<br />not hunkered down yetSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-47445520390554785812012-08-22T10:03:03.340-07:002012-08-22T10:03:03.340-07:00"first thought..."
Second thought=green..."first thought..."<br /><br />Second thought=green thoughtSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-63063328255712797582012-08-22T10:01:36.614-07:002012-08-22T10:01:36.614-07:00Cool crisp there past
that's where he was
wher...Cool crisp there past<br />that's where he was<br />where he went<br />for solace<br />it wasn't far<br />but afterwards<br />one realized it took<br />a lot of work<br />whole heart<br />in those decisionsSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.com