tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post6064866741242075385..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Charlie Vermont: Knowledge of Love and PossessionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-5094095890378088632012-07-24T08:07:29.894-07:002012-07-24T08:07:29.894-07:00I always feel I ought to have gone a bit longer to...I always feel I ought to have gone a bit longer to school, myself, Larry; but the deficit in education is relatively painless as long as there's a doctor in the house.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48063209776988553602012-07-24T07:40:20.320-07:002012-07-24T07:40:20.320-07:00I was going to delete my "word-thingy" c...I was going to delete my "word-thingy" comment above (save the sentence in praise of Charlie's fine poem) but your kind and wittily definitive comment, Tom, persuades me to leave it. Your poetry class is my therapy!larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-78355791817672405842012-07-23T22:38:57.071-07:002012-07-23T22:38:57.071-07:00Larry,
That's lovely, and if nothing worse th...Larry,<br /><br />That's lovely, and if nothing worse than small therapeutic word-thingies like this one ever grow on you, you shall outlive Methuselah!<br /><br /><br />Susan,<br /><br />I have appreciated the intense fragrance of burning sage, and if no worse fragrance e'er o'er whelms me, I shall live long enough to once again stroll the broad boulevards of old Zurich. Maybe, peut-ĂȘtre.<br /><br />Talking of which, th'immemorial poetic sage is cluttered with reverent paeans to th'immortal Vache Suisse. Par exemple:<br /><br />A Purple Cow<br />By Gelett Burgess<br /><br />I never saw a Purple Cow,<br />I never hope to see one;<br />But I can tell you, anyhow,<br />I'd rather see than be one.<br /><br /><br />Edgar Allen Poe<br />(Parody by Susan and David Hollander)<br /><br />One lonely, gloomy, windswept eve<br />A mournful sound did I perceive.<br />I cast my eyes beyond the pane<br />And to my horror down the lane<br />Came a sight; I froze inside<br />A spectral cow with purple hide.<br /><br /><br />Emily Dickinson<br />(Parody by Susan and David Hollander)<br /><br />On far off hills<br />And distant rills,<br />Sounds a distant moo.<br />A purple spot<br />I think I caught,<br />Yes! I see it, too!<br /><br />In Bovine majesty she stands,<br />Her purple tail she swings,<br />The amethyst cow,<br />To my heart somehow,<br />Perfect joy she brings.<br /><br />And yet the thought of being<br />Of that race of royal hue,<br />Though glowing like the violet sweet,<br />It really would not do.<br /><br /><br />John Keats<br />(Parody by Carolyn Wells)<br /><br />A cow of purple is a joy forever.<br />Its loveliness increases. I have never<br />Seen this phenomenon. Yet ever keep<br />A BRave lookout; lest I should be asleep<br />When she comes by. For, though I would not be one,<br />I've oft imagined 'twould be a joy to see one.<br /><br /><br />William Wordsworth<br />(Parody by Carolyn Wells)<br /><br />She dwelt among the untrodden ways<br />Beside the springs of Dee;<br />A Cow whom there were few to praise<br />And very few to see.<br /><br />A violet by a mossy stone<br />Greeting the smiling East<br />Is not so purple, I must own,<br />As that erratic beast.<br /><br />She lived unknown, that Cow, and so<br />I never chanced to see;<br />But if I had to be one, oh,<br />The difference to me!<br /><br /><br />Rudyard Kipling<br />(Parody by Carolyn Wells)<br /><br />In the old ten-acre pasture,<br />Lookin' eastward toward a tree,<br />There's a Purple Cow a-settin'<br />And I know she thinks of me.<br />For the wind is in the gum-tree,<br />And the hay is in the mow,<br />And the cow-bells are a-calling<br />"Come and see a Purple Cow!"<br /><br />But I am not going now,<br />Not at present, anyhow,<br />For I am not fond of purple, and<br />I can't abide a cow;<br />No, I shall not go today,<br />Where the Purple Cattle play.<br />But I think I'd rather see one<br />Than to be one, anyhow.<br /><br /><br />And not only that...it turns out the grape soda and ice cream purple cow is a delicacy nowhere more loved than in Doctor Charlie's own neighbourhood, where the Purple Cow restaurant chain has two outlets in Little Rock, one in Hot Springs... and coming soon, another at an emporium near you... perhaps amid the cooling violet lava flows of Mauna Loa.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-19156192311539598002012-07-23T18:01:29.476-07:002012-07-23T18:01:29.476-07:00Swiss enlightenment:
Purple cowsSwiss enlightenment:<br /><br />Purple cowsSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13973467779462108972012-07-23T14:59:52.721-07:002012-07-23T14:59:52.721-07:00How this (these) grow on me!
I was a library man
...How this (these) grow on me!<br /><br />I was a library man<br />I read what I could<br />To buy books and sell<br />Them to hungry patrons<br />For a tax-paid living<br />I grew cantankerous<br />And fought with the board<br />Was magnanimous with<br />Fellow patrons I trusted I made<br />My share of mistakes, friends!<br />Bookkeeping not being my strength<br />I went to any length<br />To find books readers wanted<br />As I would for myself and moreso<br />Marked everybody through the door<br />And loved them all the more<br />As we stood talking or sat in <br />Curious silence.larry whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05659637420532771765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72257875185904354192012-07-23T10:51:12.179-07:002012-07-23T10:51:12.179-07:00Sage is supposed to clear away any lingering bad s...Sage is supposed to clear away any lingering bad stuff and probably meant mostly as an astringent antidote for smells from eating beans, practically. When burned, a little like pot but scrubs the air instead of heavily sweetening it. It is very strong! O.K. obvious information for all the wannabes out there (like me).Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-60871446328534494392012-07-23T03:58:37.425-07:002012-07-23T03:58:37.425-07:00Observing the children at play in the twilight pur...Observing the children at play in the twilight purple sage... why do we not have the Swiss enlightenment when it comes to dying?<br /><br />But I guess that Swiss mercy centre is an anonymous looking unobtrusive concrete block building with no windows, so one would not be able to glimpse the children out the window, playing in the sage, as one quaffs the final Dixie Cup of hemlock or whatever it is. Also, in Switzerland there would be no sage. Only sages. Plenty of those. Useless old fools. (Takes one to know one.)<br /><br />And why has it taken the arrival of an intelligent woman with an understanding of the world to switch on the interpretation lightbulb that illumines this poem for this befogged old blogger by making clear that what shines out from the Senator's unseen ancient eyes can only be be the unextinguished light of true love?<br /><br />And here we thought he'd been merely "being objective".<br /><br />But no one yet born or dead has ever been merely being objective.<br /><br />A point in space is not a place to start an argument, it's merely a point of view.<br /><br />(Of course Doctor Charlie could demystify all this at least a bit for us by supplying the mundane facts of the case, but to expect that of him would be to solicit the violation of doctor/patient ethics, and it would also risk spoiling the mystery. Dwelling in doubts, uncertainties & c. being so much of the essence of this here antebellum backwoods swamp and livery-stable-porch sort of poetry thang.)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-43666000393524483382012-07-22T20:00:16.101-07:002012-07-22T20:00:16.101-07:00I guess the politician
would not be a good lover
...I guess the politician <br />would not be a good lover<br />after all<br />automatically<br />working the crowd<br />even when speaking<br />to the only healer<br />present<br /><br />or was it compassionate<br />that he asked after<br />someone else <br />and his funds<br />when the nurse <br />had obviously<br />fallen in love<br />just with him<br />over and overSusan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-55237418005355546412012-07-22T02:52:39.594-07:002012-07-22T02:52:39.594-07:00A telling poem.
BTW, who was the sage that said ...A telling poem. <br /><br />BTW, who was the sage that said we should always observe children at play and listen to what old people have to say?vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-51131264758910248752012-07-22T02:08:53.197-07:002012-07-22T02:08:53.197-07:00Yes, that shocking elision that brings the penulti...Yes, that shocking elision that brings the penultimate and ultimate lines together in a moment of maximum impact -- a small quiet supercollision -- has a power of inevitabilty and yet also of mystery, in the same moment.<br /><br />Understatement is only effective when there is also the sense of something important that is not being stated. Here the distance between life and death are compressed into a blink, an instant. In this moment we feel the authority of a long life in the world being condensed into a rough micro-nugget of (possibly quite useful, who cah say?) pseudo-wisdom, evaporating into history even as it is expressed.<br /><br />The waters that must be passed over between life and death are always murky. In Virgil the souls of the dead, waiting on the shores of the underworld river, are timid, apprehensive, unknowing. Everyone dies too soon, too quickly, or too slowly, not soon enough.<br /><br />It would be good to go out having said what you know, particularly when it has been generally assumed that, there at death's portal, you knew nothing.<br /><br />These hospital poems of Charlie's have the curt, unsentimental, no-nonsense quality of truthfulness we would all want but seldom get from those licensed as healers.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-7234105792972649952012-07-21T14:19:05.537-07:002012-07-21T14:19:05.537-07:00Waters, murky
in between times
of comfort
where di...Waters, murky<br />in between times<br />of comfort<br />where did it<br />come from?<br />Hot little hands?<br />Cold nurse logs?<br />The men sit <br />and talk<br />together<br />about Charlie Vermont<br />and all he knows<br />and all that <br />they cannot possess<br />in a given <br />moment<br />even when<br />looking back.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34093636864242918122012-07-21T14:17:32.929-07:002012-07-21T14:17:32.929-07:00That last stanza, letting the notice of death be p...That last stanza, letting the notice of death be part of the whole poem's telling, is great. He knows to let the easy chance of a full stop go in order to let the words close quietly.<br /><br />What is happening with the expectation between his knowing and his end?<br /><br />The title: those two things being the things that are known (as they show up in others at least). What's the experience that speaks here?Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com