[stylist] Poem - "Memory" - First Draft
William L Houts
lukaeon at gmail.com
Wed Nov 26 20:35:05 UTC 2014
HI Listers,
Here's this morning's poem. I'm pretty pleased with it, although it
seems too short. Still by my lights it constitutes an advance in the
way I approach my poetry. I'm fairly confident about the value of my
work, but there's been a trend towards certain devices and the logic.
In brief, I feel that some of my poems have a kind of hidden locked down
aspect. I mean, the rhythm and rhyme feels good to me, but I feel
there's a kind of ABC linear aspect to my poems. There are resonances
and rhymbs, and I'm all fine with that, but I might have been more free
with associations, more able to let the poem constellate around ideas
rather than language.
Anyway. Enjoy, if you will.
--Bill
---
Memory
I was weaned on the hornpipe duet;
the ferry on our cold inland sea,
landing within blocks with a blast
of trumpetlike steel; and the trains,
with their double sharp peal:
somehow a plaintive bull's bawling,
a brass bishop calling the faithful,
the hopeful of heaven to prayer.
No angels there, though, the chorus
is earth-called, man-souled and sea-told,
a father's voice faintly fished up
from memory's Sargasso-like bay:
a picnic, a car wash or porch,
recalled for three minutes one day.
--
"Oh, Sophie! Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"
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