Monday, October 16, 2006

38 |   School of Quietude     [pantoum]


When I entered the school of deep quietude
the fish with the rudders were friendly
the village was mantled in solitude
the trees and the brides were like family

the fish with the rudders were friendly
the streets and the moons looked benign
the trees and the brides were like family
the human was all but divine

the streets and the moons looked benign
it seemed at the nadir of turpitude
milkmaids were attending the kine
when I entered the school of deep quietude




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see also pantoum no. 2 in this autumn sequence, "In the school of disquietude"

4 Comments:

Blogger Jesse said...

it's something to ponder, that ron states so much about the s 'o q, but there is another side to it that will bear consideration.

i haven't ever tried to write a pantoum. i should look into that.

gotta go, much housework to do!

Mon Oct 16, 01:43:00 PM PDT  
Blogger BoltOfBlue said...

the trees and the brides, the streets and the moons.
i like this

Mon Oct 16, 03:11:00 PM PDT  
Blogger david raphael israel said...

Thanks y'all.

Jesse--
Ron is interesting both as poet and thinker. But in his critical thinking, one may sometimes begin to conclude that in certain respects poetry (conceived as a sort of history-long sports event) is perhaps seen as akin to a game of chess, where there could be no moves without opposing sides. This cartooning may eventually provoke a reaction even in "quiet bystanders." The paradox of my position is that, presumably, to play the game, you have to play the getting-in-print game too (the certified calling card); then, too, people can know what team you belong to etc. At any rate, this hardly covers the topic. If Robert Bly were only more popular and active, it could make a good adversary for Ron perhaps; but he seems to have settled into relative quietude (in a differing sense). His onetime would-be "deep image poetry" school had at least strong hints of interesting ideas and potential cohesion. It was oddly blindsided by Robert Hass shortly after James Wright's death; and of course Hass has to belong to SoQ . . . but enough, the whole game theory is, for me, at least potentially antithetical to poetry per se. It would be a bit like listening to sitarists or birdcalls and then rating them with a scorecard.

Blue--
thanks. Those phrases were initially written as "trees and birds" and "streets and lanes," but then I felt like adding some bit of noise or blur (so to speak).

Mon Oct 16, 03:50:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Jesse said...

thanks for talking to me

Tue Jul 24, 03:12:00 PM PDT  

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