April is the cruellest month
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:52
#1
April is the cruellest month
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:52
#2
Some cheery thoughts on spring ...
quote:
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965).[b]The Waste Land[/b] (1922)
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering 5
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 10
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 15
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, 20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock, 25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust. 30
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu.
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?
'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; 35
'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das Meer.Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, 45
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations. 50
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. 55
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.Unreal City, 60
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. 65
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying 'Stetson!
'You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! 70
'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
'Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! 75
'You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frиre!'
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:53
#3
But, but ... April has Earth Day! And my birthday! And daffodils!
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:56
#4
No, Tehanu: we must be depressed. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Although you could play a trick on us all tomorrow morning.
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:57
#5
Catchfire
Hurry up please it's time.
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:58
#6
quote:
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 10...
Good grief, why ever didn't you come and visit me? I had a flat very nearby -- at the Hofgarten, 14 -- that year.
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:58
#7
thwap and ephemeral are moving into their first house tomorrow.
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:59
#8
quote:
Originally posted by 'lance:
[b]Good grief, why ever didn't you come and visit me? I had a flat very nearby -- at the Hofgarten, 14 -- that year.[/b]
[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Och, he was a dork, and yet some of it is very great, yes?
Ah, you made me laugh, 'lancelot. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 16:59
#9
Hey, congrats. Rosedale, right? [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:00
#10
quote:
Originally posted by thwap:
[b]thwap and ephemeral are moving into their first house tomorrow.[/b]
Yay! Just in time to plant the garden! Oh, I am so happy for you, you two wild and crazy guys. It will be a happy place. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:02
#11
quote:
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, 10
Here in Victoria, the clocks are striking 13.
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:05
#12
Everybody's a proofreader. *grump* [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:11
#13
It's in a solid NDP riding. (Just like the one we're leaving. OH BLESSED HAMILTON!!! I'm not even sure if I'm leaving David Christopherson's riding to go to Wayne Marston's riding. But it's still NDP.)
[img]cool.gif" border="0[/img]
skdadl, a friend taking landscape somethingorother is going to use our backyard as a place to practice.
something about domestic organic stuff or something.
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:17
#14
quote:
Originally posted by skdadl:
Everybody's a proofreader. *grump* [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
The old gag about accountants (yes, there are such things) had it that bookkeepers prefer to be called accountants, accountants prefer to be called auditors, and auditors prefer to be called God.
(I didn't say it was a good gag).
So there must be a publishing equivalent. Proofreaders would rather be called editors; editors would rather be called publishers; publishers would rather be called -- what? Men/Women Of Letters?
As for Eliot, one spring someone in my old U of T residence wrote a parody of the opening of The Waste Land, and posted it on the bulletin board. (The cork bulletin board -- you older people might remember, they had pins or tacks or whatever, which were used to hold up a substance called 'paper' on which one 'wrote' by hand. Hard to recall what that was like, in today's paperless offices).
I think I still have it, and I might post it here. Some of the references would require annotation -- but then, that's perfectly appropriate to Eliot. (For example every Friday our college held a "pub," just a dance and booze-up in a basement cafeteria. On admission you bought drink tickets -- thus "I will show you fear in your last beer ticket.")
Others were more universal, at least among students and professors:
"Essays surprised us, coming over the professor's desk
With a shower of derision..."
Edit:
quote:
thwap and ephemeral are moving into their first house tomorrow.
'Ray, thwap and ephemeral! All the best.
[ 31 March 2006: Message edited by: 'lance ]
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:49
#15
quote:
Originally posted by 'lance:
For example every Friday our college held a "pub," just a dance and booze-up in a basement cafeteria. On admission you bought drink tickets
Reznikoff's was on [b]Thursday[/b] nights!
Fri, 2006-03-31 17:52
#16
quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
Reznikoff's was on [b]Thursday[/b] nights!
Perhaps initially, but not in my time (1982-1987). Thursday was Vic Pub night, Friday Reznikoff's. Saturday Dr. John's, the "SAC pub," held at least until 1984 in the same room as Rezzie's (the Refectory), after which the infamous "Hangar" was open for, um, business. Saturdays were also New College pub days, but no-one wasted their time with that.
(Edit:
Nice to see you again, Stephen. I was wondering if a UC reference would inspire you to de-lurk).
(Edit the second:
Thinking back, I vaguely remember hearing that Reznikoff's had been on Thursday nights. My first year might have been the first year it was moved).
[ 31 March 2006: Message edited by: 'lance ]
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:00
#17
And now, it seems, Reznikoff's is a coffee shop in the new UC residence.
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:00
#18
Hi, Stephen. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
'lance (and others): do you not think that "What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow" is very Shelley? As in "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:06
#19
I'll have to take your word for it, skdadl. To me (since we somehow got on the topic of the early 80s -- oh yeah, that was me), Shelley is [url=http://www.buzzcocks.com/_peteshelley/peteshelley.html]Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks[/url].
What can I say? I've done my best to overcome the advantages of a decent education.
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:09
#20
So anyway, who has daffodils?
Mine are still not showing. I have one puny snowdrop so far. *pout*
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:14
#21
Something tells me that if anyone in the Lower Mainland of BC answers that, you'll not speak to us again. Or at least not until May.
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:16
#22
I suppose y'all are already harvesting corn, 'lance? [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:17
#23
I have one yellow crocus up and in bloom -- don't know what colour the 20 or so other green shoots will bloom.
And I'm not even in BC -- nyah, nyah. [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:17
#24
I'm all growed up and don't do practical jokes anymore, but, man, I loved April Fool's Day when I was a kid. (Anybody else go to a school where they declared AFD over at noon? Dorks.)
My best gag: saran wrap over the toilet. Got mum. Mum nearly got me. I ran fast in those days.
No garden here. And congrats, thwap and eph.
Fri, 2006-03-31 18:39
#25
Catchfire
quote:
[b]Originally posted by skdadl:[/b]
do you not think that "What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow" is very Shelley? As in "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"
Maybe you could be more specific, skdadl, as to what you saw, but for me, the two lines are quite different. I see in Shelley's line an almost farcical and melodramatic attempt to find real emotion and feeling; in true Romantic style, that comes from throwing yourself in a thicket bush. I mean, check out the exclamation points in that poem. What's he trying to prove?
In "The Wasteland," there is no nature, no emotion, just "stony rubbish." Eliot is asking questions that are probably rhetorical, but he prays, prays that they're not, that something indeed will still grow, even though he doesn't believe it: "You cannot say, or guess, for you know only / A heap of broken images." Compare that to Shelley's insisting exclamatives. There's still melodrama, sure, but in a much different way. "These fragments I have shorn against my ruin,: laments Eliot. Well, maybe if you didn't expect us to read Greek and medival Italian before we could dare approach your poems, you'd have fewer fragments and more friends.
Fri, 2006-03-31 19:41
#26
But daffodils don't have thorns! This thread is very distressing. Now I'm depressed. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2006-03-31 20:12
#27
A Song of the Weather
January brings the snow,
Makes your feet and fingers glow.
February's ice and sleet
Freeze the toes tight off your feet.
Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wert not so unkind!
April brings the sweet spring showers,
On and on for hours and hours.
Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day.
June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops.
In July the sun is hot.
Is it shining? No, it's not.
August, cold and dank and wet,
Brings more rain than any yet.
Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood.
Then October adds a gale,
Wind and slush and rain and hail.
Dark November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog.
Freezing wet December, then
Bloody January again!
January brings the snow ...
- Flanders & Swan
[ 31 March 2006: Message edited by: Diane Demorney ]
Fri, 2006-03-31 23:15
#28
quote:
Originally posted by skdadl:
[b]I suppose y'all are already harvesting corn, 'lance? [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]
[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] Cranberries maybe.
Fri, 2006-03-31 23:45
#29
Boom Boom
We got a sprinkling of snow tonight, more snow (and rain) expected tomorrow. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
Sat, 2006-04-01 00:06
#30
$1,100,000 Randi Challenge Is No April Fools Joke!
[url=http://tinyurl.com/ff35e]http://tinyurl.com/ff35e[/url]
What is the most outrageous 'psychic prediction' you have found for the summer of 2006?
I predict gas will hit $1.25 a litre.
Sat, 2006-04-01 11:24
#31
quote:
I predict gas will hit $1.25 a litre.
And you'll still be paying a lot less than people do in much of the world.
Sat, 2006-04-01 11:56
#32
Boom Boom
We were paying $1.51/liter last fall; it's down to $1.25 now. We're an isolated community, takes a lot of work to get the gasoline here. Whatever you're paying in Ottawa, Toronto, or Montreal, the gas price here is fifty cents a liter higher, more or less.
Sat, 2006-04-01 12:42
#33
You guyz are all so matooooor, talking about poetry and flowers and ferlordssake gas prices. It's April Fool's Day!!!! What was/is your best prank? What have you fallen for? [For those who missed my earlier invitation -- my best prank was the saran wrap over the toilet gag.]
[ 01 April 2006: Message edited by: fern hill ]
Sun, 2006-04-02 18:45
#34
Saran Wrap on the toilet sounds like a mess that someone will have to clean up.
I've been cleaning and packing and unpacking and it just doesn't sound like fun, having to clean up after saran warap.
Whew! We missed the COGECO guy, and we don't have any phone service yet. I'm at work for a couple of hours. But we're having fun.
It's like this: Either the house is going to be FAN-fucking-TASTIC, or (worst case), it'll be a high-maintenance beauty. It's quite an attractive house.
Have fun. Over n' out ..
Sun, 2006-04-02 19:38
#35
I LOVE TS Eliot was s o happy to find poetry today, thanks for posting it's beautiful..as well as the one from Flanders & Swan.
And along the same lines; (sort of)
The Human Seasons
John Keats
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring’s honied cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness—to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.
More! more, please post more if you have more. (pretty please)
[ 02 April 2006: Message edited by: erroneousrebelrouser ]
Sun, 2006-04-02 20:37
#36
Mind if I call you erronrebrou ? I've got a poem in my buffer and will spill it for you below.
skdadl was nice to upload Mr. Eliot's poem but I usually start by reading the footnotes so I had trouble getting into it, hahaha.
By popular demand I offer you an Acorn.
--------------
Knowing I Live in A Dark Age
Knowing I live in a dark age before history,
I watch my wallet and /
am less struck by gunfights in the avenues /
than by the newsie with his dirty pink chapped face /
calling a shabby poet back for his change.
The crows mobbing and blinking, sun-stupid owl;
wolves eating a hamstrung calf hindend first,
keeping their meat alive and fresh . . . these
are marks of foresight, beginnings of wit:
Jesus wearing thorns and sunstroke
beating his life and death into words
to break the rods and blunt the axes of Rome:
this and like things followed.
Knowing that in this advertising rainbow
I live like a trapeze artist with a headache,
my poems are no aspirins.. . they show
pale bayonets of grass waving, thin on dunes;
the paralytic and his lyric secrets;
my friend Al, union builder and cynic,
hesitating to believe his own delicate poems
lest he believe in something better than himself:
and history, which is yet to begin,
will exceed this, exalt this
as a poem erases and rewrites its poet.
by Milton Acorn
In: M & S (1972); Poets of Contemporary Canada; edited by Eli Mandel, pp. 29-29
Maybe the next time I scan a poem, I'll hold it of the scanner a tad and sign it myself.
Mandel was careless in putting years after poems. Maybe it was 1956 but that's not clear.
Mon, 2006-04-03 00:43
#37
The line 'in this advertising rainbow' Milton Acorn wrote in "Knowing I Live in a Dark Age" (probably early '60s) is interesting. One evening at the end of an open microphone session, someone pointed out that almost every poem read denounced advertising and television news.
Mon, 2006-04-03 02:24
#38
I loved that Milton Acorn that you posted. As I read it I knew it was more contemporary than the last two; it's brilliant. But I loved all three.
(Quote from Goyanamasu)
Mind if I call you erronrebrou ?
certainly not! And the sentence after that one rhymed with it! [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] Thanks for the poem. I love poems of all kinds. A very good friend that lives in Ontario is one of the best poets that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's the one who got me into the writings of Joseph Conrad -- and his writings are similiarly dark and almost supernatural in essence.
I actually write some too; but none of my stuff is good enough to put here. My friend called my writings more like "ballads" and I was clearly uncomfortable even letting him read anything that I had written. At least he gave me a format with which to work. Maybe in that other forum, about scratching on napkins my stuff would be better suited there! [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
on a side note; you said that he wrote that in the sixties; something about an open mike session. Makes me think of Burroughs, who really wasn't a poet in the sense that we're talking about; but co-existed in that "dark" time that you mentioned re/Acorn. Interesting.
[ 03 April 2006: Message edited by: erroneousrebelrouser ]
Mon, 2006-04-03 08:00
#39
quote:
Originally posted by erroneousrebelrouser:
[b]I loved that Milton Acorn that you posted. *** but none of my stuff is good enough to put here. **** Maybe in that other forum, about scratching on napkins *** something about an open mike session. ***[ 03 April 2006: Message edited by: erroneousrebelrouser ][/b]
Acorn wrote in the 50s as well. The Eli Mandel anthology in paperback included poets he placed in the 1960s; but his intro is lousy, no help there at all. There is a nod to what is happening in Vancouver, but that is for another thread.
M & S has a mid-century poets collection I'd like to find. Earle Birney, for ex., has poems that are hard to find because they are costly for publishers, being so long. Atwood is another one but, unlike Birney, I like her shorter stuff and not narrative poems she's done.
BTW, rabble is not a great place to publish your poems anyway. Do your own blog and push yourself to publish no matter what reservations you have about where you are now.
Tue, 2006-04-04 16:29
#40
Shit, it is @#$ЂЈ%?&*'"!!!!][}{@ [b]snowing! [/b] No accumulation so far, but there may be a bit overnight... Hopefully the crap will all melt tomorrow morning, as more civilised temperatures are predicted.
I hate winter to begin with, but winter in springtime is crueller still. [img]mad.gif" border="0[/img]
Tue, 2006-04-04 17:04
#41
Um, lagatta, that was skdadl's and my doing. We packed away the boots and boot-trays and announced it in the March thread. If it makes you feel better, yell at me. Also, it's snowing here too. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
Tue, 2006-04-04 18:02
#42
Timebandit
It's 14 degrees above, here, and I have two daffodils starting to poke out of the ground. And green strawberry leaves.
Forecast says it's going down to -11 in a couple of nights, though. Hope they're wrong.
The back yard is a total mudhole, and Ms B is going around looking like she's rolled in a puddle. I swear, if there's dirt anywhere in her vicinity, the kid sits in it!
Tue, 2006-04-04 19:12
#43
What the hell? Friday it was 24 and sunny. Today, as lagatta noted, it's snowing with a wind chill factor of -6.
Tue, 2006-04-04 19:24
#44
Boom Boom
I think the highest we've seen here so far this year is 8C. All this week we have a high of 5C, a low of -2C overnight. Wanna trade?
Tue, 2006-04-04 22:27
#45
quote:
Originally posted by lagatta:
[b]
I hate winter to begin with, but winter in springtime is crueller still. [img]mad.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]
We have a saying here in the Netherlands about April, which goes like "April doet wat ie wil", which would come down to "April pleases/follows it's own will"
Last few days were crazy here: We had some 10 degrees, sun, hail, snow, rain, wind, all on the same day. A cyclist's hell, with no certainty of what weather one will encounter... [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
[ETA: And today it was some 10 degrees and even bearable to smoke a cigaret outside, in the sun, wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a blouse (and pants of course!). But I had to ride home some 2 hrs ago through -2, with a really chilling breeze op top of it]
[ 04 April 2006: Message edited by: Clog-boy ]
Wed, 2006-04-05 01:24
#46
Some of us are such weather freaks, I love it. The thunder/lightning was FANTASTIC the other night. Yet today cycling, had to stow away jacket, then pedalling like hell up the hill it STARTED SNOWING, it was wonderful. But the best part, was tonights moon and stars; I hitched and yanked my neck straight up (to try and get a brain buzz or something) and indeed there were the 3 sisters straight up.
Indeed, as someone said above the strawb leaves are green and climbing away, a bit early don't you think? What's even freakier, I was in fields today with my dog, big huge wide fields with woods all around, if you wanted to go into them. And what did I hear? Tons of frogs chirping for mates, it was kind of scary.
Since I have a huge rotary cuff problem, I raked all the left over leaves and placed them into the municipal park. Ha!
Wed, 2006-04-05 04:40
#47
quote:
Originally posted by Toedancer:[b]Some of us are such weather freaks, I love it. The thunder/lightning was FANTASTIC the other night. Yet today cycling, had to stow away jacket, then pedalling like hell up the hill it STARTED SNOWING, it was wonderful. But the best part, was tonights moon and stars...[/b]
I agree... It's springtime in the West Kootenays, too. Rain here, and warm, but then it's been an incredibly mild "winter" all 'round. But this thread is getting far too bright and merry. To get us back to lugubriousness, in keeping with both the OP and the mindset in our eastern babblers as occassioned by the most recent gasp of winter, I give you... Dorothy Parker:
quote:
[i]Thoughts for a Sunshiny Morning[/i]It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back one day."
[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Wed, 2006-04-05 07:59
#48
There's a solution to the end Parker proposes, Heph: get yourself cremated. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
And here this morning:
quote:
The north wind doth blow
And we shall have snow
And what will the robin do then?
Poor thing.He will sit in the barn
And to keep himself warm
He will hide his head under his wing.
Poor thing.
Wed, 2006-04-05 08:52
#49
psst, skdadl, see that white stuff out there? Feeling a tad guilty? Or has the statute run out on our boot-tray taunting of the snow-gods?
Wed, 2006-04-05 08:53
#50
You did it first. It's your fault. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Wed, 2006-04-05 09:03
#51
I'm gonna go look. I think you said you did it the day before I did. It's your fault. [img]cool.gif" border="0[/img]
Edited to add:
quote:
[b]Hey, fern hill! I just did that yesterday. Put the clunky snowboots away, anyway. The riding boots are still there and on the boot-tray, just in case someone asks me to go riding.A month too early, though. You're right - we've jinxed ourselves, and the whole of southern Ontario.
[/b]
And a question: can one edit one's posts in a closed thread? Not that skdadl would dream of doing such a thing. . . just asking. . .
[ 05 April 2006: Message edited by: fern hill ]