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cows of a the causeway part 2


(put here your illegal ear to the crystal set)
ross point to common slap back-skerrs
to the swab the granary the snook waders
the puffin outburrows overarch nessending
a heave of keel heads

           the sandham there the holy head braes

at shivering chapel bride's hole and cockly knowes
broaches from oyster scaps flood-end we have it
burrowed as cow-caving cuthberts on the causeway
of all the sea's waste was southward all along lowing

at long batt levelling troughs
of a heading on the stiel of parton and fold
caught out late in the outer safeties
at neely and madge dead reckoned the three tide-race
curling as to the cush-place a call
of holy island and all at harbour itself harboured
gathered and held face
ÿØÿà�_JFIF�__��_�_��ÿþ�;CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 99 ________________________ÿÛ�C_curling as to the cush=place_______that all things of the body are sort of holy________________________________________________ÿÀ�___4_E__"�______MaÿÄ�¬��__at harbour��������________ holy at harbour
ÿÄ�µ_�___________��_}___�____!1A__Qa_"q_2�‘¡_#B±Á_RÑð$3br‚ _____%&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyzƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’“”•–—˜™š¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª²³´µ¶•¸¹ºÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊÒÓÔÕÖ×ØÙÚáâãäåæçèéêñòóôõö÷øùúÿÄ�¬_�_rain in the bells_________������________ gathered & held face
ÿÄ�µ_�___________�__w�______!1__AQ_aq_"2�__B‘¡±Á #3Rð_brÑ _$4á%ñ____&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz‚ƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’the end
on this understanding alone ���was I prepared to let it go.


Last edited by SteveParker, Jan/18/2010, 9:10 pm
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Zakzzz5 Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Steve P,
Having recently watched, for the second time, a documentary on Pollock, it seemed to me that a poem like this is sort of like a Pollock (or any number of abstract painters), where the story line (existent/non-existent) isn't the key, rather repetitions or evocations of "things" is more important. In fact, I did look at the words, phrases or pieces that were conventionally articulated; but didn't worry about it. As you stated earlier in commenting on another poem, Beckett was doing things a long time ago; and so was Joyce in Finnegan's Wake. And this has a few other things, obviously. The main impact it had on me was visual. It made a strong impact. I won't be taking those thought with me, though, like I might with a poem that creates the terrain for ideas more fully. But it's strong in what it appears to want to do. Zak

quote:

SteveParker wrote:

(put here your illegal ear to the crystal set)
ross point to common slap back-skerrs
to the swab the granary the snook waders
the puffin outburrows overarch nessending
a heave of keel heads

           the sandham there the holy head braes

at shivering chapel bride's hole and cockly knowes
broaches from oyster scaps flood-end we have it
burrowed as cow-caving cuthberts on the causeway
of all the sea's waste was southward all along lowing

at long batt levelling troughs
of a heading on the stiel of parton and fold
caught out late in the outer safeties
at neely and madge dead reckoned the three tide-race
curling as to the cush-place a call
of holy island and all at harbour itself harboured
gathered and held face
ÿØÿà�_JFIF�__��_�_��ÿþ�;CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 99 ________________________ÿÛ�C_curling as to the cush=place_______that all things of the body are sort of holy________________________________________________ÿÀ�___4_E__"�______MaÿÄ�¬��__at harbour��������________ holy at harbour
ÿÄ�µ_�___________��_}___�____!1A__Qa_"q_2�‘¡_#B±Á_RÑð$3br‚ _____%&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyzƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’“”•–—˜™š¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª²³´µ¶•¸¹ºÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊÒÓÔÕÖ×ØÙÚáâãäåæçèéêñòóôõö÷øùúÿÄ�¬_�_rain in the bells_________������________ gathered & held face
ÿÄ�µ_�___________�__w�______!1__AQ_aq_"2�__B‘¡±Á #3Rð_brÑ _$4á%ñ____&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz‚ƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’the end
on this understanding alone ���was I prepared to let it go.



Jan/19/2010, 12:06 pm Link to this post Send Email to Zakzzz5   Send PM to Zakzzz5
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Steveman, my reaction to this kind of poetry is kind of wrapped up in a long ago reaction to the Olsonean theories concerning Open Verse poetry. I accepted most of his notions. They are sound. Syllable as "boss," single intelligence. Line predicated on breath. The uncuttableness between form and content, what he took from Creeley. The notion that a poem generates a field of kinetic energy. I remember the stuff so well there is no need to reference his essay by way of a refresher. On all scores I am persuaded he was right.

What I ended up categorically rejecting, and after long months of thinking the problem through, was the notion that page, the white page in his typewriter, can be viewed as a field in itself, a visual field on which the poem gets placed, using spaces, line breaks, and with the poem getting visually framed in that field. In the end what did in this particular notion for me was a matter of common sense. In my mind there is no way of getting around the demonstrable fact that poetry is a literary art. It is a literal art. Built on syllables, words, phrases, images, and metaphors for its meaning. Sensually carried over through meter, rhythm, line breath. Everything held together, the instress in inscape, through the syntax of how the poet thinks and perceives. Again in my view these are a poet's materials. They may be as limiting as, say, a painter's materials, or a composer's materials, or a dancer's materials. (Viewed from one stand point each and all metiers have their limitations.) Nonetheless these are the materials poetry works in and through which poetry creates its own field of energy, since, again it is a literal art. Someone is going to have to convince me otherwise before I give up on this very common sense approach. It hasn't happened yet.

In the first part of your poem I find an attractive rhetorical flourish. As for its sense I'm unclear. What may come through is an evokation of a time before the human race populated the world, maybe before language, maybe it is saying primordial images sit on the eye's retina in a way something like this. I don't know. The typographical symbols tell me nothing. And I think I can be excused because I constitutionally cannot know what each symbol means to the poet. And by the end I am thinking, well, what is he saying here? Is he saying what Eliot said when he ended the Wasteland poem on a note involving what he took from the ancient Sanscrit Upinishad: the peace that passeth understanding? Maybe. I just can't know.

Tere



Last edited by Terreson, Jan/19/2010, 11:56 pm
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Dragon59 Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Speaking as a professional typographer and graphic designer, I have no problem viewing poetry on the page as a visual art. Apollonaire was among the first; the concrete poets came later. I similarly have no problem with words as sounds as the elements of musical composition.

Approaching this, however, I have to ask if the odd characters (ASCII characters outside the standard set) were intentional. It's common for software to misread some character strings as bits and set them as characters unintended; typographer watch for this all the time. I don't know if it makes a difference here.

The communications theories of ratios of signal:noise might be in play here. It's a low ratio though. Lots of noise that's hard to pull signal out of. Get little fragment flashes. Unless that IS the point of this.

I guess I'd have to say that this doesn't do much for me. It's an interesting experiment. It's good word-weaving, as far as that goes. And it's nothing I can feel in my soma. Except maybe a phrase or two. The archaic words are nice to see. Overall though it doesn't hang together for me.

---
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Katlin Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Steve,

Over at Harriet, the Poetry Foundation's blog, I was reading the responses to "Flarf is Officially Dead & Stop Laughing at ‘Cock’!" by Craig Santos Perez and came across this comment which reminded me of your poem:

I’d like to proffer my own new movement(s) on paper, a syncretic meeting of the random language of flarf, the visual methodology of Pollock, and my own personal addition. I call it ’shart’.

PG

Posted By: Peter Greene on January 20, 2010 at 11:32 am

 
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2010/01/flarf-is-officially-dead-stop-laughing-at-cock/#comments

P.S. Maybe I shouldn't give away the punch line, but here it is: "i am only kidding! flarf is alive and well."

Last edited by Katlin, Jan/20/2010, 5:46 pm
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Steve,

Back again to clarify: I was reminded of your poem when I read the comment, because I wondered if you were to write a statement or explanation of your work, what would it be? Also wondering who your ideal reader is (Vonnegut's as you have surely heard was his sister).
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


As for my take on the poem, the first stanzas have a haunting, lyric quality that comes through. I don't know what the ending means. God's jpeg? The Creator's code incomprehensible, unsayable? The mystery accepted as mystery and based on that understanding, understanding enough to let the rest go (no other choice really)?
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SteveParker Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Hi, folks. Thanks for all the comments. I guess all of it is pretty much in code really. The words are largely taken from place names around Holy Island on the North East coast of England, with the caps removed, and the ASCII stuff is an outtake from the coding for a photo of Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island. I love the place names, and how they appear to be another language if you remove their titular status, and then I love that the code for a picture of that place seems like some sort of electro-semaphore for what it is. But that's the key to it, and obviously I don't issue this thing with the key, so it is just what it is. It has a discrete integrity to it which pleases me, but maybe that's just wanking. I'm quite happy with the idea that it's crap or the idea that it's good. It's a sort of selective found object that I happened to like in the same way you might like a rotten bit of ship on the seashore in the right light, or you might think it was a piece of junk. Maybe the point is what we value or don't value, if there is a point.

I'd like to nudge the idea slightly towards divination through the random scatter of stuff, but I don't want to labour the idea, and I especially don't want to make out that it's in any way objectively valuable or good. Just is what it is.

Thanks for having a look and sharing your reactions. I'm very grateful. This stuff, like anything else, needs refining through feedback.

Cheers,

Steve.
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carolinex Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


I like the experiment here but maybe shape it more personally? What I like is finding content within the code sort of like a discovery process. How about more content and less code? And work on it a bit more visually to create more interest?:

ÿØÿà�_JFIF�__��_�_��ÿþ�;CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 99 ÿÛ�C_curling as to the cush=place_______that all things of the body are sort of holy________________________________________________ÿÀ�___4_E__"�______MaÿÄ�¬��__at harbour��������________ holy at harbour
ÿÄ�µ_�___________��_}___�____!1A__Qa_"q_2�‘¡_#B±Á_RÑð$3br‚ _____%&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyzƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’“”•–—˜™š¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª²³´µ¶•¸¹ºÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊÒÓÔÕÖ×ØÙÚáâãäåæçèéêñòóôõö÷øùúÿÄ�¬_�_rain in the bells_________������________ gathered & held face
ÿÄ�µ_�___________�__w�______!1__AQ_aq_"2�__B‘¡±Á #3Rð_brÑ _$4á%ñ____&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz‚ƒ„…†‡ˆ‰Š’the end
on this understanding alone ���was I prepared to let it go.
Jan/20/2010, 7:08 pm Link to this post Send PM to carolinex
 
SteveParker Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Caroline, I could (maybe should) have called it 'genii loci'. I wanted it to be a whole thing of how a place is now encoded, both through word language and through visual code. Like it or not, this poem is a cyborg postcard of Holy Island and its surroundings. That might be an ugly thing, but it just is the truth. This place is now encoded as this.

In a more human sense it looks like this:

Image
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eman resu Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Hi, Steve,

I'm pretty into this one.

I was going to write that it could just as easily be, say, Chinese instead of code from my POV (that is, my not knowing Chinese). . .but that's not really the case -- the code being a strangeness that is neither "about the thing" nor "the thing".

Or to tweak that thought (and then beat it to death) the top half is "about the thing" trying to be the thing, and the code is the thing itself unable to communicate its thing-ness. Bah, you know where I'm trying to get to with this, right? (smile)

I like the sensical bits imbedded in the code: broken twigs along the trail that keep the hikers from losing it.

I'd be inclined to have one replacer for understanding: essential, unified, etc. . .

Cool stuff.
Best,
E-



Jan/20/2010, 8:24 pm Link to this post Send Email to eman resu   Send PM to eman resu
 
SteveParker Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Hurray, look who turned up!!!

Anyway, what would you know !@#$?

 emoticon

Steve.

PS. !@#$ I hope I did the ID right there. If not, I do apologise haha!

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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


First off, welcome to the board, eman resu. I don't know your name and so I am curious about what you got in the way of poetry and other play. I hope the board works for you.

Second item. Steveman, the board has no rules concerning or against certain language usages. As you know the profanity filter is off. But I got to tell you that certain usages in a context that makes no sense to me tend to shut my systems down. This is just me. Ain't speaking for the board or its other members.

Tere
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


Well, I just hope it's who I think it is, in which case he won't be offended by a little familiar badinage.

Steve.
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


I wish you could have a window that you get to open to see the picture. The contrast between code and image is so dramatic. Maybe a link to the photo?

Hi eman!
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eman resu Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


I know that Steve is a potty mouth!

I agree with Caroline that a package deal with the poem and the photo would make for something interesting. (Although would definitely be a different creature: a little less mystery, a little more artifice IMO. Hard to say, of course, having already see this take on it.)

Terreson -- Thanks so much for the welcome. I love what you've set-up here! I hate to say I've been playing look-ee-loo, just enjoying that. I certainly look forward to participating in a proper way.

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SteveParker Profile
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Re: cows of a the causeway part 2


It's a sort of spiritual Tourettes thing, man. I can't help it!

Glad you showed up anyway. How about laying one of your mindbendingly abstruse poems on us all? Or did you already do that? I'll go and have a look around.

Steve.
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