tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post5178105654572370802..comments2024-03-29T07:33:59.039+13:00Comments on The Imaginary Museum: Can Poetry Save the Earth?Dr Jack Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-20976803106985690682018-06-06T23:52:01.518+12:002018-06-06T23:52:01.518+12:00I read Joanna Emeney's poem about the crack th...I read Joanna Emeney's poem about the crack that appeared in her wall. A very good poem! It reminds me of some of the problems I have here in this house. When I broke my leg, it was around then I used to sit in my house with a bucket beside me catching the drips! Some scary stuff. But every thing can be fixed or there is some way around things.<br /><br />Not sure about the earth though. When I was young we didn't think about any of these things. Petrol was cheap, no one was poor as far as I knew (I suppose some were) but that the world was coming to an end was focused on things such as the missile crisis and Kennedy's fanatical anti-Communism that nearly precipitated a World War. He also got off side with the Right, or ex Cubans etc. I didn't even know where Vietnam was. I didn't study geography but I did know a bit and knew about Indo China. <br /><br />But population became a big issue. We, as humans, seem simply to be too successful. <br /><br />Brian Walpert was good also on the ambiguity of ways of seeing things. <br /><br />Hone Tuwhare I understand. We both worked at the same place. When I met him I understood him immediately. We got on well. I know that kind of man. But I am not sure...No Ordinary Sun we had about the time it came out. <br /><br />So there is the Maori connection. Maori were more or less conscious of he need to conserve in so far as they could see the picture. There was a respect for the greater world they lived in. <br /><br />Yes, we have to be, as poets at least (or anyone I suppose) aware of the issues. And I like old Turner (he's closer to my age) shooing away his cat from the birds. But birds and ducks are potential transmitters of dangerous viruses it is reported in the latest Listener.<br /><br />Still they are beautiful things. The world is a strange and a beautiful place. And I think that life and the world is resilient. There are always challenges. I say I think: there are no guarantees, but we can only do a little bit here and there, each of us. Reminds me of a poem by Keith Sinclair calling for us all to be kinder to each other...Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-30482903194754169992018-06-06T23:51:51.337+12:002018-06-06T23:51:51.337+12:00That was a brilliant lecture by all of you Jack. I...That was a brilliant lecture by all of you Jack. I just listened to Johanna Emeney talking on radio to Kim Hill. I must look out for her books. I kept on with a diary or journal that turned into Hospital which was a a kind of insight from the patient (me mostly) point of view. It wasn't planned I had started it before I broke my leg. Fascinating that Johanna found a family in the US. I wrote a poem about my grandfather I never knew as it also included the grandmother. <br /><br />There are many different ways to tackle poetry. For example I myself define poetry as what ever I want it to be for a start. Nor do I fear critics. I am a little averse to being published in some places and so on. But I hate to judge others. One book I couldn't read was not poetry by a Dr. it was a book of photographs of patients I saw. Actually now I think of it it was an interesting idea. <br /><br />As to saving the earth the other "project" I did was called 'The Endless Poem". It had no purpose and no message and it was not necessarily to mean anything and it wasn't either necessarily ever to be read by anyone after I finished including myself! I started it as I liked the book I saw in a junk shop. The rules were: no full stops, no question marks, and not to turn back as Joyce does with FW but to be a continuous stream. I wrote it over years. And as I said to you, it became 'of the process'...<br /><br />I would feel limited if I had to save the earth is what I am saying!! As to saving myself, I can try to do that.<br /><br />In a way there was a similar (more a debate) about 1994 or so: I think it was Alan Loney, and two other well known poets who I forget just now! But the question there was along the lines of Shelley's "Unacknowledged Legislator" thing. Loney (who is a poet I admire despite all) was for the negative more or less. It will come back to me who else was there. <br /><br />In an indirect way maybe art can help. This seems to be Schopehauer's conclusion. He was convinced that all is horror, and I sympathise in many ways: and found he was in tune with aspects of Buddhism etc. But he got to art. And Heidegger used poetry in his search for being etc<br /><br />You had a good mix and Celan, when you read it, that reading impacted on me. I think that was a brilliant reading of Celan. I couldn't connect to many of Celan's poem but as you read the 'gorselight' thing something cracked inside me. I think reading beside you Jack I hadn't noticed how good you are at reading poetry. Concentrating on giving a performance myself! <br /><br />But also re John Clare. (What do you think of Smart's 'Jubilate Agno'? Years ago Scott phoned me in great excitement, he had discovered it. Another madman's poem so I was influenced by that and also my reading of and watching TV things of Oliver Sacks)...He does deepen...esp. if he wrote about house flies!<br /><br />Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.com