[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Twofer
- From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:51:03 +0900
Ah, to be so celebrated. But, then, one would have to retire. Not in the
cards for us.
John
On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 8:01 AM, David Ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Usually at this time of the year I enjoy my walk to work for an eight a.m.
> three hour seminar. The birds are doing their thing, the weather can be
> pleasant, there's a sense of possibility and vibrancy and change in the
> early morning streets. But this week things briefly got a little strange.
> Lying on the sidewalk were a pair of men's dress socks and some
> underpants. I ran across a young woman sagging, in the fashion of the age,
> her trousers around the bottom of her bottom. The trousers were lime-green
> and probably polyester; she was a sagging version of Lee Trevino, circa
> 1970. And then, as I waited for a light to change, I stood beside a woman
> who was shouting at her phone, as people re currently wont to do, "And it's
> like...and I go like...and like...and you should like... pull his
> admissions file." I briefly wondered what kind of college might hire such
> a person, and then it came to me that her speech was a piece with
> everything I'd encountered thus far, not worthy of further inquiry.
>
>
>
> For Christy and Tom, retiring
>
> at the exit here
> if i said nothing
> about tom and christy
> no one would complain
> for no one appointed me laureate
> with all accoutering obligations
> so i was thinking that might be the way
> what with them being naturally very quiet men
> and then up trotted these small thoughts
>
> observed by a printmaking trout
> fisherman who customarily
> paints in shades of white and grey
> two folk spread salt on a sidewalk
> in a gesture that captures the spirit
> the quotidian days of old age
> it's one of my favorite drawings by tom
> done from imagination i think
> but if he told me he crept up on these two
> keeping his hands clean
> and like a hunter quietly sketched
> possibly thinking of pulling a print
> i'd ask his eyes
> or watch his smile
> and then i'd see
> if truth therein
> lies
>
> christy's abilities
> not only as a printmaker but as a cheerleader too
> not literally of course
> at least
> to use one of his characteristic expressions
> not to my knowledge
> dressed in spandex and leaping all about
> no
> christy's serious abilities are inscribed
> in pnca memory and lore
> they're available for all to see
> in the mazes of his work
> and the engagement of his department
> christy stands
> like a crisp mark
> like a straight shooter
> like someone who is really quite
> tall
>
> the gap these two leave
> is likely to be
> less fishy
> less salty
> less hunter/gatherer-ish
> less outdoorsy
> less full-hairy
> less boyish
> possibly more noisy
>
> we will miss them
> we will lament
> we will keen
> we will wail
> we will shout from the hilltops
> our hip hop verses
> and somehow
> incredible though it may seem
> we will carry on
>
>
> David Ritchie,
> Portland,
> Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------
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--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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