leonardcohenforum.com

Sue, you're interesting.

Thank you. Here's one I did earlier:

once you come to Ireland Len
so was 30 year ago
come now cause i must meet you
and we dont got much fukin time

Hi Sue

I see an opportunity that I don't want to have pass by.
Sometimes when people post things here what they want and what they get might be very different.
I'm going to get complicated.

Some people write things and want them to stand on their own and not have to comment on what they put here.

Some have private reasons for putting things here that they want to remain private.

Some care what people say - some don't

Some want to learn how to say it better, some want to see the effect of what they say has.

When I write something and someone tells me how to say it better it usually tells me more about them that it does about what I said.

When they tell me what thought it led to and how it makes them feel that tells me more about what I wrote.

I have a natural inclination to often want to discuss what may be the subject matter of what they wrote.

This is not always appreciated because sometimes people don't realize fully what they wrote and if I ask too many questions it might make them uncomfortable and exposed and I have done that often in the past and it doesn't lead to the kind of comfort that i am looking for.

Oftentimes I think I can accurately guess at how people would prefer that others respond. It is not like that with you and you seem to stand apart from well defined motivations and so i can only ask. Do you welcome questions ? Do you feel comfortable discussing in detail what you put here? and discussing it here?

Speaking of interesting, that's the most interesting, as well as intriguing, presentation of a poem that I've ever seen here.

I want that beautiful and delightful piece of poetry porcelain on my shelf.


~ Lizzy

Jack, you have put all this so well. It is evidence, if anyone needed it, of how much careful thought you give to your exchanges with people here. As well as being a very lucid description of the kind of minefield we are walking through, sometimes unawares. I didn't anticipate having to answer many questions about this, to be honest. Hit and run is more my forte, but I do agree with you when you say:

"When they tell me what thought it led to and how it makes them feel that tells me more about what I wrote."

In the past, when I once sent a poem to the newsgroup, I remember Dar telling me that it seemed terribly sad - and this was something of a revelation to me, because it hadn't seemed like that to me but I could see what she was getting at. I gathered I might have conveyed something I wasn't fully aware of myself. So yes, people's reactions can perhaps show that there are things behind one's words that one is blind to. But also someone else's reaction can be interesting in itself. Using poetry (however loosely defined) in a medium like this is just another way of communicating, and can only be said to succeed in so far as it elicits some intelligible form of response. Lizzy's response is very welcome - she would like to own this piece of pottery, et voilà: now she does. I am glad she likes it.

I'll tell you the only thing, really, that matters about it which is that the inspiration for the words part (which is just words) was my having seen recently a clip on YouTube where Leonard is singing 'Marianne' outside a bookstore, in the company of what's-his-name* and some others. He forgets some of the words but it doesn't matter, they have a great old sing-song. He looks quite old and a bit doddery - I found the whole thing very moving. It's quite a gem if you have any feeling for history. I wrote a few lines down about polished pebbles, forgetting one's lines, ringing hollow, etc. etc. and forgot about them. Then yesterday I was tidying up and found the piece of paper so I played around with the lines a bit more. The line length seemed to be all over the place, but then I noticed there was a pattern about it: the lines were decreasing in length at the right hand end until the last couple, which got longer again. This pattern suggested to me the profile of the base of a pot, so I thought the best thing to do with them was to create a suitable pot to fit around them.

This was the difficult part because the angle between the base and body is fixed by the text, giving little freedom for manoeuvre or for tinkering with the form on aesthetic grounds. And it couldn't just be any old Victorian chamber pot, something too crass or which Leonard would never have in the house. He was the subject; his face in roundels was going to decorate its rim (this was already decided), so it had to be.....

".... something like this."

Great words! The words of a true non-perfectionist.


*Ron Sexsmith

Sue, I really like your poem and the way you have presented it.

Also, when Jack posted a link to a drawing you had done of him I had a nose at your other stuff, and I enjoyed my meander through some of your animations.

Thanks,

Diane

Diane wrote:Also, when Jack posted a link to a drawing you had done of him

She is meaning my Ha Ha Ha in pain. I really appreciated that you took that picture. I don't know if I ever thanked you so - thank you