Monday 3 November 2014

Degas & Thomas



DEGAS  
The Dancing Class
by R.S.Thomas


Pretending he keeps
an aviary; looking no higher
than their feet; listening
for their precise fluttering.

And they surround him, flightless
birds in taffeta
plumage, picking up words
gratefully, as though they were crumbs.







Third time round, the immediate impact of the poem lessens, I find I don't adore the conclusion.  But I am glad to have got hold of a copy of Between Here and Now even with B&W prints of the paintings described, the exercises are sometimes brilliantly illuminating.  Also, compare William Carlos Williams and WH Auden on Brueghel's Icarus.

Online

Three poems taken up in the last six weeks or so,The Nones made a sensational appearance in Leaves of Ink 14 September, and two poems to be posted in the Spring edition of Message in a bottle (Guildford Line, Dawn's Eastern Fabric, the usual current and ancient, distorted learning, and the tone here and there off the cuff). I like having poems accepted, but can't determine which is the best medium to promote them/me - I suppose it depends entirely on the quality of the wine.