Tramps Like Us
Reading Cavafy in the new translation I think, Isn’t this a bit flat? & check the Mavrogordato versions I read when I was 21, 22—& liked—& see now how crabbed they are-- with the word inversions, the verb coming in, always, at a weird place-- maybe where the Greek had it?-- On those grounds the new seem a lot better, & not much less ‘poetic’ (rich, decadent, in love with the idea … of ‘the gods’, the jewels, the Pharoahs, Caesarions Ptolemys & the rest-- the gold, the pagan ease or sensuality) (rings on their fingers bells on their toes mascara, flesh, muscle) On the other hand, there are only one or two I like—‘The Gods Abandon Antony’, & a few of the erotic ‘regrets-&-recaptured- memory’ things. Only a few of these, because in bulk they seem foolish, too little to justify poetry. Maybe the Greek redeems them. The three scenarios: a palace or a tavern of late antiquity, an alley of 1920s Alexandria; & the re-enactment, the ficto-documentary enlivening—of a foot-note from the past, full of the pathos of its marginality, its failure, its past-ness—or a contemporary instance: a more recently past tryst or passion of the author’s—likewise marginal, fragile, gone. There must be things about the poems stack up against this: their casual air & modern, throwaway quality-- “scherzo”—is that it? I wish he’d said more. I look at Lou Reed-- the CD cover-- young, beautiful the record I bought when it came out, & when I was young, too—better looking than now. —Street Hassle-- Lou--alas, eheu, etcetera—has just undergone surgery (a kidney transplant?) that will keep him alive-- of necessity old, now, too. “Sigh”? Do I want to revisit those times? I was living alone, had just moved in, to a dumpy flat in Redfern a little stunned to be single again-- then Sal arrived. Before that tho I had bought the Lou Reed record to stay up to date with-it, hip, ‘modern’ about to turn 29 about to face my first lean patch in poetry, which turned out to be “not so lean” anyway a new phase, iron “entering the soul”-- as it has continued to have done ever since I must now be incredibly tough —or like Dorothy’s Tin Man (maudlin, brittle, marginal, fragile ‘given’ to looking back.) I remember the Greek restaurant I ate at once a week —not far away-- not as good as those in the city but I liked it & John & Mary, the two guys who ran the fruit shop—Lebanese-- ‘Mary’ wore Scholl clogs with white ankle socks & bermuda shorts. One night-- buying a bottle, probably: I certainly never drank there-- in the pub across the road I met an excited guy who’d just been in a fight & had survived a knife thrust at him-- the blade deflected by the small machine he wore at his lower back: it did service to or ‘for’ his kidney. I wondered how, since he seemed too young-- & he said it was damaged playing Rugby League, first grade, he added. And I knew his name. He was very pleased that I remembered him. Now, fifteen years on, he was a cheerful small-time crim. He’d have been famous if he wasn’t part of a team in which everybody was. They’d been boringly invincible for nearly a decade. Billy Smith. Centre, I think. |
|
- home
-
poems
- Timothy Ades
- Astrid Alben
- Martin Anderson
- Isobel Armstrong
- Michael Ayres
- Merle Lyn Bachman
- Rachel Tzvia Back
- Andre Bagoo
- Dennis Barone
- Richard Berengarten
- Elisabeth Bletsoe
- Ken Bolton
- Peter Boyle
- Hanne Bramness
- Andrew Brewerton
- Ian Brinton
- Andy Brown
- Pam Brown
- Carmen Bugan
- Sean Burn
- David Caddy
- Maxine Chernoff
- Geraldine Clarkson
- Ken Cockburn & Alec Finlay
- Peter Cole
- Susan Connolly
- Kelvin Corcoran
- MTC Cronin
- Elsa Cross
- Anamaria Crowe Serrano
- Claire Crowther
- Martyn Crucefix
- Ian Davidson
- Peter Dent
- Paul Scott Derrick
- Ray Di Palma
- Laurie Duggan
- Jonathan Dunne
- Susanne Dyckman
- Tsvetanka Elenkova
- Helena Eriksson
- Kjell Espmark
- Carrie Etter
- Amy Evans
- George Evans
- Gerrie Fellows
- Peter Finch
- Norman Finkelstein
- Roy Fisher
- Brandel France de Bravo
- Nancy Gaffield & Patricia Debney
- Iain Galbraith
- Angela Gardner
- Gloria Gervitz
- Valentino Gianuzzi
- Harry Gilonis
- Jim Goar
- Giles Goodland
- Mark Goodwin
- Anne Gorrick
- Paul A Green
- Philip Gross
- Harry Guest
- Chris Gutkind
- David Hadbawnik
- Catherine Hales
- John Hall
- Alan Halsey
- Lucy Hamilton
- Robert Hampson
- Penny Harter
- Michael Haslam
- Ralph Hawkins
- Michael Heller
- Ben Hickman
- Barry Hill
- Lynne Hjelmgaard
- Eric Hoffman
- Paul Holman
- Jeremy Hooker
- Gary Hotham
- Peter Hughes
- Judith Infante
- WD Jackson
- juli Jana
- Norman Jope
- Andrew Jordan
- Trevor Joyce
- Alice Kavounas
- Cralan Kelder
- Kenny Knight
- José Kozer
- Peter Larkin
- Mary Leader
- Ágnes Lehóczky
- Rachel Lehrman
- Karin Lessing
- David Lloyd
- Tony Lopez
- Tom Lowenstein
- Rupert M Loydell
- Julie Maclean
- Robin Fulton Macpherson
- Phil Maillard
- Peter Makin
- DS Marriott
- Simon Marsh
- John Mateer
- John Matthias
- Becka Mara McKay
- Deborah Meadows
- Valeria Melchioretto
- Anthony Mellors
- George Messo
- Christopher Middleton
- Alice Miller
- David Miller
- Billy Mills
- William Minor
- Geraldine Monk
- Helen Moore
- John Muckle
- Paschalis Nikolaou
- Sonia Overall
- Rochelle Owens
- Fani Papageorgiou
- Sandeep Parmar
- Alasdair Paterson
- Chus Pato
- John Peck
- Simon Perchik
- Omar Pérez
- John Perlman
- Simon Perril
- Peter Philpott
- Frances Presley
- Ilma Rakusa
- Elaine Randell
- Anna Reckin
- Jeremy Reed
- Andreas Reimann
- Peter Riley
- Eléna Rivera
- Jaime Robles
- Paul Rossiter
- Wendy Saloman
- Mario Sampaolesi
- Julie Sampson
- Lisa Samuels
- Alexandra Sashe
- Maurice Scully
- Ian Seed
- John Seed
- Gavin Selerie
- Aidan Semmens
- David Sergeant
- Lorna Shaughnessy
- Nathan Shepherdson
- Robert Sheppard
- Penelope Shuttle
- Pete Smith
- Simon Smith
- Gustaf Sobin
- Steve Spence
- Geoffrey Squires
- Janet Sutherland
- James Sutherland-Smith
- Nathaniel Tarn
- Andrew Taylor
- Mervyn Taylor
- Jon Thompson
- Nathan Thompson
- Maureen Thorson
- Isobel Thrilling
- Scott Thurston
- Siriol Troup
- Robert Vas Dias
- Laura Walker
- Alan Wall
- Catherine Walsh
- Craig Watson
- Alan Wearne
- David Wevill
- JL Williams
- Yang Lian
- Tamar Yoseloff
- Vassilis Zambaras
- Michael Zand
-
prose
- Tim Allen
- Martin Anderson
- Kate Ashton
- Christopher Brownsword
- Jennifer Clement
- Kelvin Corcoran
- Andrew Duncan
- Kristin Dykstra
- George Economou
- Ken Edwards
- Damian Furniss
- Forrest Gander
- Lee Harwood
- John Levy
- Víctor Manuel Mendiola
- Peter Robinson
- Anthony Rudolf
- Pauline Sanderson
- Mark Schafer
- Aidan Semmens
- Colin Simms
- Eileen Tabios
- Robert Vas Dias
- Lynda Waters
- Mark Weiss
- John Welch
- Nigel Wheale
- Augustus Young
- artwork
- photos
- av
- editorial
- contact