tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post2767907837669005008..comments2023-12-28T13:11:06.666+00:00Comments on Pics and Poems: A Family OccasionDave Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-86084081233361154182008-05-16T09:07:00.000+01:002008-05-16T09:07:00.000+01:00Hi Lucas, and welcome. Many thanks for the kind re...Hi Lucas, and welcome. Many thanks for the kind remarks. The richness of memory seems proportionate to the square of distance, somehow. It is the distance that prepares the items and makes them available in usable form to the story-teller.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-10489089909237402152008-05-15T22:49:00.000+01:002008-05-15T22:49:00.000+01:00I think it's the power of memory to rearrange and ...I think it's the power of memory to rearrange and rewrite the past that makes this poem so powerful. The interweaving of danger, injury, safety, loved others and intense perfection of plums - all work to conjure up a tableaux that is true and timeless.Lucashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07642126053527835870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-14016782651297991292008-05-14T08:38:00.000+01:002008-05-14T08:38:00.000+01:00Thanks for that Rachel, it expresses absolutely wh...Thanks for that Rachel, it expresses absolutely what I have come to feel about the business of blogging. When I started out, I thought I would try it for a year - I gather the average "life" of a blogger is 9 months - and in fact, it was just over the year before I really got the response and sort of feedback you mention. I am really glad I stuck at it, for,like you, I do not get a lot from the usual groups. Writers' courses, I haven't tried, really through a lack of opportunity.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-5731539328770554192008-05-14T08:10:00.000+01:002008-05-14T08:10:00.000+01:00On wondering why we blog....I've never been one fo...On wondering why we blog....I've never been one for writers' groups or book groups or writing courses or having loads of writers as friends...I really prefer to get on and live and work...but I have found blogging with people like you and several others has been interesting and helpful and thought-provoking and work-provoking and all round a better experience than I imagined. It is like a writers' group without the bad bits plus you can fit it in... when it fits... instead of it having to be, say, once a month on a Tuesday and with only people who live in the same 30 mile radius.Rachel Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11803852725693518924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-90210870722952281642008-05-12T08:54:00.000+01:002008-05-12T08:54:00.000+01:00CatherineMany thanks for the kind remarks. I have ...Catherine<BR/>Many thanks for the kind remarks. I have never been part of an Irish wake, but I love those family gatherings where tales are told and argued about. The mis-firing of memory never ceases to fascinate me, and the thing bout early memories particularly is that there are always questions at the end of them. At least, there are for me.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-24066293585641486092008-05-12T08:50:00.000+01:002008-05-12T08:50:00.000+01:00Jim,memory as assemblage and collage... I like the...Jim,<BR/>memory as assemblage and collage... I like the thoughts, they are promising concepts to follow, I think. But now, with Beckett and Potter you are speaking of two of my heroes.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-49548597831090741692008-05-12T08:46:00.000+01:002008-05-12T08:46:00.000+01:00Carrie,Welcome, and many thanks for the feedback. ...Carrie,<BR/>Welcome, and many thanks for the feedback. I am sure you are right about the seeds of future fiction. Indeed, I wonder if some of my earliest memories are not works of fiction flat-packed that I haven't managed to erect yet. What is actual memory and what family myth that has been absorbed along the way?<BR/>Thanks again.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-26265538579343652572008-05-11T15:00:00.000+01:002008-05-11T15:00:00.000+01:00Having sat through my first Irish wake this week a...Having sat through my first Irish wake this week and listened to people telling family stories (my partner's family), it was really interesting to me to hear how everyone interprets and remembers and misremembers differently. And this post and piece of verse has triggered some more interesting thoughts for me about that.<BR/><BR/>And quite aside from kickstarting my own ideas, I really liked this prose-poem; the way it was written worked well for me: the memories and images and questions at the end.Catherine @ Sharp Wordshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12988193118089559894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-34966988926325176412008-05-11T11:49:00.000+01:002008-05-11T11:49:00.000+01:00Yes, memory as assemblage, memory as collage. I'm ...Yes, memory as assemblage, memory as collage. I'm sure that's what was going through Beckett's head when he decided what Krapp's memories were. (Part Three is up now by the way). We remember only some things and fill in the blanks, cannibalising what memories are available and inventing what's necessary to construct a viable remembrance. This was something that was also of interest to the television playwright Dennis Potter, at least in his later works, the workings, and misfirings of memory. We so often rely on aides-mémoire, triggers and I've moved so many times that there's next to nothing left from my childhood, a medal for running and a toy car, a horsebox of all things. <BR/><BR/>Like you though there will always be tastes and smells though I have to say I attach no special memory to eating plums although I do remember being given an apple by a woman on Third Avenue. I think it was my first Golden Delicious. All I remember clearly is that it was a kind my mother didn't buy.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-81546875899247275362008-05-11T10:28:00.000+01:002008-05-11T10:28:00.000+01:00Just came over to check out this poem from your co...Just came over to check out this poem from your comment on Jim's blog. False memories are a fascinating subject to me. I think these are the seeds of future fiction - the ability to mold random images and words into something of interest to others. Loved the poem.Carrie Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11200797035059634760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-32902202626147263102008-05-10T22:31:00.000+01:002008-05-10T22:31:00.000+01:00Ken,My thanks to you for your kind words - and for...Ken,<BR/>My thanks to you for your kind words - and for the encouragement your own post gave me.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I, too have wondered on occasions why we do it. I am sure the fellowship is part of the answer.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-82662912637393888802008-05-10T22:29:00.000+01:002008-05-10T22:29:00.000+01:00Conda,Not as great a departure as you might imagin...Conda,<BR/><BR/>Not as great a departure as you might imagine. I have written narrative poems in the past, mostly concerning personal experiences, though not entirely so. I have only now thought to put one in a post - due in no small measure to Ken's encouragement.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-68020181420510463532008-05-10T20:02:00.000+01:002008-05-10T20:02:00.000+01:00I am very taken with this piece, Dave, and with th...I am very taken with this piece, Dave, and with the remarkable experience behind it.<BR/><BR/>And I am extremely pleased if my own scribbling helped in any small way to 'get it out'.<BR/><BR/>One wonders occasionally why one blogs at all - this sort of thing helps answer the question.Ken Armstronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2508563923634392703.post-61491573500846173382008-05-10T19:30:00.000+01:002008-05-10T19:30:00.000+01:00Interesting story poem, Dave, and I believe a bit ...Interesting story poem, Dave, and I believe a bit of a departure from your usual style?Conda Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12972790965426924941noreply@blogger.com