tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post358109234264824443..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: AutumnStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-10830086619254871462022-11-21T11:55:06.235-08:002022-11-21T11:55:06.235-08:00Mr. Ireland: I was delighted to receive your comme...Mr. Ireland: I was delighted to receive your comment. I'm happy to know that you continue to visit. Thank you very much for being here all these years.<br /><br />And thank you as well for your kind thoughts. A "chaotic world," indeed. We do need a respite, don't we? But, on the other hand, the world has always been chaotic, hasn't it? <br /><br />I was reminded of something along these lines when I revisited a wonderful video last week: the performance of "My Back Pages" at the 1992 concert celebrating the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan's first record release. I believe it was the second to last song in the concert, and the performers on the song are Dylan, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, and Tom Petty (each of them singing a verse, and Young and Clapton providing short guitar solos). Quite a line-up, I would say. (I confess: every time I watch the video I get a lump in my throat. That no doubt marks me out as a nostalgic, sentimental Baby Boomer, doesn't it? True, with no apologies.) I suspect you are aware of the performance. Dylan wrote the song at the age of 23, or thereabouts, and it was recorded in 1964. Well, a great deal of chaotic water has passed under the bridge since then, hasn't it?<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting again, and for your kind words. Take care.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-41655225053617000592022-11-21T11:21:44.889-08:002022-11-21T11:21:44.889-08:00John: Please accept my apologies for the delay in ...John: Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your comment. On the other hand, there is no need for you to apologize for not having submitted a comment for a while: I completely understand. I am just happy to know that you are still visiting. As I have said before, I greatly value your long-time presence here.<br /><br />I'm pleased you liked the poem by Grigson. (I came across it in an anthology of poems about trees: Trees Be Company (2001), which was published in the UK. The same organization also published anthologies of poems about fields (Field Days) and rivers (The River's Voice). I recommend all of them.) I have read some of his prose works, but I have been intending to explore his poetry further. <br /><br />Yes, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft is a fine book, isn't it? I've always found it sad that, first, it was published in the year of Gissing's death at a young age, and, second, that, despite its autobiographical elements, he never was able to enjoy the brief end-of-life idyll that his alter ego Henry Ryecroft experienced.<br /><br />I hope that all is well. Wishing you all the best as we enter into the holidays.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-83981801715883184942022-11-08T10:10:44.715-08:002022-11-08T10:10:44.715-08:00I hope you are well, and back to walking. I count ...I hope you are well, and back to walking. I count on your selection of poems and commentary to maintain sanity in this increasing chaotic world.Ron Irelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08710435838642745496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-88643386555961283952022-11-05T10:21:50.430-07:002022-11-05T10:21:50.430-07:00Tristan: Thank you very much for the thoughts. An...Tristan: Thank you very much for the thoughts. And for not giving up on me! It's good to be back, and I'm happy you are still visiting. Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-63858374103181373252022-11-04T11:50:44.124-07:002022-11-04T11:50:44.124-07:00Esther: That's very nice of you. Thank you so...Esther: That's very nice of you. Thank you so much.<br /><br />Those are indeed wonderful lines. If you ever come across the entire poem, please share it. I've only all too briefly lived in a foreign land, but the feeling expressed is understandable.<br /><br />This is no doubt of tenuous relevance, but the lines brought to mind the following untitled poem by Mary Coleridge:<br /><br />Are the dead as calm as those<br />They leave behind them, friends or foes?<br /><br />However a man may love or fight<br />Calm he falls asleep at night!<br /><br />Fast the living sleeps and well;<br />But the spirits -- who can tell?<br /><br />Are they as a rushing flame<br />For the Sun from whence it came,<br /><br />Driven on from star to star,<br />Where the other dead men are?<br /><br />(Theresa Whistler (editor), The Collected Poems of Mary Coleridge (1954), page 214.)<br /><br />I hope that all is well. Take care.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-79765307556984142862022-11-04T11:17:08.409-07:002022-11-04T11:17:08.409-07:00GretchenJoanna: Thank you very much for your kind ...GretchenJoanna: Thank you very much for your kind words. I know you are fond of Thomas' poetry, so I'm pleased you like the poem. (It's hard to find: for whatever reason, he chose not to include it in subsequent selected or collected editions of his poems.) Yes, the Burns painting is lovely, isn't it? I agree that the color is amazing: that small valley of serenity between the mountains and the water. <br /><br />Thanks for your thoughts about broken records. Your final sentence is perfect. (Not that it applies to what I say! I'm thinking of the poets and painters who appear here, and to the World as a whole.)<br /><br />As ever, thank you so much for visiting, and for sharing your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-87519304648797639282022-11-03T07:02:43.830-07:002022-11-03T07:02:43.830-07:00Stephen, so sorry to hear you have been unwell. I ...Stephen, so sorry to hear you have been unwell. I hope you are now fully recovered. I must also apologise for my own long absence here, a very busy year with work and family matters. I always read you posts, but have not had adequate time and space to respond.Your post contains so many delights and reminders. I have recently been dipping into The Private Papers of Henry Ryecoft myself, a book one never gets tired of returning to, and thank you for the lovely Geoffrey Grigson poem, which is wholly new to me.John Ashtonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-8044857874447869452022-11-01T12:26:31.819-07:002022-11-01T12:26:31.819-07:00Your absence had been noted, and deplored. Welcom...Your absence had been noted, and deplored. Welcome back.tristanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13268216095376583052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-69647371207773091942022-11-01T04:51:51.437-07:002022-11-01T04:51:51.437-07:00It is wonderful to have you back in the land of th...It is wonderful to have you back in the land of the living! Speaking of which, I am reminded of a poem I clipped out of the Japan Times decades ago and cannot find now. Something along the lines of...<br /><br />“Having lived so long in a foreign land<br />I know how it is the dead forget the living<br />And stay contented”<br /><br /> Esthernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-90774810634192539082022-10-31T21:06:57.489-07:002022-10-31T21:06:57.489-07:00You've given us a lovely autumnal collection o...You've given us a lovely autumnal collection of poetry and images. I especially love the R.S. Thomas poem, and the Burns painting. The painting looks like fall, for sure, but there is so much color... maybe resembling the temperate version of the season we experience where I live. Not everything dies.<br /><br />It's good to hear that you are recovering from your illness and able to get out more again, enjoying the "wistful bittersweetness" of nature in person. You don't sound like a broken record, and not even the very same intact record played again and again, though I wouldn't mind the latter. The same good and beautiful and true things are forever worth retelling.GretchenJoannahttp://www.gretchenjoanna.comnoreply@blogger.com