J. H. Prynne

[jenks]

The great big yellow doorstep arrived the other day - trying to work out where to start.

 

[luka]

Everyone should have a different starting place. Version has to start with brass, you should start at the beginning.

 

[luka]

"I come
back to this, we are
small / in the brain"

 

[luka]

If you find them unpleasant, sententious, coy, then skip ahead to brass.

 

[luka]

Groupname for grapejuice read the whole thing cover to cover like a novel

 

[jenks]

Everyone should have a different starting place. Version has to start with brass, you should start at the beginning.

Fair enough. I’ll get cracking.

 

[luka]

I get the sense that prynne is someone who, like me, is prone to becoming disgusted with himself.

 

[luka]

I think that is good from an artistic point of view because you're unlikely to repeat yourself too much. Always looking to find a new vantage

 

[luka]

Have you finished it yet Jenks?

 

[jenks]

Have you finished it yet Jenks?

I’ve read the first three poems - I like that line from the Numbers “we must/ take aim. That now is the life...”

 

[jenks]

I feel almost like he’s staking out his area in these early ones. As if once he’s made his pitch, he’ll come back and really start digging. The pun/metaphor of ‘purchase’ in Diamonds...for example.

 

[luka]

I don't understand a word of those poems. They're completely opaque to me. They irritate me actually.

 

[shiels]

I get the sense that prynne is someone who, like me, is prone to becoming disgusted with himself.

It’s the flip side to your massive ego. The unshakeable belief that you have god potential

 

[luka]

It is. That's good though isn't it. You don't want to be comfortable. You want to to be on a bed of nails.

 

[woops]

for once i strongly agree with jenks. there's a palpable sense of him making a statement, drawing out big areas for him to fill in later, a real confident swagger that is perhaps reinforced by his (official) renouncing of the earlier force of circumstance. i remember being struck by the audacity of his (officially) beginning his oeuvre

the whole thing it is, the very difficult matter. so that i come back to this...

 

[jenks]

Reading them chronologically this is the first one that’s really stopped me in my tracks. I think cos in the hands of someone else it would have taken the obvious track - spiritual revelation but Prynne holds back for something harder, a human moment.

 

[luka]

Me too Jenks. It's a real favourite. We talked about it a few pages back.

 

[luka]

I was in Shoeburyness yesterday. Just a flying visit or I would have knocked for you and seen if you were allowed out.

 

[jenks]

I was in Shoeburyness yesterday. Just a flying visit or I would have knocked for you and seen if you were allowed out.

Ahh man. Let me know if you are ever around.
I’ll check out the chat about The Holy City.

 

[luka]

I was thinking about taking the bike down and trundling back to Benfleet at a lesuirely pace one day. I'll let you know and you can show me the best coffee in Leigh on Sea