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Brick

by NinaLara 

Posted: 26 May 2006
Word Count: 375
Summary: In response to the question exercise!


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(version 3)


‘What do y’ want wi’ them?’
I watch her wiggle red teeth from mud
leaving black sockets in crust.

Sky presses violet fangs,
soaking the old bricks in tarnished light.
No clunk, no whir, no purr, no thump

at Upper Scholes echoes the mauled pit head;
bramble nets have crept
dragging it to earth.

She cradles a brick like coarse gold,
peers into it, then up across the field.
It holds a hologram perhaps? A map cut out?

Eyes square a post-war council house,
Victorian back-to-backs stooped yonder.
Into the brick.

She snaps to Felkirk’s wind scoured Tower,
the smut spire soaring Royston,
back tracks along the old coal path

to our relic stack.
Fingers sink into her brick, picking out
the fired words: “New Monkton Collieries”.

I catch her eye at last.
“What is it?” I ask
“22 carat brick?”




(Version 2)

What do y’ want wi’ them?’

I watch her wiggle red teeth
from mud
leaving black sockets in crust.

Her grip jaws worn brick,
caging the sunk fired words
“New Monkton Collieries”.

She awes her rough gold;
peers into it, then out across the field.
It holds a hologram perhaps, a map engraved?

Eyes square a post-war council house,
Victorian back-to-backs stooped yonder.
Into the brick.

She snaps to Felkirk’s wind-cut Tower,
smut spire soaring Royston,
back tracks along the old coal path

to our relic stack.
Sky presses its violet fangs.
Hands open, speaking the brick.

Meeting my eyes, she laughs.
“What is it?” I ask
“22 carat brick?”





(Version 1)



‘What do y’ want wi’ them?’

I watch her wiggle red teeth
from jaw mud
leaving black sockets in crust.

Her fingers awe the sunk fired words
“New Monkton Collieries”
like marble lattice from the Taj Mahal.

She prays a brick between her hands,
peers into it, then out across the field.
It holds a hologram perhaps, a map engraved?

Eyes square a post-war council house,
Victorian back-to-backs stooped yonder.
Into the brick.

She snaps to Felkirk’s wind-cut Tower,
smut spire soaring Royston,
back tracks along the old coal path

to our relic stack.
She shuts her odd pentangle,
raising worn brick up to light.

Meeting my eyes, she laughs.
“What is it?” I ask
“22 carat brick?”







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Comments by other Members



joanie at 13:41 on 26 May 2006  Report this post
Hi Nina. I love the imagery in
I watch her wiggle red teeth
from jaw mud
leaving dark sockets in crust

and the teeth/jaw/sockets.

I presume this is a response to the exercise in Poetry Seminar. It certainly made me think and picture the scene perfectly. The local references and names and the details place the poem very well.

Is this a memory/recent experience? I can't imagine it being simply imagined?

Very enjoyable and a good response!

joanie



NinaLara at 14:19 on 26 May 2006  Report this post
Sorry Joanie - I've just changed some words! Nothing major - just slightly more descriptive now.

Thank you for your encouraging comments.
This is a real event - I am the 'she' ... imagining how on earth I must have looked to my poor husband!

joanie at 14:55 on 26 May 2006  Report this post
Nina, that's interesting; you know what the feelings of the third person are because it's you. A reversal, which is good. I like it even better now!

joanie

paul53 [for I am he] at 14:18 on 28 May 2006  Report this post
Some excellent imagery here and individuality in the choice of descriptions.

Nell at 14:26 on 30 May 2006  Report this post
Hi Nina,

Love the idea of bricks as teeth - startling yet spot-on in imagery, although at first I took 'jaw mud' literally and saw her wounded. I'm a bit uncertain about 'jaw', which seems to confuse the otherwise vivid picture.

A hesitation at ...like marble lattice from the Taj Mahal... as I suddenly had a picture of that connected to the words on the brick (which seemed at odds, somehow)rather than the way her fingers were revering them. I think you meant 'like' to mean ...as if they were... and I did understand on the second reading.

Lovely rhymes and half-rhymes echo and pull the reader on: sunk/Monkton; jaw/awe; hands/hologram; soaring/Royston then towards the middle rhymes seem to click in and follow each other in quick succession to speed the poem in a series of snaps/snapshots to the end, almost as if the brick were a camera taking pictures.

I wondered about ...she shuts her odd pentangle... whether pentangle had a meaning other than the magickal five-pointed star, (thought of Pentax just there too!) but couldn't find one or visualize what was happening. Food for thought.

Picky things - feel free to use or ignore as you see fit!

One does have the sense when reading that this really happened - a somehow surprising (in a good way!) response to the exercise.

Nell.

NinaLara at 12:41 on 01 June 2006  Report this post
I'm rethinking this ... I think the jaw image needs to be repeated and perhaps the pentangle replaced with another image. I used pentangle because there were 5 points in the landscape, but if this isn't obvious then I need to work something else in.

NinaLara at 14:36 on 01 June 2006  Report this post
I've added a new version.

Elsie at 21:16 on 01 June 2006  Report this post
Hi Nina - sorry to be so late to this. I agree about the 'jaw' in the first stanza - on first reading, I thought you were talking about the woman's teeth/jaw/gums. I'm not sure about the use of jaw in the new version - not quite sure what it's saying.
A very original response to the exercise - unusual subject matter, well handled.

Paul Isthmus at 23:47 on 01 June 2006  Report this post
Oi oi Nina,

Strange tone to this, but liked it. Couldn't quite figure out what was going on at first. Gave more upon rereading, but am still left with images of an old woman chewing a brick. There's a lot of mouth related imagery in there, the violet fangs of the sky and the sockets in the land once the bricks have been taken. Has a sort of malevolent rot about it, which is strong, but leaves me wondering why it seems so mouth heavy - it could and should work, but I wonder why I'm left thinking that. I think Nell and Elsie are onto something in questioning the word 'jaw' - just seems to tip it a bit.

Sort of got an impression of what I think you might be after - there's an epic, historic sense of bricks in the world somewhere in there (though this may be purely my own reading) - which I like - a brick containing the map and history of all bricks of the world - another impression I'm left with. Perhaps I am only revealing my desire for a history of architectural materials narrated by a mad, brick chewing old charwoman. But there is something really strong in your last line about value, which I think might be better weighting than the mouth images - the idea of gold fillings just struck me, don't know if that was intentional? But I like it.

Welcome to the group. I've been thoroughly lazy for ages, coming back again now for a look at what's going on. Seems generally quiet tho. Maybe we should have a silly season.

Paul



NinaLara at 13:24 on 03 June 2006  Report this post
Dear Paul and Elsie -

Thank you for your comments. They are really helpful. I have asked myself what all the teeth and jaws are about and the answer seems to be a double consumption - of the land by industry and of the industry by circumstance and nature. I'm glad rot was communicated Paul - but (though I'm very taken with the image)an old woman chewing brick wasn't really my main intention! With this in mind, I have looked again and realised that a framing of the piece is needed. I am too close to the subject matter and have left too much to the reader's imagination. This is an excellent exercise for me .... sorry if it becoming boring for you all, but I'm going to post another version which may or may not be more successful!!

Nell at 13:29 on 03 June 2006  Report this post
Hi Nina,

I was just about to comment on the second version when I saw your latest post, so perhaps I'll wait and read v3 - looking forward.

Nell.

NinaLara at 14:17 on 03 June 2006  Report this post
Version 3 - clearer I hope, and a little less chewy!

joanie at 14:34 on 03 June 2006  Report this post
I still like version 1!!

joanie

Elsie at 17:19 on 05 June 2006  Report this post
Hi Nina - I really like this new version (3).

Nell at 08:01 on 06 June 2006  Report this post
Hi again Nina,

It's fascinating to read all the different versions in order - the poem becomes richer and more meaningful, more resolved as one progresses. I like the new version too - the language is rich, creative, surprising; wonderful to speak, the atmosphere of the post-industrial site, of a past gone for ever leaps from the page.

The only word/image I wasn't sure about was 'fangs', which seems to give the bricks an air of menace that doesn't fit with the rest of the poem. How about something that creates a picture of the teeth of someone long past their day - even of an outcast or displaced person - say 'stumps' or something similar, which still feels quite toothy? Just an idea - see what you think.

Nell.

NinaLara at 19:15 on 06 June 2006  Report this post
Thanks for your readings Joanie and Nell.

I knoe what you mean about fangs Nell ... but I'll leave it for a while and see what I come up with. Mining has a harsh history that I feel needs to be there somewhere. I thinkk this poem needs a bit of a rest so I can figure it all out a bit more. Or perhaps I just need to write another one.


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