Daily Archives: 24 Dec 2009

Armantrout on the trot

Posted on 24 Dec 2009 | Leave a comment

Rae Armantrout , Up to Speed (Wesleyan University Press 2004)

As I was reading this book on the way to the Fish Markets this morning (Christmas Eve), a friend called from where she was supervising her dog in the Harbour: ‘What are you reading?’

‘Mostly incomprehensible poetry,’ I called back. ‘But she’s just described time as

a ghostly appendage
of uncertain length.'    [from 'In Time']

‘Hm,’ said my friend, ‘that’s pretty nice,’ and we returned to our dogs.

There’s not a lot more I want to say, except that there are many lovely moments in these 80 pages, and a lot of stuff that I don’t get (but I don’t necessarily need to). Possibly my favourite lines, from ‘Another Sense’:

I don't mind
learning
I'm in hell
if
I can learn it
again and again.

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Agitator and Regurgitator

Posted on 24 Dec 2009 | Leave a comment

Weeks ago we left Nessie alone in the house longer than she was happy about, and her good leather lead that had cost us $75 or so to buy and another $20 or so to repair when she’s bitten through it on a previous occasion, was reachable. We came home to find an awful lot of the lead had vanished. This time it was beyond repair, and we now have a cheaper and we hope less edible replacement. Yesterday – after 17 days in which I had marvelled at the efficiency of the canine digestive system as Nessie filled plastic bag after plastic bag with rich, unleathery fecal matter – we found on side path half a dozen inch-long pieces of leather in a shallow pool of digestive foam, back from a place where it’s too dark to read. The foam had dried off by the time I took this photo, for your edification:

But storing strips of leather somewhere inside them isn’t the only cute trick dogs are capable of. Nessie’s little friend Oscar has discovered our back yard pond and has had a marvellous time swimming round in it, churning up the sediment, totally disrupting the irises’ equilibrium, and possibly even scaring the living daylights out of our incredibly self-reliant fish. Here he is, turning what had been a pleasant pool into a wallow.

See! Dogs are so much more fun than cats.

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