[New-Poetry] Fwd: Poem-a-Day: Ruth Padel's "Like Giving to a BlindMan Eyes"

Sun Apr 5 04:43:23 EDT 2009

I am sorry David, and I scrolled down to write that "I perfectly love this
poem."
What a mad thing is to know too much, I'd rather give up what I know from
behind the scenes just so many times, but then, how can you? You'd be the
dummy of them All.
What an illogically painful disappointment, romantically and springly yours_

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 10:21 AM, David Bircumshaw <
david.bircumshaw at ntlworld.com> wrote:

>  Nothing personal, James, as you wouldn't be aware of this, but many of us
> in Britain feel like looking for the nearest axe when being told yet again
> about Ruth Padel's ancestry: the marketing blitz (and by poetry's standards
> it really is that) began about January the 2nd, over and over again the
> fact, and Ms Padel, keep appearing in the 'serious' media ( places like The
> Guardian or BBC Radio 3 or 4).
> We mentioned this to a well-established Brit poet we were entertaining the
> other night and he said 'ah, but how can you blame her? It's her one big
> chance.'
> Myself, I think it marks the definitive Descent of Padel.
>
> best
>
> dave
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* jforjames at aol.com
> *To:* new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> *Sent:* Friday, April 03, 2009 3:43 PM
> *Subject:* [New-Poetry] Fwd: Poem-a-Day: Ruth Padel's "Like Giving to a
> BlindMan Eyes"
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: knopfpoetry <knopfpoetry at info.randomhouse.com>
> To: JforJames at aol.com
> Sent: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 7:00 am
> Subject: Poem-a-Day: Ruth Padel's "Like Giving to a Blind Man Eyes"
>
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>  On February 12th, the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, the
> British poet Ruth Padel, his great great grand-daughter, published *Darwin:
> A Life in Poems*. Enthusiastically received in the U.K. as an essential
> life of the great man, the book now appears here, and Padel is visiting our
> shores, to read at the New York Botanical Gardens this weekend, and New York
> University in the coming week (links below). Her sparkling poems tell the
> story: Darwin's early loss of his mother, his precocious collector's
> instinct and passion for animals, the five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle
> which set him on his path as a scientist, the tensions and joys of his
> marriage to his cousin Emma and their rearing of ten children, several of
> whom did not survive. Hard to reproduce in this email format are the
> informative marginal notes that run alongside Padel's verses, which supply
> some basic chronology and factual background for each poem. For example, in
> the top left margin of the poem reproduced below, we are given the following
> setup: "January, 1832, St. Jago, Cape Verde Islands. Darwin's first glimpse
> of tropical vegetation"; and, a bit further down, "One of Darwin 's great
> inspirations was the work on South America by Alexander von Humboldt, *Personal
> Narrative of Travels to the Equatorial Regions of the New Continent*."
>
> ------------------------------
>
>    *Like Giving to a Blind Man Eyes* He's standing in Elysium. Palm
> feathers, a green
>     dream of fountain against blue sky. Banana fronds,
> slack rubber rivulets, a canopy of waterproof tearstain
>     over his head. Pods and racemes of tamarind.
> Follicle, pinnacle; whorl, bole and thorn.
> 'I expected a good deal. I had read Humboldt
>     and was afraid of disappointment.'
> What if he'd stayed at home? 'How utterly vain
>     such fear is, none can tell but those who have seen
> what I have today.' A small rock off Africa –
> alone with his enchantment. So much and so unknown.
>     Like taking a newborn baby in your arms. 'Not only the grace
> of forms and rich new colours: it's the numberless –
>     & confusing – associations rushing on the mind!'
> He walks through hot damp air
> and tastes it like the breath of earth, like blood.
>     He is possessed by chlorophyll. By the calls of unknown birds.
> He wades into sea and scares an octopus.=2 0It puffs black hair
>     at him, turns *red* – as hyacinth – and darts for cover.
> He sees it watching him. He's discovered
> something wonderful! He tests it against coloured card
>     and the sailors laugh. They know that girly blush!
> He feels a fool – but look, he's touched tropical Volcanic rock
>     for the first time. And Coral on its native stone.
> 'Often at Edinburgh have I gazed at little pools
> of water left by tide. From tiny Corals of our shores
>     I pictured larger ones. Little did I know how exquisite,
> still less expect my hope of seeing them to come true.
>     Never, in my wildest castles of the air, did I imagine this.'
> Lava must once have streamed on the sea-floor here,
> baking shells to white hard rock. Then a subterranean force
>     pushed everything up to make an island.
> Vegetation he's never seen, and every step a new surprise.
>     'New insects, fluttering about still newer flowers. It has been
> for me a glorious day, like giving to a blind man eyes.'
>
>   ------------------------------
>
>
>   *KEEP CLICKING*
>
> Go to the Poem-a-Day website<http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/j6VK0DXKYc0Wa0BgO40E8>to comment on this poem, share it on Facebook and Twitter, and much more.
>
> Visit the Poem-a-Day site here<http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/j6VK0DXKYc0Wa0Bgcn0ER>to listen to Ruth Padel reading a poem of Darwin's boyhood, "Stealing the
> Affection of Dogs."
>
> More about *Darwin*<http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/j6VK0DXKYc0Wa0BgZ60EM>
>
> About Ruth Padel<http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/j6VK0DXKYc0Wa0BgZ70EN>
>
> Meet Ruth Padel<http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/j6VK0DXKYc0Wa0BgZ80EO>in New York City April 5 and April 9.
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> ------------------------------
>
> Excerpt from DARWIN: A LIFE IN POEMS. Copyright © 2009 by Ruth Padel.
> Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
> All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted
> without permission in w riting from the publisher.
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-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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