poemranker ::Putney at Low Tide by Christof

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Free verse № 13936

Putney at Low Tide

by Christof

Member since 2002 · Posted 10 Sep 2002 · 31 comments

It is not wise to lean your arms On the bird beshitten wooden rail From where we watch the river bed Couch the trickling Thames in yawns. A crocodile of launches slouches To Fulham FC dolefully Like pigeon-chested kids unwilling To take the tide this Saturday. From the window of a private gym Where first eight rowers go to die A pirouetting youth with ringlets Halts his weights and gazes down When a love bird in the blossom coos Above the plash of a sleek canoe. The orange lamps appear like ghosts To hum the paddler to his rest.

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27 votes so far. Yours would make 28.27 votes so far

31 comments

[n/a] Limness 10-Sep-02/7:55 AM Reply
Shouldn't it be "caonoe," (not period?) Do you need the periods?
[n/a] Christof › Limness 10-Sep-02/7:58 AM Reply
This poem moves forward in sentences so I think I need the full stop. It gives a natural pause before the final sentence.
[n/a] Limness › Christof 10-Sep-02/8:00 AM Reply
But this is a fragment, not a sentence, and it begs a comma. S3 needs periods for consistency, if that's the flavor of the week.
[n/a] Christof › Limness 10-Sep-02/8:03 AM Reply
The first two line sof stanza 4 are the last clause of the sentence that runs throughout stanza 3. A comma here would destroy the sentence structure. The last two lines are a sentence in their own right, verbs and everything. The decision to run over the sentence from stanza 3 was deliberate - I like to subvert my own forms sometimes.
[n/a] Limness › Christof 10-Sep-02/8:05 AM Reply
Okay then. But think about doing it my way. It works better.
[n/a] Christof › Limness 10-Sep-02/8:09 AM Reply
ACtually it would change the cuase-and-effect of events in an intersting way - the man in the gym would no longer look out of the window becuase he heard the bird, but the lights would be triggered by the call of the bird. Yes, very interesting...
[9] Amelia 10-Sep-02/8:52 AM Reply
I like your imagery Christof. Like Limness I would say you should put a full stop at the end of Stanza3 but then again, it's your work and your message.
[n/a] Christof › Amelia 10-Sep-02/8:56 AM Reply
The business with this full stop is fascinating. it's never occurred to me you could read it that way. I think I'll stick with the original because I want the exercising man to be drawn to the window by the bird, but the other suggestions are very valid.
[9] Amelia 10-Sep-02/8:53 AM Reply
"canoe" is correct.
[10] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 10-Sep-02/9:57 AM Reply
Who would have thought a poeme containing the word 'beshitten' could be so beautiful? NOT ME THAT'S FOR SURE!!!!!11 But seriously Christof, you couldn't make the first eight if your buttocks depended on it! Which, judging by their flabbiness, they obviously do. 10/10!
[n/a] Christof › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 11-Sep-02/1:25 AM Reply
I've rowed once. It was shit. So you're absolutely right.
[10] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. › Christof 11-Sep-02/2:19 AM Reply
Of course it was shit. It takes years before rowing becomes even vaguely tolerable. It's a crap sport for novices. It's just too technically demanding to be much fun. For some reason, you always end up with one muppet (usually the one who thinks rowing in jeans is a splendid idea) who insists on rowing in anti-phase with everyone else. Tell me, Christof: Did you row in jeans? Or did you wear a leotard like everyone else?
[n/a] Christof › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 11-Sep-02/2:59 AM Reply
As a novice, I wore shorts. I was never allowed a leotard, you had to have notched up 450 hours or something they'd even let you sniff a leotard.
[10] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. › Christof 11-Sep-02/3:30 AM Reply
Dare to dream, Christof! Dare to dream! One day, you'll get to sniff that leotard. And when you do, you too will know the sweet smell of Victory.
[7] beakism › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 11-Sep-02/9:02 AM Reply
No he won't. Because even when he does get the leotard, some twat will turn up wearing an all-in-one of speed + 3, racing as a novice even though he's won three races this season, and kick his ass.
[9] [mojo] 10-Sep-02/2:39 PM Reply
"Beshitten". Someone contact the Oxford new words dept:) Outstanding imagery. 9.
[8] nentwined 10-Sep-02/3:53 PM Reply
weird. I really can't understand the second stanza for the life of me. I like the sounds the poem makes. It took reading the comments to see where the last stanza was coming from. Maybe if you only capitalized the beginning of sentences it would be more obvious that the last stanza followes the previous. weird.
[n/a] Christof › nentwined 11-Sep-02/1:23 AM Reply
Hmm, I suppose Fulham FC doesn't mean much to an American audience - it's a soccer club in London by the banks of the Thames. And there are obviously problems with the last stanza!
[5] horus8 10-Sep-02/7:50 PM Reply
somebody should fire arrow your canoe...your such a fucking romantic jackoff..drinking a beer with you would be like jerking off to my little retarted brother reading me blake and keats while naring my asshole...fucking weak unintelligable euro trash garden variety monotoned shite! what a fucking waste of time...this is the kinda of shit a tenured professor reads to freshman girls to try and victimize them afterschool out of boredome and lack of inspiration...fuck! you are so well read and deep..!!!!! prima facie? not worth the gallows swing..boring! yawn. 5/10!
[n/a] Christof › horus8 11-Sep-02/1:21 AM Reply
In the name of Christ man do you not recognise irony? Do your ecognise no other register than full-tilt polemical crazy bull-at-a-gate thickheadedness? Quiet is the new loud, matey. And this poem has nothing to do with being deep! It's just a description of a place! It's by way of being a sly joke! In the name of all that's fucking holy talking to you is such a waste of time... You have the considered subtlety of a jackhammer in a tin hut.
[8] Tekara 10-Sep-02/11:19 PM Reply
Interesting imagery. I'm not certain that I follow it completely, but I do like it.
[7] beakism 11-Sep-02/8:59 AM Reply
The language seems a little too pretty for Putney; but that doesn't take away too much.
[10] -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. › beakism 11-Sep-02/9:01 AM Reply
Stop commenting at the same time I am commenting. It makes it seem like we're the same person!!!!!!!!111
[7] beakism › -=Dark_Angel=-, P.I. 11-Sep-02/9:03 AM Reply
Sorry!!!!!!! Won't happen again !!!!!$$$muchogas$$$
[4] poetandknowit 15-Sep-02/7:52 PM Reply
I really never thought in my life I would read so many poems about birds. You make merry old England sound so boring!!
[8] Nicholas Jones 23-Sep-02/3:48 AM Reply
very elegiac. 'bird beshitten' is fantastic.
[9] dolores 29-Sep-02/11:31 AM Reply
This was good, though of course technically Fulham don't live here any more-Loftus Road is their new abode
[n/a] Christof › dolores 30-Sep-02/1:10 AM Reply
I know. How sad the Cottage is gone. This was written back in the good old days before Fulham residents decided they don't like the only interesting thing in their neighbourhood.
[7] jsab78 3-Jan-03/8:52 PM Reply
smooth. a picture painted for those who watch the waters yet relate to the vivid characterization and imagery
[9] -=SeTTle=- 4-Jan-03/10:30 PM Reply
Wonderful. Sort of. 9.
[7] RGallet 7-Jan-03/8:09 PM Reply
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