Our Local Business

[abu nuwas]

Here's why this works for me: folk music.

Repetition is reinforcement. Poetry like this doesn't need elaborate metaphors, it needs good strong sonics and a soothing rhythm to emphasise the nostalgic, yearning nature of the story itself. I get the picture of a small town woman, dreaming of far-off places but bound by love and duty to the place she's in. "and sky, and sky, and sky" is particularly effective because it shows the enormity of possibility, then is grounded by "she loves her home". I would be tempted to use "she went, she went, she went" instead of "and" in S3.

Poetry need not be grand phrasing and monumental themes -- a simple tale told simply and well will do the trick.

Why, thank you Leanne! Yeah....that Mark...he should have been knocking out a tune!

By the oddest ofcoincidences, the lady phoned to-day, at what must have been very nearly the time Mark was commenting! It is a simple tale, and you have it---- though as a London girl, she would pop at the words 'small town woman' despite having lived in this quaint little place for some 23 years, and still banging on about being working-class -- which no-one there is. But what a to-do when someone suggested that her posh kids were not quite out of the right drawer!

You will easily envisage the sky-- if you live by the sea, you have these big skies.

My private worry was having 'aspire' and 'inspire' so close to-gether, and both from the same root (breathe) as in:'Dum spiro, spero' (while I breathe, I hope).

Your 'and' I think is joining the 'and' club where my old Biarritz poem lives -still unresolved-- but this more straight-forward. Thanks again.