David Herbert Lawrence, Bat Free verse Options

[Arnfinn]

Bat

At evening, sitting on this terrace,
When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the
     mountains of Carrara
Departs, and the world is taken by surprise...

When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the
    glowing
Brown hills surrounding...

When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio
A green light enters against the stream, flush from the west,
Against the current of obscure Arno...
Look up, and you see things flying
Between the day and the night;
Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows
    together.

A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge
    arches
Where light pushes through;
A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air.
A dip to the water.

And you think:
'The swallows are flying so late!'

Swallows?

Dark air-life looping
Yet missing the pure loop...
A twiitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight
And serrated wings against the sky,
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,
And falling back,

Never swallows!
Bats!
The swallows are gone.

At a wavering instant the swallows give way to bats
By the Ponte Vecchio...
Changing guard.

Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one's scalp
As the bats swoop overhead!
Flying madly.
Pipistrello!
Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe.
Little lumps that fly in the air and have voices indefinite, wildly
    vindictive;

Wings like bits of umbrella.

Bats!

Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep
And disgustingly upside down.
Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags
And grinning in their sleep.
Bats!

In China the bat is a symbol of happiness.

Not for me!

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi Arn,

I agree with almost everything which you say. Just a couple of points:

Most Brits certainly used to go away to Uni but I lived at home and travelled daily sixteen miles to the next city (Nottingham) as an undergraduate. As well as DHL it is famous for Robin Hood. But where I live now (150 miles south - Winchester) also has its literary figures - John Keats live here for a brief while (and wrote here). Also, Jane Austin was born in one of the next villages to here and is burried in the Cathedral (along with seven Kings of England - this was England's capital before London). So the place is awash with dead great figures of literature. However, doesn't mean it remains the best now - DHL escaped here because he thought it narrow-minded and sexually repressed. Things have move on vastly since then - vastly since Perry left, too by the sound of it. Poetry is alive and very well in the UK but not popular. Life is so fast that the Video Game generation has little time for it... but there are notable exceptions. My fav British poet is Benjamen Zepaniah - he writes some great stuff.

http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/

>>Form poetry, if written well, is like music

It probably is but I never seem to see that, I'm afraid Arn. Mind you, my musical tastes are quite strange (up to 16thCentury plainsong and Tangerine Dream electro music are my favourites).

All the best, James.