late March

7:30 PM Posted by James Owens




the gilded phalloi of the crocuses
are thrusting at the spring air

-- Ezra Pound

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11 comments:

Anne said...

Les couleurs complémentaires forment une belle harmonie dans cette photo.
Anne

Marion McCready said...

so beautiful, I love crocuses! so glad spring is finally here! the Pound quote made me laugh :)

Roxana said...

the photo is so lovely, such softness there, such frailty...
but i am afraid i dislike Pound's lines :-) and besides, they don't mirror the image, i think, there is a kind of violence and so much energy in them while the photo is so gentle, the flower so delicately opening...

Roxana said...

thinking about it, Pound might be referring to those orange crocuses when they are not yet open, like here:

http://roxanaghita.blogspot.com/2010/03/improbable-spring-4-and-probably-last.html

which somehow justifies his metaphor, but it is still an ugly image :-) at best it makes one laugh, Marion is right!

S. Etole said...

such an early and promising sign of spring with their gentle beauty ...

James Owens said...

Anne: Merci pour ton commentaire gentil, comme toujours :-)

James Owens said...

Marion: I'm glad you you like it, and I'm glad to make you laugh :-) How is your reading of EP coming along, btw?

James Owens said...

Roxana: I think you are probably right about the kind of crocuses Pound had in mind....

I guess I can see your objection to the quote :-) ... but I had never thought of these lines as violent. A bit of wry humour, maybe, but also a kind of tenderness for the spring ... but, yes, violent or not, the words suggest an energy that isn't there in the photo ... so perhaps it was not the best choice!! And I inevitably get into trouble whenever I mention Pound ....

James Owens said...

Susan: Thank you. The wind and rain today are making me wonder if that promise was true....

Marion McCready said...

Pound has been shamefully neglected of late! Can't put down Grunbein's Selected. But yes, I was thinking today how great Pound is to read aloud, now just to find which pile / bookshelf I've stuck him in!

James Owens said...

Marion: I hate to say that I don't know Grunbein at all, but coincidentally I ordered Ashes for Breakfast just yesterday. Now I'm looking forward to reading it even more!

Pound is the great enigma. So brilliant in some places, so dismal in others.... I love his own reading of Canto 1 --- I wouldn't want to read this way myself, and, if it were anyone else, I'd say that dramatic, "poetic" quaver in the voice is just silly ... yet ... somehow ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px8mG3NJaQA&feature=related