The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Fri 3/13/2009)

[RetroLounge]

Written By Pavlov’s Few, Sad, Last Surviving Dogs

Aging dogs, shabby dogs,
shaggy and darkened like last year’s haycocks,
we cannot forget what we were:
golden tangible proofs;
pioneers of the Surface.

How could we get over our puppyhood
in that garden of pale tiles
and stainlessly spouting steel fountains:
the Pavlovian Institute.

With what nostalgia we remember
the assistants´ footfalls at dusk,
their friendly bell, the vibrations
of their gong, a brazen full moon,
and all at once

that perfect service, those delicious dishes,
fragrance of porridge and pie,
crunching of toast and rusk.
Our tails were happy then, our ears elated,
our salivation made a lake.

Now not even a bone to split,
not even gristle to chew.

The Master gave up reporting,
became an object himself.
His coat doesn’t bulge or billow.
The ghost of sugar clings to its cuffs.

A bell still buzzes, a gong clangs,
but there is nothing to follow,
no footsteps, no key in the lock.
Above all the succulent dinners are gone.
Pathetic, obedient, we sit waiting as before,

conditioned to believe in a sequence,
in causality, matter, and motion.
We’re caged in a fallacy, ergo propter hoc.
We dabble in theories, dribble on the floor.
Our silver saliva is creating an ocean.

To stop reacting correctly
must be the last and slowest thing to learn.

Susanna Roxman

***************

:hi:

RL

[blueraven95]

1. wow

:cry:







:hi:

[RetroLounge]

2. ...

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. a hard lesson, indeed

:donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

7. ...

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

4. ...

:(

[RetroLounge]

8. ...

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Retro...

A sad day for these poor dogs...

I've been there too, as have we all, I suspect...

Thank you...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. ...

:hi:

RL

[piasusanna]

6. my poem

Hi,

Very flattering to find that you have posted one of my poems! But I feel that you should have mentioned that it was published in one of my poetry collections, "Broken Angels" (Dionysia Press, Edinburgh, 1996).

Susanna Roxman

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Welcome to DU!

There are a number of poets here...

RetroLounge occasionally posts his work...

As do I...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

11. Hello Susanna

In 3 years of daily poems, you are the first author to post in my threads.

thank you.

I sometimes post a bio and mention where to find the poem, but I was late for work this morning. So here it is:

Susanna Roxman, born in Stockholm, writes in English. Her poetry collection Broken Angels (Dionysia Press, Edinburgh) won the Arts Award of the City of Lund, Sweden, and was Whitbread nominated in Britain. She has contributed poems to Crab Orchard Review, Oxford Magazine, Pembroke Magazine, Roanoke Review, Slant, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Visions International, Webster Review, Westview, and other American journals.

SUSANNA ROXMAN, born in Stockholm but with Scottish roots, is a poet, critic, and literary scholar. She writes in both English and Swedish. In 1984 she got a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Gothenburg. She is Head of Lund University's Center for Classical Mythology. She has contributed to magazines such as Stand, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Orbis, and Prairie Schooner. Her poetry collection Broken Angels (Dionysia Press, 1996) received the Arts Award of the City of Lund.

Loved this poem, look forward to finding a copy of the book...

:hi:

RL

[piasusanna]

12. corrigenda

Me again. Please alter the following typos:

"footfalls" should be "footfall"; and there should be no stanza break after "once" or after "before,"

Thank you!

Susanna Roxman

[RetroLounge]

13. Sorry about that

I copied it off another web page, and we can only edit here within the first hour after posting...

:hi:

RL

[piasusanna]

14. my poem

Oh, that's a nuisance. Do you remember what site it was?

Your bios are all right in themselves, BUT some years old, and need to be updated. Permit me:

Susanna Roxman was born in Stockholm, but her family is Scottish, and she writes in English. Her poetry collection "Broken Angels" was published by Dionysia Press, Edinburgh, in 1996, and won the Arts Award of the City of Lund. Her collection "Imagining Seals" (2006), also Dionysia Press, was sponsored by the Scottish Arts Council. Susanna has also had poems in more than 60 literary journals worldwide. In the USA, they include "Prairie Schooner", "The Spoon River Poetry Review", "Crab Orchard Review", and "Cimarron Review"; in Canada, "The Fiddlehead", "Grain", "Room of One's Own", and "Wascana Review"; in Britain, "Stand", "Orbis", "Magma", and "Staple"; in Ireland, "Poetry Ireland Review". In addition, she has written a book of literary criticism called "Guilt and Glory: Studies in Margaret Drabble's Novels 1963-80" (Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm).
Susanna worked for many years as a ballet teacher, a secretary, a fashion model, a university lecturer, an arts journalist, and much else. For 11 years, she was Head of the Center of Classical Mythology, Lund University. Today she is a freelancing writer, poet and critic.

Thanks!

Susanna Roxman

[RetroLounge]

15. Found it here

http://www.versedaily.org/wbpfslsd.shtml

and your bios are on the web.

RL