Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Phillip Booth, “Terms”

I have no idea if I got the sailing/knot imagery even remotely cor­rect. Just tak­ing a guess to get started with this poem.

Amplify’d from www.ashokkarra.com
On land any length of rope that’s hitched

to some­thing beyond itself and takes

the strain is called the stand­ing part.

Tossed over a beam or limb, with a slip­knot

tied in the far­ther end, the stand­ing part

could be said to end in a noose. At sea,

put to use, rope changes its name to line.

Terms (from poetryfoundation.org)

Phillip Booth

On land any length of rope that’s hitched

to some­thing beyond itself and takes


the strain is called the stand­ing part.


Tossed over a beam or limb, with a slip­knot


tied in the far­ther end, the stand­ing part


could be said to end in a noose. At sea,


put to use, rope changes its name to line.


The part spliced into an eye or, say,

made fast to a shackle, the part that does

the work, that works, remains the stand­ing part.

Any loop or slack curve in the run­ning part

of the line, the part that’s not work­ing, becomes

a bight; and the part of the run­ning part

that’s let go, or finally eased off

until there’s no reserve left, is known

as the bit­ter end. As it is in other events,

ashore or at sea, that come to the end of the line.

Read more at www.ashokkarra.com
 

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