Antcliff's Carrier Cart

[Antcliff]

I see MacCaig has been mentioned. And his farm poem. And Elph has posted his related poem...an old favourite. And now I see Leaf...welcome Leaf...has posted his own MacC related poem. So it may be time for my own MacC connected poem from an edition of the now defunct Keep Poems Alive. The poem that it responds to is the well known Wild Oats...which can be found via the page, as the editor Sally Evans notes.

https://keeppoemsalive.wordpress.com//?s=seth+crook+&search=Go

I've not been workshopping in a while, but maybe I can linger over here in the cart for a while. Greetings all!



What the female pigeons said after they read
Norman MacCaig’s poem “Wild Oats”



We’re female pigeons
and do nothing dowdily.
We’re beyond that
– so far beyond.
Sometimes we see
a fine example
of the human bald head
pecking at a page
with a primitive
handmade beak
and peering up through windows
at our menfolk
as they preen and try to pull
some pretty fantail.
He scribbles
and he dibbles
and, like most men,
thinks we care
about what men do.
We don’t, we coo.

[Elphin]

Well that made me smile, I love the voice, not dowdy just worldly wise

And ... a NM poem i wasn’t so familiar wit

Elph

[Leaf]

Hi Antcliff,

Thanks for the welcome. I'm female, but I don't mind that you thought I was male. My gender isn't obvious from my name and avatar!

I like the notion of a carrier cart, and thanks for the introduction to another MacCaig poem. I enjoyed your connected piece very much. I read it aloud, channelling a female pigeon, and found myself looking down my beak while tilting my head to the left a little. So that was a pleasant end to the working day

Best wishes,
Leaf

[Antcliff]

found myself looking down my beak while tilting my head to the left a little. So that was a pleasant end to the working day

Best wishes,
Leaf

Aha! Glad you did so. Thank you. My apologies for taking you to be male. A few years ago I occasionally visited Wild Poetry Forum....I wonder if it still exists....and used the name Iona. It was quite pleasant to be taken for a female for a while. I assume it was the name. Eventually, a friend spotted me. And that was that. There was a carrier cart belonging to my ancestor.

Best wishes,
Seth

[Antcliff]

Well that made me smile, I love the voice, not dowdy just worldly wise

And ... a NM poem i wasn’t so familiar wit

Elph

Thank you very much, Elph. Not sure where I first ran across the MacC "Wild Oats" poem. I think the animal poems tend to get anthologised....the frogs one, the basking shark one...and so it may be in this case.

Seth

[Leaf]

found myself looking down my beak while tilting my head to the left a little. So that was a pleasant end to the working day

Best wishes,
Leaf

Aha! Glad you did so. Thank you. My apologies for taking you to be male. A few years ago I occasionally visited Wild Poetry Forum....I wonder if it still exists....and used the name Iona. It was quite pleasant to be taken for a female for a while. I assume it was the name. Eventually, a friend spotted me. And that was that. There was a carrier cart belonging to my ancestor.

Best wishes,
Seth

You're welcome, Seth; and no apologies necessary for the gender thing. I've just found what seems to be the front page of Wild Poetry Forum, but when I tried to enter an internal server error occurred. Elsewhere I have a couple of male friends who have one account for themselves and another for a female persona, which is interesting. I began on that site with a dove avatar, and somehow the dove took over my poetry. I'm doing my best to restrain her here

I don't have a carrier cart, but perhaps I should. Anyway, excellent poem!

Best wishes,
Leaf