White Horses (couldn’t drag me away)

[camus]

An alien indent descends.

Stretching nourished earth to its gangly conclusion:

Chalk is the bare cheek of hillsides, crumbling purity
Which needs attending and ain’t that old anyway

1999 – was no time for horsing around

Aardvark petulance seems displayed
Why the long face? Old jokes – of course

Lost on Leucippotomists – still artists they say
Concrete Philistia I say.

Chalk me down for lost upon the pavements
I once trod

Antiquarians’ chalk me down.

[barrie]

Did you get to Uffington then, or is this another Leukippe?

'Stretching nourished earth to its gangly conclusion' - sounds like Uffington.

'Concrete Philistia I say' - This confused me. Why 'Philistia'?

An intriguing last three lines, very Dylanesque. The last line had me singing

'Antiquarians won't you chalk me down..'

nice one

Barrie

Concrete will be the final solution for preservation no doubt (or plastic?) Bollocks to tradition, were talking cost effective here.

[RobertFlorey]

An alien indent descends.

Stretching nourished earth to its gangly conclusion:

Chalk is the bare cheek of hillsides, crumbling purity
Which needs attending and ain’t that old anyway

1999 – was no time for horsing around

Aardvark petulance seems displayed
Why the long face? Old jokes – of course

Lost on Leucippotomists – still artists they say
Concrete Philistia I say.

Chalk me down for lost upon the pavements
I once trod

Antiquarians’ chalk me down.

Very nicely written indeed.

But opaque to me. Perhaps if I were a Brit.

I have no reference to 1999, I don't know why it was no
time to be 'horsing' around, although I get the pun.

I don't follow aardvark petulance, I don't know any old
jokes. Nosy pigs? Why are they lost on people who carve
the white horses?

I'm wondering if by Philtistia you mean that Philistines,
the art-blind kind, are to blame for what you consider to be
non-art? Because what's ancient is true art and what's
modern 'horsing around' isn't? That doesn't sound right to
me, though.

Perhaps you'd explain it to me.

I love that last line, it's extremely evocative, although because
I don't understand its precedence I also don't understand the
why of the comment.

Was there a spate of imitation carvings that were poorly
done, in a sort of sacred place, in 1999, which took away
the specialness of the area?

[kozmikdave]

Gidday Robert

A horse goes into a bar. The barman looks at him and asks "Why the long face?". BOOM BOOM.

Seen a few of these in the UK. Nice use of language. I didn't get the 1999 reference either.

Cheers
Dave

[Lia]

An unusual read, Kris.

There's a good few horses cut into the hills, but there's a few other pictures too. There's a male fertility giant somewhere.. is it Cornwall?-- I can't remember. It suggests Celtic origin, but I can't see how it could be.. they would have used a woman (or maybe a horse hmm..)...

but an Aardvark in 1999?-- I haven't heard of it personally, and I may be drawing the wrong interp from those lines in any case.

Regardless, I really enjoyed the twists and turns of language in this, very well done and this..

'Chalk me down for lost upon the pavements
I once trod

Antiquarians’ chalk me down.'

Lia

[dillingworth]

"moab is my washpot; over edom will i cast out my shoe: over philistia will i triumph".

[RobertFlorey]

Gidday Robert

A horse goes into a bar. The barman looks at him and asks "Why the long face?". BOOM BOOM.

Seen a few of these in the UK. Nice use of language. I didn't get the 1999 reference either.

Cheers
Dave

Aha! That explains the old joke.
thankyewso much!

I just googleeyed at White Horse 1999 and found this:
The new Devizes white horse

Ordnance Survey grid reference: SU 016 641

The new Devizes horse This is the newest of the Wiltshire white horses. Designed by Peter Greed, it was cut by around two hundred local people in 1999 to mark the millennium. It is on Roundway Hill to the north of Devizes, overlooking the village of Roundway. This horse is the only one in Wiltshire, and one of only four in Britain, to face to the right.

[kozmikdave]

Gidday

It must be a Tory then!

Cheers
Dave

[camus]

Good Googling Robert.

Indeed it was the Devises horse, whose long nose reminded me of an aadvark, of course there we were presuming it had some ancient past some spiritual significance - got up close - bleeding concrete - constructed in 1999.

cheers all

Kris

[ccvulture]

Albert

Pop to Wantage, Oxon, to the *real* White Horse Hill - a nice day's walk!

Stu