>I am no great fan of poetry however from the first time I heard Ogden
>Nash I was basically hooked. In honor of Mr. Nash I offer ....
>
>        The Termite
>
>A primal termite knocked on wood
>tasted it and found it good
>and that is why your cousin May
>fell through the parlor floor today
>
>Not deep but gets the point across.
>
>I've known this since I was about 8 years old. Most likely why I became
>a carpenter.
>
>Bryan

Dang it...stole my thunder...I was gonna quote my favorite Ogden Nash special:

  How are you is a greeting, not a question;
  So don't tell them of your indigestion!

In regard to the discussion between Ken and Bruce,

>>  I think that you are waxing rhetorical. No one except grandstanding
>>  rightwingers trying to cut the NCAH budget ever defined MODERN poetry as
>>  "exclusive production of inaccessible poetry". And it has never been
>>  written, as far as I know, that "all poems should be an inaccessible puzzle
>>  of abstraction"
> I identify the myth of poetry as abstraction the result of public school
> teachers who do not have the intelligence to appreciate poetry and therefore
> expressing to their students that the reason they (both the teacher and the
> students) cannot understand a poem is because they are 1) supposed to
> understand, and 2) will never understand. The resulting conflict, I believe,
> is a feeling of being duped by a bad joke. I commend the reading and writing
> of poetry in schools, but fear the forces of anti-play and the high-serious
> betray the task.

I want to know why in the pantheon of modern poetry that it can no longer
rhyme.  Why can it no longer have a pulsating rhythm that seizes you and
rushes you headlong down its slopes of meaning?  It's like mountain ski
trails...lots of different paths down the slope.  I like modern poetry,
it's fresh and I love the multitude of meaning that the reader can bring
into it, yet it also seems to me that the historical traditions have been
completely abandoned.

And I see the same problems with preservation in the way that our field has
iconized certain standards of purity and correctness that the general
public "just doesn't get."  They find them unreasonable and excessive.
Who's fault is it that the public feels this way?  I say that it is ours.
I return to my premise of transporting the public with our vision of the
future.  Note that I am coming from the point of view of administering a
local preservation program, dealing with thousands of buildings where
regular folks live carrying out their lives in nice neighborhoods and
business areas; not the preservation necessities of conserving National
Historic Landmarks.  Yet persons in the field often seek to apply the same
standards in both arenas.

We have not made the case to the public that these resources are all worthy
of our wizardry in minutiae.  I believe that any place that you see a
historic preservation program politically dismantled is a place where the
servants of preservation failed to serve the prevailing community
standards.  I can tell you that the preservation standards that one can
apply in Charleston SC without having the public rebel are very different
from those that you can apply in Raleigh NC.  And if you try to be a lone
ranger, you'll get shot out of the saddle.  And then who will speak for the
buildings and gravel roads?  Pick your battles carefully.  Conserve your
resources for the big ones.  For the rest, you need to slowly raise the
awareness of the community to appreciate the value of preservation in their
future.  You will lose some, guaranteed.  Bruce, make sure that everyone in
town understands what the gravel road means, make sure they get a chance to
see it before it changes, give them a benchmark.  Let them experience its
poetry.  When the deal has been done, take 'em back.  Don't preach, just
let them feel the place, afterward.

Lake Cumberland, Kentucky

In the rousing words of a resounding
Yell which frequently echoed; lake, hill, to dell.
Sixteen voices from two houseboats,
The lusty cheer rose from our throats:
THIS PLACE IS JUST BEAUTIFUL!

Copyright Dan Becker

or more closely allied with preservation land:

With Empty Halls

Greyed old castle crumbling down,
Overlooking ancient town;
Silvered stream meandering by,
Shimmers spires against the sky.

Perched atop tree-covered slopes,
With empty halls with empty hopes;
A prince once strode the hallowed aisles,
The princess lit them with her smiles.

Golden wheat waves in the lea,
Time marched on despite their plea;
Their love and life did warm the stone,
It now caressed by wind alone.

Walls still stand with mortar pages,
A prince and princess seek the ages;
Eternal spark the granite copes,
With empty halls with empty hopes.

Copyright Dan Becker

>>  First, as with preservation, we need to get poetry back on the psychic map.
> Yes, now, for a serious question. How does this dialogue on poetry relate to
> historic preservation?

Quick answer: they both provide an embodiment of meaning for the human
experience.  Both are steeply couched in cultural association.  Both
require feeling for understanding.  Both transport us to places we have
never been.

I too like Ken and others have been delighted with the quality and breadth
of discussion here.  It's been very thought-provoking, much worthy of
commentary, and frustrating because other demands on time limit the amount
of dialogue we can contribute.  I have been ruminating on many of the
threads, fomenting a response in my mind, yet other responsibilities of
late have not allowed me the luxury of time to "get it all out."

And now I have to fly out of town for the whole weekend.  Dang.  But I do
want to sew several of the threads into a quilt.  I think I'll write it out
the old fashioned way, in long hand, on the plane.


____________________________________________
Dan Becker
Executive Director, Raleigh Historic Districts Commission

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