As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, -- John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.
- Robert Creeley, 1987
#1, #2, #3
CRATE OF POEM
His friend Charles Olson is way cool too. Wish I had the requisite patience for epic pastoral.
I read "why not, buy a goddamn big car, / drive, he sd," as "John's" simple interruption. The comma at the line break says nothing more than that Robert (?) was about to continue rambling. No reader-response theory need apply. Détruire, dit-elle.
I read "why not, buy a goddamn big car, / drive, he sd," as "John's" simple interruption. The comma at the line break says nothing more than that Robert (?) was about to continue rambling. No reader-response theory need apply. Détruire, dit-elle.
It's possible, but I'm not certain, that right after "drive" the line goes back to "John." Apparently Creeley said that "drive" is still being said by the narrator - makes sense despite the line break. So perhaps he was about to say where they were going to drive or what have you. The & doesn't seem to mark a switch from one voice to another.
But it well could...part of what makes the poem interesting is that the two voices are become one (after all, everything here is being related by one narrator).
But it well could...part of what makes the poem interesting is that the two voices are become one (after all, everything here is being related by one narrator).