Gerard Ian Lewis wrote...
>"Will Dockery" wrote:
>
>> Typo corrected, with apologies to the audience...
>
>You corrected one. What about the other thirteen?
When I spot them I'll correct them... feel free to help with this, as
always-
> ''...TOPICAL STUDIES Rick Howe's well written zine focusing on
mini-comics.
> This issue includes an indepth (three pages) review of Troy Hickman's
Tales
> of the Pathetic Club series, about five pages of shorter reviews, a
healthy
> letters section (discussing more than comics), artwork by Howe, Jeff
> Zenick, Michael R. Neno and Larry Johnson, and more. This item comes
from
> the collection of Dale Lee Coovert AKA artist Andy Nukes.
> Specs:
> - 5½ × 8½"
> - 48 pages
> - condition is very good, complete and intact, no tears or markings
> - published by Rick Howe, 1995
>
> http://poopsheet.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=810542
> Cover scan:http://poopsheet.ecrater.com/5160/460ae89956170_5160n.jpg
>
> William Dockery's New Poems
>
> To The Magic Store, just released by William Dockery, is a publication
of
> modest pro****tions, consisting of a cover illustration followed by seven
> pages of poetry. A t that, there is something aesthetically effective
about
> this simple ''minibook'' design. Having issued a series of similar books
> over the last several years, the author undoubtedly has aquired a
certain
> proficicency with them.
>
> It is probably a question, since one is not sure how else to explain it,
of
> /fitting/ or /filling/ - yet not overfilling - a book of this size with
an
> appropriate amount of material, such that one might experience in it a
> satisfying ampleness, notwithstanding the smallness of its format; at
the
> same time expression must reach completion in the allotted number of
pages,
> and not leave the impression of gaving been aborted, or that necessary
> articulations were left out. Judicious resort to ellipsis may indeed be
> helpful in this regard only providing it does not signify
impoverishment.
> [Which is not the same thing, really.]
>
> It is indicitive that the book proceeds at what seems, at once, a
> comfortable, unhurried pace; at the same time it is more than the
negligible
> sort of labor which one might expect in the everyday course of things to
> have done in fifteen minutes or so.
>
> In style and temperment, William Dockery's poetry is a little like that
of
> John Berryman - cf., The Dreamsongs. A basically sensitive but slightly
> discombobulated awareness wending its way through hazes of intoxication;
the
> neighborhood milieu. [''..when I was staying/ at the boarding house/
across
> from the park,/ I hated those bells/ and I hated that place./ At the
same
> time I loved it.''
>
> In essence the theme is search for self.
>
> Now, self, in the way in which a poet like William Dockery understands
it,
> is
> essentially a myth; in other words, a kind of story in which self is
> revealed and delinated to itself. In fact self cannot appear except
through
> the mediation of external places and people. But the im****tant thing is
that
> these must be interpreted as having transcendental implications which
might
> not be apparent at the level of quotidean experience. So this is what
is
> meant by the poet entering his neighborhood or social milieu in search
of
> self.
>
> Myth of origin [how self first learns to recognize itself]; golden age,
> debacle. These are some of the typical mythic components in life. To
keep
> this on a simple, general level. Of course much subtler comprehensions
are
> also possible. For example, a typical mythification involves a division
of
> life into periods. When I lived on such-and-such street, life had a
certain
> quality; I had these experiences, was aquainted with these people, et
> cetera. Then I moved somewhere else and it wasn't the same; a period of
life
> came to an end. Thus life may be seen as a succession of /periods/ of
> greater or shorter duration; each more or less distinguished by
objective
> referents [dates, addresses, names of people], each revealing
distinctive
> mythological demensions as well.
>
> In To The Magic Store the poet is viewing such a period retrospectively.
It
> is a Proustian /rememberance of things past/ in a way; things are
remembered
> together with their psychological associations, producing a sensation of
> mythological awareness. [It is not necessary to spell it out with
elaborate
> detail. The point is simply to intuit how a set of associated names and
> images creates the effect of milieu or era.]
>
> Viewed retrospectively, there is of course an emphasis on dissolution.
> People drift away, some die, and eventually the milieu dissolves. The
tone
> of the book is predominantly one of loss and mourning. In one case the
poet
> later revisits one of his main friends - the ''speed junkie'' musician
> Hugo - and finds ''he'd been burned in a terrible disaster,/ in a
wheelchair
> and speechless.''
>
> With its emphasis on the downside of the cycle, To The Magic Store
> corresponds [mythically speaking] with a decline and fall - maybe not of
a
> /golden age/, since more or less there is only one full-blown golden age
in
> a lifetime, but of some lesser epicycle which never the less exhibits
> analogous phases of flouri****ng and decline.
>
> Curiously enough, there is no ''magic store'' explicitly mentioned in
this
> book. Given the preoccupation with loss and mortality, a suitable title
> might have been To The Cemetery. Indeed, the climactic verses tell of
taking
> a girl to a graveyard - ''to see the grave of the guy who died./ We sat
> there in this graveyard park,/ with a six-pack of beer./ he looked
fragile/
> as she drunkenly cried./ She looked open/ to my sensibility...''
>
> But then, as the poem concludes:
>
> I can still remember
> her laughing at my poetry
> didn't feel so good to me
> after I'd been up all night
> pouring out my feelings.
> I thought she was interesting,
> she turned out
> she was just a little female fool.
> Was not able to put all the
> components
> of my life in place...
> my mythology was incomplete.
>
> But the title might have a different and more Proustian meaning. The
> mythology of self, unfulfilled in initial experience [where to be sure
such
> mythologies inevitably represent inconclusive aspirations], might be
> prolonged through acts of memory; where by poetic ''magic'' they may be
> perfected and internalized - notwithstanding their preliminary
frustration
in
> mere cir***stances.
>
> Perhaps this might shed some light on the mystic quality of a poem like
The
> Ballad of James Collier. A line like ''I hope some of them are left'' is
> perhaps best taken at face value, that is, in its natural sense. Other
parts
> of the poem allude to ghostly reunions - perhaps in some transcendental
> world where the past continues as a permanent reality - ''In tiny
> detail.'' -Rick Howe, January 1 1993
--
"Last Dream Today" written by Will Dockery and Brian Mallard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSpYx8sSFP0
Brian Mallard - guitar
Dan Davidson - bass
Josh Railey - drums
Riley Yeilding - trumpet
Sir Charles - saxophone
Will Dockery - vocals
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