At the Flash and at the Baci
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AT THE FLASH & AT THE BACI KEN BOLTON Presented as paft of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English, University of Adelaide South Australia August 2003 1 contents Part one . abstract - 3 . acknowledgements - 5 . At The Flash & At The Baci contents - 6 poems - 7 notes to poems - 130 Part two (separate volume) essay- -exegetical . note on the text - 3 . essay: How I Remember Writing Some Of My Poems-Why, Even - 4 . appendix - 96 . footnotes - 150 . works cited - 159 . bibliography - 166 2 abstract The thesis consists principally of a book-length manuscript of poems, called At The Flash & At The Baci. An exegetical essay forms the second part of the thesis. The prospective book's title derives from the purely incidental fact that most of the poems were worked on at those establishments (the Flash and the Baci) and some were begun and even finished there. The collection does not pursue any particular theme. lt is organized chronologically and divided into three parts: the middle, dividing section is a group of three poems, elegies that mourn or reflect upon the death of poet John Forbes and my responses to it and to him. These poems differ from the rest of the collection in being less concerned with'everyday life'and in being more expressly 'focused'. The third group are labeled 'newer poems' and include a group begun in Rome-not, then, the'everyday' of Adelaide. The exegetical essay is written as a poem. This was done as a way of achieving a tone not at variance with the poetry itself, but also for the access it gives to a more mobile, elliptical approach to the poems and my memory of their motivations and connections. The exegesis does not explain the poem's 'meanings' to any great extent-these, I think, are fairly clear- but considers the poems' relation to each other and to poems written in the past. ln fact it casts the poems as developments of past strategies, as alternatives to those strategies: variants, continuations, alternatives, changes of tack. 3 These poems were mostly conceived & written, & all of them considerably worked on, in the mornings before work or in workday lunchbreaks - at the two establishments which lend the collection its name, The Flash & The Baci, coffee shops in Hindley Street, downtown Adelaide. My presence certainly hasn't made these places more glamorous - though they have some glamour of their own. I would like to express my gratitude to the people who have worked behind their counters over the years. The drawings before & after the poem 'Rumori' are by the author. Those illustrating the 'Three poems for John Forbes' are a photocopy of a newspaper reproduction of Philip Guston's painting 'Smoking, 1'; a photograph by Weegee, 'Girls watching movie, Palace Theater', c. 1943; and a photograph, 'Muddy Waters Relaing Between Gigs', by Val Wilmer. acknowledgements Hometown, A Picture, Coffee & John Forbes Poem, andA Prospect ofthe Young KB appeared first in HEAT, News of the Day in Overland Giles Auty Furioso (illustrated) was shown at the Contemporary Ad Centre of South Australia Walk on the Wild Side in Overland and in Untimely Meditations Walking Down from the Star Grocery in Untimely Meditations Hometown & Walking Down from the Star Grocery also appeared in the UK in Shearsman To Generalize in The Famous Repofter Double Portrait and Horizon in JACKET Hi, John & Cat-bag poem in Southerly Catching Up With Kurt Brereton in Newcastle Prize Anthology Long Distance lnformation in UTS Review Amaze Your Friends in Famous Reporler & Tin Fish (USA) American Friends in S/ope Traffic Noises in Sidewalk Tiepolo in Shampoo (USA) 5 CONTENTS Home Town 7 Walk On The Wild Side 12 poem ("Walking Down From The Star Grocer¡/') 14 Halogen Pam 18 Dynamic Sleeper 25 To Generalize 31 A Picture 34 Mostly Hindley Street 37 News Of The Day 48 Giles Auty Furioso 56 Double Portrait 62 Three Poems For John Forbes Coffee & John Forbes Poem 66 Hi, John 68 People Passing Time 73 Newer Poems Your Being Away 80 poem ('cat-bag') 83 American Friends 87 Horizon 89 Catching Up With Kuft Brereton 92 Traffic Noises, Cups, Voices 97 Long Distance lnformation 102 Tiepolo 107 Rumori 109 Holden Song 118 Prospect Of The Young KB As A Critic 12Q Ju-Ju 122 Amaze Your Friends 123 Hindley Street Today, W¡th A View Of Michael Grimm 127 notes 131 6 Home Town Driving into work while Cath reads about driving around London & wondering when will I next write a poem or whether to just work on Gwendolyn a poem of John's & mine & maybe I should it rs half mine, I drop Cath off, do a Ulurn & scoot down to the EAF, park, go inside check the mail empty my bag a little lock up again & set off for the coffee shop ' where l'll read or write a poem or a review - or work on Gwendolyn, I suppose, is a possibility . I feel sophisticated to be wearing my long black coat - which, however, does not really make me look like my idea of a New Yorker: it's a little beaten & more groovy than suave & doesn't reflect wealth, & the thought of my poverty - when I ask for coffee - makes me amused & reflective. "The heater's on," I say to the waitress. And she says "Yes. You like?" "lt's Great!" I say. lt is. I ask could I have some banana cake please with such diffidence she is surprised and I realize the thoughts about my poverty & entitlements have affected my emotions a little She says I can have some & goes off to get it. Which is where the poem could end. lt could all be about the small things in life - how I do get coffee etc. Cath thought Laurie's latest poem could be broken up into lots of smaller ones, or broken with numbers, asterisks - so you'd know when to stop re-read & have a think (etcetera). Not that she wanted little poems, of shape & mild flick-of-the-wrist closure. This waitress has served me coffee for over ten years now. She used to work at the Flash Café - actually called Flash Gelateria - but known to most as just 7 'The Flash' - but they changed hands finally & she came down here where this new place opened. Whose name I don't even know - where I've been coming nearly a year now. What rs it called? Baci - I look out the window find the sign. The Baciis big & airy - you can stay all day I imagine. The view is very Richard Estes - in a busy kind of way - which / think recommends it. Though to whom does it recommend it? No one I know, to speak to, daily knows Richard Estes' paintings. Except Paul, & Richard at a guess - Richard would & Paul would like the aesthetic though not, probably, the art - my only Ruscha friend, Paul - "if I may so term his aesthetic". (Ha Ha.) Though who am I on daily speaking terms with? Cath - & Laurie & Pam & John Forbes & John Jenkins - in my mind. Realler I guess than talking to Frank O'Hara or Tony Towle - whose speaking voice I have no idea of - probably silent &, alternatively, garrulous. I imagine him mostly staring plumply out a picture window - floor to ceiling - is that 'picture'? - hands in pockets, shift untucked slightly saying something rhapsodic & complaining. lt's dark outside & raining. Hullo, Tony. There, I did it. Now I realize I am beginning to talk like him. Which amuses me - though talking like him is not my purpose. What is my purpose in life? the joke answer & the serious, & why am I not up to either or both? Because that's life. One is to fail exemplarily. "We are gathered here today ladies & gentlements ..." - SPLASH - Somebody has fallen off the pier. The Fellini figure pauses briefly & they carry on - it was Malcolm Lowry, the outsider. He fell off. Not me - I'm in the Richard Estes painting in the middle of Adelaide, that only I know about, going, tonight, to the Post-West opening, that everybody knows about. Their shows are so frequent & the gallery so small I think the artists have them just to drink & natter every fortnight. Though tonight the art promises to be good, or not hurtful, maybe in fact allright. When I get there Richard is sitting against the wall with Suzie Paul is hanging about the door, drink in hand. He does know Richard Estes I am relieved to find out & I talk to all the artists - Aldo & Shaun, & Louise B shows up & later Michael & Mary. Shaun's bought my book. We discuss Raymond Roussel, Micky Allan's photographs, Harry Mathews, Perec, Svevo, Jr Walker & Wilson Pickett, employment What matters? What is impodant to say? From reading all morning I can manage a series of assertions - or I feel that way - lcan remember none, right now except: "Daniel Buren's afi - (followed by some blunt denial of his importance)" But I always knew that Walking into town to deliver an article to the Advertiser feeling deliciously alone - & modern, the way John Tranter feels when he cleans the poof, but actually for the Tranter/Benjamin reason Paris, the streets, arcades, the winter light & clouds, the suggestion of rain another añicle done, anonymous, but it will appear above my name but ! feel anonymous - I see Tubby Justice across the street, waiting. lwave. She waves, & disappears hurries off, ahead. I smile & she reappears & we say hullo. My friends are like ghosts in Adelaide. What is real here? The only intelligent people I know who read The Adveftiser 9 buy it for the TV guide & movies & I think movies are crap.