Peril - Asian Australian journal

extension 34

Written by Michael Farrell
Sunday, 15 October 2006
living at the z extension 34 tho_ning to race or to worry cone i saw in loviewth d_blin man tub my nut au grow me idea fingers fingers fingers & bread living at the a after i was nailed denial denial neon to call or o to write to cone i saw in lo viewth dreami_r man tub my nits nits scold me break it off or go hungry z & a & all in Yoko Ono between i was so lonely incom municado until i was a hill out the down id downside downsize ny cliches & clinches at the y it was a crazy conversation but proprietaria convenevolezza i thought itd wait till i was older io pensiero ild aspettare cassa io ‘extension 33’ yoko ono (the following note was written to the british poets list after ‘jc’ had mocked my book ode ode using ‘extension 34’ as an example of nonsense.) extension 34 is an extension, a variation, a rewriting of yoko onos song ‘extension 33’. the poem contains some short quotes from the song which are in a smaller type than the rest of the poem (this doesnt come through in the posting, but i think was reflected in the tls quote of the poem). the rest of the poem rewrites the song using puns, anagrams & translations.. here are some relevant quotes from the original song: Extension 33 Living at the Y Extension 33 Nothing to care or to worry Once I was in love with a blind man But my auntie told me, "Don't do it, it's not worth it" ... I'm glad I never told the married man It saved my pride and freedom ... Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom Freedom and pride (REPEAT) (from disc 5 of ONOBOX, i think it was originally on the album Season of Glass) the song was in my head as i wrote the poem.. living at the y becomes living at the z, blind man becomes d_blin (dublin) man; freedom & pride become fingers & bread; love with, loviewth (love view)etc i love yoko ono, this is one of my favourite yoko ono songs, my ideal reader of this poem would hear the poem against the song ie they wd probably be a yoko fan too. i dont of course expect everyone to listen to or read all my sources, but in the context of the book, especially the living at the z sequence, i think its reasonably clear what im doing.. you cd call it an extreme version of marianne moores quotation practice.. the poem proper is destabilised, infected by the quotation.. this was not a predetermined concept but a reading i thought jc was being sneaky by not mentioning the yoko connection (as it is cited at the foot of the poem) but perhaps he(?) was completely bewildered.. i was interested by his misquoting of the poem (both times): ie 'tub my nut au grow me idea' becomes 'tun my nut..' : instead of 'tub' an anagram of 'but' from the song jc writes 'tun': an anagram of 'nut' in the same line of the poem: it seemed he was (despite himself?) joining in the language game.. michael Michael's book "ode ode" is from Salt Publishing
Last Updated ( Monday, 23 October 2006 )

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