One of my Chinese friends is writing a thesis on the poems of Kenneth Rexroth. From time to time he asks me for the meaning of word or phrase and, until now, I have been able to answer every question. However...
Today he has come across the line "Thought wanders like goose-crossed smoke." and I have had to admit that I haven't the faintest idea what that means. Anyone here ever encountered this phrase? Googling just brings up copies of the poem that it comes from.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Someone on one of my facebook groups suggests that the image is of smoke from a fire rising and geese flying through it causing it to drift apart and so the idea is of the thoughts breaking into other thoughts and, as you suggested, dissipating.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
(Is there any indication on your screen that that's a clickable link? They used to appear as a different colour on my screen but now they look like the rest of the text so that it's only by mouse over that I know there's a link there at all. Not very user friendly. I will edit the post to bold it and make it clearer but it's irritating to have to do that.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Oh, and I remember the Beach Boys song, "Little Goose Poop."https://genius.com/The-beach-boys-little-deuce-coupe-lyrics Oh, my mistake. I must have misheard "deuce coupe." No wonder I never understood it.
Goosey goosey gander, Whither do you wander? Upstairs and downstairs And in my lady's chamber...
As a teen I told my mother this nursery rhyme always gave me a really bad feeling-- was there something in my past she wasn't telling me about? Yes but not what I imagined: when I was about 18 months old the landlady's goose-- taller than I was-- waddled over and bit me.
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Ouch! Geese can bite much harder than most people realize. Been there, have the t-shirt. I've also been "goosed" by a duck. Lesson: Never get between a mama goose or duck and her offspring!
Originally posted by Robert Arvanitis: We forget how hard life was for our ancestors, how the plague inspired "ring around the roses" It's a wonder we can read fairy tales with a smile.
The way the world has been going recently, I'm trying to forget how hard things will be for our descendants.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
