SPATS & LACE IN THE
BUTTONS BOX
THE SUBBOOK ...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................- ALITTLE CALLED PAULINE: NUMBER 46
WORD
COUNT......................-
182
STANZA(S)............................-
11
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
GENRE..................................-
VIRTUAL OPERA
LOCATION............................-USA,
UK, Australia, Philippines, S. Africa, Canada.
TIME......................................-
ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK
TONE.....................................-
FANCIFUL
“Does anyone
else see that 'shudders' minus the 'sh' is 'udders'?” Sarah Maitland Parks
“In fairy sea, I heard
Pharisee.” The Steiny Road Poet
"Apollinaire sounds like A-Pauline-heir, heir to St.
Paul?" Peter Treanor
A LITTLE CALLED PAULINE.
A little called anything shows
shudders.
Come and say what prints all day. A
whole few water-melon. There is no pope.
No cut in pennies and little dressing
and choose wide soles and little spats really little spices.
A little lace makes boils. This is not
true.
Gracious of gracious and a stamp a blue
green white bow a blue green lean, lean on the top.
If it is absurd then it is leadish and
nearly set in where there is a tight head.
A peaceful life to arise her, moon and
moon and moon. A letter a cold sleeve a blanket a shaving house and nearly the
best and regular window.
Nearer in fairy sea, nearer and
farther, show white has lime in sight, show a stitch of ten. Count, count more
so that thicker and thicker is leaning.
I hope she has her cow. Bidding a
wedding, widening received treading, little leading, mention nothing.
Cough out cough out in the leather and
really feather it is not for.
Please could, please could, jam it not
plus more sit in when.
BABY WITH NO
POPE
Connecting to
associations about Pauline and Marie Laurencin discussed in Stepping on Tender
Buttons: “A Little Called Pauline.” Part 1 of 2, came the association of childbirth.
from Eleanor Smagarinsky:
Hmmmm....
“Looking at
that list of verbs, above....[see the end of Stepping on Tender
Buttons: “A Little Called Pauline.” Part 1 of 2]
I can't help
but feel that a baby is being born. A little girl or little boy, who receives a
name, but has no pope (Papa).
“There's
even mention of counting and ten—full cervical dilation. And that tight head.
Nearer and further...in sight...and perhaps even an episiotomy (a
stitch)?
[Could this
be] The birth of a new artistic age?
“Birds don't
only fly with those feathers, they also feather their nests. Those Roc birds in
"Sinbad the Sailor" had an egg. [The mythological Roc bird was
mentioned in Apollinaire’s poem “Zone” which was quoted in Stepping on Tender
Buttons: “A Little Called Pauline.” Part 1 of 2,] You can't fly around with your egg,
you have to sit on it until it hatches.”
from Peter Treanor:
“Yes I can
see a birth here too. I have been wondering if "A Little Called
Pauline." could refer to something small (a child?) named (called ) by
Pauline, so could maybe this could be Marie (Laurencin).
from Eleanor:
"’A
little,’ called Pauline.
“Is that
what you mean? Gosh, speech in a button-poem. How exciting!
“Makes
sense, thematically, what with Genesis describing creation as a product of
God's speech:
And God
said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light
was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the
light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and
there was morning—the first day.
“What about
taking it a step further...Pauline is declaring the first letter of the
alphabet ‘a little’ which is a, as compared to ‘a big’ which is A.
And later on Stein writes "A letter a", which pleases me greatly. And
of course there's a sea—C. But what does she have against B? B is for
boils, oh... if you say boils, boils, boils, quickly it sounds like boys!!
“A little
ace makes boys (but it's not true)??” [A little lace makes
boils. This is not true.]
from Karren
Alenier [a.k.a. The Steiny Road Poet]
“I'm
thinking some of the language might be caused by having anesthesia—e.g. the
last line. Please could, please could, jam it not plus more sit in
when.
“But so much
of this is drunk talk.
“Let me
see if I can better explain the drunk talk that might be drugged talk
as if one has been drugged to have a baby or maybe the woman is just delirious.
“Come and say what imprints (makes a strong
impression) all day—A child, A whole few water-melon (the pregnant
mother's stomach). There is no pope (no father).
“No cut in pennies and little dressing and choose
wide soles and little spats really little spices. (The mother who has to pay her own way
is concerned about what the baby will cost her. She only has pennies.)
“A little lace makes boils. This is not
true. (The
mother is confused and contradicts herself.)
“Gracious of gracious and a stamp a blue green
white bow a blue green lean, lean on the top. (The mother calls on God--gracious
of gracious, to help her.)
“If it is absurd then it is leadish and nearly
set in where there is a tight head. (The mother is trying to push but the weight of the
baby's head seems stuck.)
“A peaceful life to arise her, moon and moon and
moon. A letter a cold sleeve a blanket a shaving house and nearly the best and
regular window. (The
mother had a peaceful life but was often awakened by the moon during
pregnancy. The father of the child doesn't respond to her letters and gives her
the cold shoulder and now she has been prepared for this birth in a room where
she can still see the moon.)
“Nearer in fairy sea, nearer and farther, show
white has lime in sight, show a stitch of ten. Count, count more so that
thicker and thicker is leaning. (The mother's waters breaks, she has counted her breathing—she
awaits the episiotomy.)
“I hope she has her cow. Bidding a wedding,
widening received treading, little leading, mention nothing. (The narrator of the poem hopes all
goes well and she has the child--cow. She could not make the wedding happen,
she just has to tread these troubled waters and say nothing.)
“The
poem ends with trying to take some action to speed along the birth and then
just babbles.”
Cough
out cough out in the leather and really feather it is not for.
Please
could, please could, jam it not plus more sit in when.
BURSTING THE IMAGINATION: ANOTHER KIND OF BIRTH
Peter ratcheted up the human birth association to a burst of the
imagination.
“A
LITTLE CALLED PAULINE. ‘A
little’ called Pauline
or (a little a) ‘a’ called Pauline, let there be
letters, or ‘a little’ = ‘a title.’ [anagrammatically
speaking, except one ‘l’ in ‘little’ was discarded] A Title called Pauline.”
Here, Peter paused for a definition:
TITLE: Old English titul,
reinforced by Old French title, both from
Latin titulus 'inscription, title'. The word originally denoted a
placard or inscription placed on an object, giving information about it, hence
a descriptive heading in a book or other composition.
“Now help needed here, isn’t
a title a noun? and doesn’t GS have a mission to not use nouns? Although there
are a lot of them flying about here.
“A little called anything shows shudders.
So something called,
named, titled, ‘nouned’ anything will make her shudder. Or shows fear, lack of
courage in (her) writing terms.
“Come and say what prints all day. What prints all day? newspapers, books, mags,
printing presses all with titles. Fingers have fingerprints all day. What says
what has been printed all day? words and speech perhaps. Words are in
print all day also
.
“A whole few water-melon. now there's honey-dew (wholey few?) melons and
watermelons, but why hyphenate? Melons, fleshy and succulent and round like a
pregnant stomach and full of seed (new life) and fluid. But you can also
cut them and make prints on them and use
them to print with too , like potato printing. melons and moons do both
seem full and fertile. A whole melon looks like the full moon and a slice looks
like the moon in its various phases
.
“There is no pope. No father, no hope?
“No cut in pennies and little dressing So why pennies? She’s American, so
cents are her native small coins and she’s in France so centimes are small
coins where she is. (Unless it was different at that time) Pennies are so
British. I got to say ‘No cut in pennies’ seems like no cut in penises to me, So is there a non-Jewish boy or
perhaps a girl baby here? not cut, no small post circumcision dressing applied
(no need if it’s a girl)
. But what, or who, is being born? a child, an
alphabet, words, language? All of these? none of these?”
The answer to
Peter’s question about Stein’s “mission” against using nouns is in Stein’s Lectures
in America "Poetry and Grammar." Stein said that It's because you
always have a lot of names for your beloved. So a love poem is going to be
populated by a lot of nouns. However looking at that list of words Eleanor
collected that appears at the end of Stepping on Tender
Buttons: “A Little Called Pauline.” Part 1 of 2], we see how she is changing nouns to verbs.
from Claudia Schumann:
“Maybe it's
not a baby being born but a poem, a book, or an essay. Writing sometimes can be
like giving birth—she may be talking about giving 'birth' to something she
wrote that was difficult to write.”
from Eleanor:
“Claudia,
suddenly I see Stein writing night after night (I read somewhere that she'd
write at night): A peaceful life to arise her, moon and moon and moon
“She
prints, cuts, chooses, shows and stitches words together.
“All
while sitting at her desk.
“She
frames realities for us with windows, shows us the fairytale seas, dismisses
all that is not true, always leaning, leaning, her slanted handwriting, her
typewriter stamping, pulling back on the bow of gender, her rows of letters are
arrows—let the lance cut through to the pith.
“The birth
of a poem (we are the attending midwives).”
FROM THE
FAIRY SEA
from Peter:
“I have
water on the boil and clean towels on the ready.
“A lien, a
lean, ties that bind, blood is thicker than water (melon)
Pauline as peu ligne, a little line. Brilliant! A
birth of words, meaning, reality.
“And could a
water-melon be a fluid-mélange? A mix, blend,
combination ...of styles/ ideas
/subjects /objects?
from Eleanor:
“A watery mélange.
Oh.my.goodness. That's the poem and the amniotic fluid of creation. It's a fairy
sea—that magical body of water, which creates an entirely new and
unique living being!! And all inside a woman's body. The juice of the
watermelon, that fleshy liquid, a bright pink-red, rich and sweet and sticky.”
from Peter:
“I notice so
many rhymes in this one, so many more than I have been aware of in any of the
others I think. So why has she taken to rhyming all of a sudden?
And there
are so many littles in it, such a lot of little, which seems to be a lovely
contradiction somehow.
“Lots of
female roundness and sounds too, cow and moos and moon and melons and shudders
and udders
“And
maleness also, farther (father) and pope, no cut in pennies (uncircumcised
penises) shaving house (barbers), thicker and thicker is leaning (it does lean
when it gets too thick, that’s all I’m saying) male and female, weddings and
orgasms (cow).
“And bidding a wedding , is she referring to marry sounding like
Marie? Is she bidding hello to Marie”
from Eleanor:
“I'm finding
myself reciting nursery rhymes and remembering fairytales with this poem; yes,
it's odd and compelling and delightful.
Marry --
Marie (Like a crossword puzzle clue.)
How clever
of you, Pete.
Makes me
think of this little ditty:
Mary, Mary,
quite contrary,
How does
your garden grow?
With silver
bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty
maids all in a row.
You can make
lime from seashells, apparently—show white has lime in sight.
Gardens grow
with cockle shells, apparently—thicker and thicker is leaning.
SHOW White or SNOW White? She had seven dwarves—little men.
PRINTS or
PRINCE?
SPICES—really
little spices—a little goes a long way...
What are
little girls made of?
What are
little girls made of?
Sugar and
spice
And
everything nice,
That's what
little girls are made of.
from Sarah Maitland Parks:
A
little called anything shows shudders.
I
hope she has her cow.
“Does anyone
else see that 'shudders' minus the 'sh' is 'udders'?”
from Eleanor:
“Regarding
the cows' udders, yep, I too saw them in shudders,
and I also see the moo in moon.
FINDING
SHAKESPEAREAN RHYTHM
from Eleanor:
A little
called anything shows shudders.
Compare
this to the famous Shakespearean line from Romeo & Juliet:
A
rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
“We understand
Shakespeare’s sentence, and yet Stein’s sentence makes no sense – but wait…look
closer…little is an adjective, so is rose (it’s a colour!), called
anything = by any other name, now think logically about smell as
sweet…surely that’s much more odd than shows shudders, after
all…sweet is a taste, not a smell. What does shows shudders mean? You
exhibit orgasm by shuddering, and it's the same shuddering whether heterosexual
or homosexual. I can’t help but think that Stein’s strong eroticism makes
Shakespeare’s words sound like a badly written soap opera.”
WHAT CAME OUT
OF THE FAIRY SEA
The longer
Steiny sits pondering the subpoems of Tender Buttons, the more she senses. So
in reading aloud what various members of the Buttons Collective had offered,
Steiny heard this:
Fairy sea è Pharisee
phar·i·see (făr′ĭ-sē)
n.
1. Pharisee A member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized
strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and
written form.
2. A hypocritically self-righteous person.
This also led to Paul of Tarsus, who was a Roman citizen and a Pharisee who
converted to Christianity. However, in talking about Pauline Newman [see Stepping
on Tender Buttons: “A Little Called
Pauline.” Part 1 of 2] and how Newman had been
labeled the East Side Joan of Arc, Eleanor had made this comment:
"Pauline" can also be read in the Catholic sense regarding the teachings of St. Paul, interesting to note
here the references to marriage and divorce between man and woman.” Eleanor’s comment
referring to Pauline Privilege (as part of Pauline Christianity) completely escaped
Steiny until Peter Treanor reminded Steiny about what Eleanor had noted. In
fact, Steiny had called out to Eleanor and Peter as well as the Buttons
Collective to help sort out the fairy sea/Pharisee connection. Here are some
highlights from the discussion:
from Peter:
“…a Pharisee
called Pauline? Paul of
Tarsus, was a Pharisee before he was converted (zapped and left shuddering) on
the road to Damascus, now more commonly known as Paul the Apostle.
“Paul/Saul's
writings are referred to as Pauline
Christianity. (Eleanor referred to some of them previously.)
“Many of his
writings in the New Testament are epistles/ letters. Epistle sounding very much
like little. A little Pauline = An
epistle Pauline??
“Come and say what prints all day. Epistle means letter [correspondence] but letter
also refers to letters, as in letters of the alphabet. So what is written all
day is letters [characters] that make up all printed material (except those
with numbers in I suppose).
“No Pope, well I don’t know when popes
became part of the catholic church, but traditionally Peter is called the first
Pope/leader of the Church, So no pope
could refer to no pope at that time, or if it is about Paul to the fact that he
wasn’t seen as the movement’s leader, leadish, pope. [If it is absurd then
it is leadish and nearly set in where there is a tight head.]
“And wide soles (souls) and spats. Paul and Peter reputedly had a
spat in Antioch.
I can imagine lots of vying for power in an emerging movement of social and
cultural change (such as the early Christian Jews were, and perhaps not unlike
GS and the Modernists/ Surrealist were or saw themselves as also.)
“Competing
ideas, struggles for dominance, strong personalities.....there would be hopes
for a marriage of ideas (harmony), treading carefully, treading clumsily, leading
and diplomacy (mentioning nothing), as I’m sure GS would have viewed in her
socio cultural revolutionary circle too. Bidding a wedding, widening
received treading, little leading, mention nothing.
“Maybe she
was between two (or more ) dominant male characters vying to proclaim
themselves leader of the new movement and declare themselves pope of the
avant-garde, head of the new church of Modernism in Paris as opposed to Rome or
Jerusalem.
“Maybe she
would have liked to have her (sacred) cow and declare herself pope/ leaderish/
leadish instead.”
from Eleanor:
“From a
modern Jewish perspective (and I'm speaking only from my limited knowledge),
the Pharisees were the first ‘Rabbis’...so to speak. How so? Unlike the Sadducees,
they believed that God gave the Israelites BOTH a Written & Oral Torah, and
this Oral Law was passed down WITHOUT BEING WRITTEN DOWN from Moses to Joshua
to the Elders to the Men of the Great Assembly and then to the leaders of the
Pharisees. The Rabbis of today are heirs to that knowledge. Rabbi Akiva
(40-137CE) was the first to compile this Oral Tradition into a core WRITTEN
document (which is basically an interpretation
of the Torah which was delivered written). This new written text is now known
as the Mishna. As later Rabbis wrote commentaries on the Mishna, this became
known as the Talmud.
“So, if
Stein is discussion the evolution of literature then it makes perfect sense
that she might bring the Pharisees into the conversation:
"Come
and SAY what PRINTS all day."
SAY= Oral
literature
PRINTS = Written
literature
“Every text
has a lineage. In the case of Judaism (and probably most religions) these texts
were and are written, interpreted and controlled by powerful men.”
While
Eleanor was concerned about whether Stein was “looking at history from a
Christian or Jewish perspective,” Steiny was thinking that Stein might be
tapping into to the Pharisees as another branch of patriarchal restriction no
matter the religious perspective. Certainly Eleanor’s concluding comment about
religious text being controlled by powerful men supports this line of thinking.
Steiny had
also read something about Paul of Tarsus being a misogynist. However, Peter
said the misogyny didn’t pan out because women had an active role in the Church
during Paul’s time. Peter did however say that Paul did not support
circumcision, which is a major act of faith in the Jewish religion.
One other
thing Steiny explored was Apollinaire’s mention in his poem “Zone” of Simon
Magus, who was a religious sorcerer who could levitate himself. The
Biblical Peter and Paul were involved with putting an end to the flying wizard.
Steiny believes that Stein’s line— Cough out cough out in the leather and
really feather it is not for—in
some way glances off the Peter-Paul-Simon link. Perhaps the mention of leather
could be the Bible with a leather cover. Of course this is a stretch but
reading and being with Tender Buttons
requires a broad imagination.
The Steiny Road Poet and the Buttons Collection are not saying the
associations made are what Gertrude Stein meant but only what we are
experiencing by her combination of words that might turn fairy sea into Pharisee.
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