Firstly, Secondly.
Firstly, in a house full of
paper, I can’t find a scrap
to write on. The
chaos of
carpet-laying has put everything
where it doesn’t belong.
Secondly, reading Billy
Collins writing about
reading Thomas Traherne
I wonder if Billy
will be remembered
300 years from now.
Will he be rediscovered, as
Bach was rediscovered – supposedly –
by Felix Mendelssohn.
Felix was a bit of a
fraud, (though without malice)
since Bach had never been
undiscovered, even when
Felix found some of his
manuscripts being used to wrap
meat in a butcher’s shop,
(so the story goes),
even though Bach’s
Mass in B Minor was
unknown to the English
musical cognoscenti.
So Billy’s Apple that
Discovered Paris,
or his
Trouble with Poetry
might
well go out of fashion, but
who’s to say what will survive.
With so much alive and well
on the Net, it’s a probable
bet that Billy and Bach and
Thomas Traherne will
continue their timeless travels -
unless the Net unravels.
