Twelve Rivers errata
Dear All,
I have received several complaints regarding errors in the copy of our recent edition of 12 rivers. I can only apologise to all concerned and issue the following corrections.
In our May edition I erroneously attributed “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”, to Blake whereas it is of course from John Keats’ ‘Endymion’. A moment of name blindness I am afraid. A reminder that one should not call the name of one poet whilst dreaming of another.
Richard Stewart writes to correctly point out that the Haiku verse “ Poet searching spring”, in the article “Dark Sky Dancing”, was not by him. It was in fact by myself. My apologies if the article gave the impression it was by Richard. it was meant to be an example of me, “ Trying it for oneself”. Further, it was not Richard who gave us the talk at Browsers. The receipt of Richards’ beautifully illustrated book followed a talk on Haiku by another renowned Haiku poet and I confused the two. No misrepresentation was intended. Dark Sky Dancing is published by Reuben Books, ISBN 978-0-9562828-2-8.
Our President Pauline Stainer whose poem, “Onsen”, I was pleased to add to our “Place for Poetry”, page has pointed out my errors in the transcript of the text she sent me. This is in my view a beautiful poem and, as every poets’ work, should be read in the form it was intended. Here then is the text as received:
Japanese girls
dense as flowers,
the easy mystery of
their thighs glimpsed
through resinous steam.
Above painted finches
on the bamboo screen,
sky, ribboned
with vapour trails,
a huge wind-turbine,
the hum of elsewhere.
I lean back
in the commingled
light and water
and wonder which
the more mysterious -
soft-focus between horizons
Or that act of metaphor,
the going-under.
Maggie Andrews has written to point out that the three verses in our November issue were individual Haikus rather than one poem. My apologies. The first two verses seemed to go together so beautifully I thought they may have been intended to have the possibility of being read together as one though clearly they stand alone. My apologies Maggie.
Thank you all of you who take the trouble to contribute to the magazine. It very much does depend on you. I very much regret the errors noted above and any others of which I am not aware. I can only say that no offence is intended to anybody and that I would wish the magazine to be as perfect as possible in every aspect. It is unfortunately more work and more responsibility than I can cope with with pressures of work and life outside the society so I am looking for anyone prepared to take up the reins with future editions of the magazine. I will give what aid I can having hopefully set up a template for future editions. There are many areas I would like to take our magazine but I see no prospect in the near future of having the time to be able to do it and to the standard that is required. I would be pleased to hear from anyone willing to take on the challenge.
Best Wishes
Ian Griffiths
