"A diesel truck bruises my heart in passing"

I am not sure who wrote the poem that contains it.
I know that it is a woman and I believe she is either American or Canadian and it is obviously from the 20th century.
She is describing a snowfall from her apartment window in the city.


Please put my mind at ease



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

hmmmmmmmmmmm...
sure about the quote ?


My house
Tulip Rippingale

The house by the millpond –
Thick stone walls, wooden floors.
A diesel truck, the engine stops;
The smell of resin fills the house.
Logs spitting life into the room.

The wheel keeps turning
And the pond keeps on flowing.
But the truck stands still
And the heart beat stops.
The house is still there
But my life is not.

Very sure about the quote.
I was an epiphany for me.
It was that one little spark that made me see a whole new way of expressing myself

Jean-Paul Bonhomme



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

Bump

It'sbeen more than a year since I posted this and I'm still looking.
I went through most of our library's books on poetry page by page and I am stymied.

Should I use it in a poem?
Maybe I'll find out the authour and title if I plagiarize it.



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

anyone?

C'mon! I've seen better phrase recognition from a Klingon caught in the throes of a drug induced love frenzy



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

giving the word truck, I think it is fairly safe to assume it is modern material, thus copyrighted and thus hard or even impossible to find on the web. You will have to wait for someone who actually stumbled accross it.

and after a year, it would be nice to change your quote. Or separate it from your post with a line of some sorts.

Its taken me three years but Ilza eventually found which book the poem I wanted was in. And I've bought it.

You might peruse the work of Ann Silsbee. Sounds like her style.


Les

You might ditch the attitude and the cockamamie signature line as well.

Hugh

Holey Moley!
I'm sorry if I offended you.
I didn't mean to be debasing.
It was intended as an intellectual challenge of sorts.
As far as my signature line is concerned, I thought it was witty and I like it.
Your comment pertaining to it is rude, and I didn't realize that I needed to be concerned about those types of subjective judgements on this site; however, if it bothers you, I will change it.
Would something more pretentious be better?



Post Edited (03-16-05 15:00)

Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

with respect to the signatures, no matter how funny and witty, after reading it 20 times it tends to get to people's nerves. Well, mine anyway. So, if you do want a signature, please separate it from your posts with a line of some sorts to indicate where I can stop reading! Thanks.

Desi
I'm sorry, I never realized it. I just took exception to the undiplomatic way that someone told me.
Les
Thanks for the lead
I checked her publication "ORIOLING", but couldn't find it.
I'll keep checking



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

ah, well, undiplomacy is Hugh's forte, for which I am often very thankful. He dares say what I but dare to think. And he is one of the few people that make me laugh out loud on a regular basis.

Hey, it's not every day one gets a chance to use cockamamie, ya know. Surely not an opportunity to be wasted! I will have to try and work it into one of Marian's Golux-rhyme thingies. The first line will end with, 'her mamie was cocka'. Then rhyme it with 'billy was rocka' and 'bility's shocka'? No, wait. Better is 'her doodle was cocka', but that loses the original thought. Drat.

QED!

Hugh
Sorry, I had a bad day
quack, quack

Cockamamie:

- harebrained
- absurd
- silly
- ridiculous
- half-baked
- loopy
- unwise
- impractical

Wait a minute, these do apply to me



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

You guys in here are a much needed break from my E.U. Cook search.

HUGH, I laughed like crazy at your statement about "It's not every day one gets the chance to use cockamamie". No kidding, eh? Desi, I can see why you laugh alot!

I'm just grateful I never used a signature! *wink*

Good luck with your search for that line, Jean-Paul. I feel your pain in not finding what you're looking for. At least the line made an impact on you.

=o)
Pattey

I think Jean-Paul wrote the diesel line himself, but I could be wrong


Les

Les

Sorry to disappoint you, I did not write that.
I read it scanning through some poetry books at that library a long time ago.
I borrowed the book, brought it back and haven't seen it since.
It was an anthology.
It was a hardcover and I think it was green.



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

Jean-Paul did you go to the library where you found your book and check ALL their listings in the card catalog, or computer list? If not, that is where you might start. Recall any other authors in the book, a title of another poem there, etc.? When searching for obscure material always go to the source where you first found it.

Les



Post Edited (03-18-05 14:08)

LG
Yup!
I also had one of the librarian's check with her E-Mail contacts at the University of Toronto.
I can't remember who else was in the book
Thanks for the suggestion though
I probably leafed past it when I went through all the poetry books I could find. I'll check again



Someone once told me "J.P., keep your chin up.
I replied "Which one?"

Sorry to drag you over from the brain exercise across in General Discussion, Jean-Paul, But just a couple of questions and observations. What is it about the above line that had such an effect on you? I can understand that a bruised, or wounded, or broken, battered or lonely heart can conjure a strong emotion, but, 'why a truck?' Secondly, I think you ought to use it in a poem, I doubt whether anyone is going to claim authorship. May I suggest the discipline of a haiku derivative or a several-versed senryu. This should keep you busy for a while. Well, good luck!