Commentaries on Bob Cobbing - The Argotist Online

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Funeral Oration for Cobbing (11th October 2002) [One of a number of orations and/or performances made on the day by friends and colleagues] Bob Cobbing was among the most outstanding of human beings; his influence is great. Many who were out of sympathy with his poetry because it was not like theirs will be forgotten; he will not. Bob Cobbing changed and expanded poetry; and he encouraged others to do likewise. He gave people confidence. He changed the way we read and the way we perform. Few have done more. Two days before he died, aware of his situation, he declared himself happy. He did not welcome his death; but he did accept it. His loss is total and irreparable, but it is beyond us. What we are doing here is for us; and I am still looking to accept that he has died. He was, as always, before me. I’ve written quite a lot about Bob in my time, and even more with him; but just now I feel so overwhelmed by loss that little seems to move in me. It is a kind of winter. I am at my coldest, and frost gives way to further deeper frost even if it seems to be getting lighter. I need more time to write an appropriate poem to Bob. That last time I saw him, he asked how long Eric Mottram had been in hospital during his final illness. When I told him, he said, ‘I’ve beaten him’ with some satisfaction, though I am sure it was also a kind of joke. They figured large in each other’s artistic lives and held each other in high regard. They quite loved each other, though they wouldn’t have expressed it like that. I am going to read the last few lines of my own poem addressed posthumously to Eric Mottram. The landscape is Cornish Spring rather than English autumn, but the need and my obvious answer are the same. The ship has almost gone... It’s sinking fast beneath the blue on bluer horizon... Loe Bar’s quite empty, Porthleven tiny what there is of it showing round Penrose; and the grass is thick, rushing green about me; and the sea’s rolling smoothly ultramarine; It’s time for this to end. Three largish dogs have tumbled up and formed a hopeful line. They face me now, certain I shall assert that it exists and is the world’s centre,
its axle and its outer curve! Good dog is all it takes. A simple spell, except there is no magic, only mutual trust, so one must say it strongly with good heart. Good bye.
Page 2 and 3: Commentaries on Bo
Page 4 and 5: Contents Acknowledgements 6 Introdu
Page 6 and 7: Acknowledgements An earlier and sho
Page 8 and 9: That first essay, from over 30 year
Page 10 and 11: Review of Pattern of Performance (A
Page 12 and 13: Bob Cobbing at The Voice Box Cobbin
Page 14 and 15: Bob Cobbing at The Klinker (29th Ap
Page 16 and 17: Co-editing Word Score Utterance Cho
Page 18 and 19: It took Cobbing 10 years—or 20 ye
Page 20 and 21: • Do you use machines/technology
Page 22 and 23: I would like to see the visual inte
Page 24 and 25: Introduction of Bob Cobbing at the
Page 26 and 27: tonight at Bob’s instigation, a f
Page 28 and 29: I shall quote now from a slightly-c
Page 30 and 31: espect. The contents are linear poe
Page 32 and 33: the level of the book rather than a
Page 34 and 35: medium may leave us more flexibilit
Page 36 and 37: Introduction to Bob Cobbing at Sub
Page 38 and 39: Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Cobbing.
Page 40 and 41: silent. Then he turned intense atte
Page 42 and 43: Bob Cobbing: A Worker in Progress I
Page 44 and 45: It was during that time that I met
Page 48 and 49: Celebrating the Memory of Bob Cobbi
Page 50 and 51: Bob Cobbing: A Talk Given at Boat T
Page 52 and 53: As well as the simplicity of approa
Page 54 and 55: The Destruction in Art volume recen
Page 56 and 57: themselves and not a completion in
Page 58 and 59: Reissue of Kroklok Kroklok was an e
Page 60 and 61: Republication of Bob Cobbing’s Li
Page 62 and 63: and the foreground of the image; an
Page 64 and 65: has been more difference in aesthet
Page 66 and 67: It might be that he changed his min
Page 68 and 69: So far, within a page, Cobbing has
Page 70 and 71: Review of With Our Tongue Our Drils
Page 72 and 73: criteria before being sure of them;
Page 74 and 75: Collaborations for Peter Finch Lawr
Page 76 and 77: The working order of pages changed
Page 78 and 79: Introduction to Bob Cobbing and Wri
Page 80 and 81: The supposed improvement in product
Page 82 and 83: inevitable. I am not sure it was so
Page 84 and 85: ut eye elements! A notional alien n
Page 86 and 87: However, there is functional writin
Page 88 and 89: There are those poets who inherit t
Page 90 and 91: I have included less on the 1980s
Page 92 and 93: word or any inflection of it; nor d
Page 94 and 95: making poetry than he had been. And
Page 96 and 97:
he did formally, in a context of th
Page 98 and 99:
And now as poetry more and more bec
Page 100 and 101:
Another Story of Bob Cobbing Welcom
Page 102 and 103:
Yet, as I have said before, Bob Cob
Page 104 and 105:
Both afford ample evidence of Cobbi
Page 106 and 107:
Bob Cobbing: A Talk Given at Boat T
Page 108 and 109:
3. Published by Writers Forum in 20
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