The adorable granddaughter Summer, being a three-year-old of taste and discernment, is a big fan of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's classic creation Bagpuss. Yesterday we were watching the very first episode, the tale of a ship in a bottle - or rather a shipwreck in a bottle, which is repaired and restored to ship shape by means of a little Bagpuss magic and music.
It put me in mind of a Kay Ryan poem, which I pass on with a tip of the hat to the incomparable Dave Lull...
Ship in a Bottle
It seems
impossible—
not just a
ship in a
bottle but
wind and sea.
The ship starts
to struggle—an
emergency of the
too realized we
realize. We can
get it out but
not without
spilling its world.
A hammer tap
and they’re free.
Which death
will it be,
little sailors?
No one shakes things up quite like Kay Ryan, and in so few, so precisely placed words.
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I have to say that of all the Postage/Smallfilms Bagpuss is my least favourite. It's Noggin The Nog for me everytime.
ReplyDeleteThe Nog is indeed very fine - as are the Clangers and Ivor the Engine - but for me Bagpuss reigns supreme. Maybe we've hit on a new division of the human race - Bagpuss people and Noggin folk...
ReplyDeleteClangers for me, but they are all wonderful!!
ReplyDelete