The Horseman's Word.

Question

I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply the name of a secret organisation: it never occurred to me that that there might really exist a word that had a magical effect on horses.
But Don Paterson says this:
Actually the Horseman's Word - which gives the apprentice ploughman power over horses and women when it's whispered in their ears - is also the secret formula for all poems. It was unwisely published in F. Marshall MacNeill's "The Silver Bough", so now it's in the public domain you might as well hear it. In Scots it's "twa-in-yin"; two in one.
I can't find this word on Google. Does anyone know any more about it?

(My own feeling is that it's a bogus literalisation of a mystical nothingness; if so, I've never been so disappointed by a revelation ain my life. I've just whispered it in my lady's ear, and she looked at me as if I was mad. So I doubt the word works, as that's the way she always looks at me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)
Peasemarch.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply the name of a secret organisation: it never occurred to ... word works, as that's the way she always looks at me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)[/nq]
This time next year, let's be laughing together.

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply thename of a secret organisation: it never occurred to me ... word works, as that's the way she always looks at me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)[/nq]
As I understand it, the Word has to be used in conjunction with an oil or compound whose recipe is also secret: I do know that oil of rosemary was involved in East Anglia, but that's as far as I've got. So you'd better get down to the Body Shop, if you can stand the stench, and try some ingredients. I'm not sure, either, that the Word was the same in all brotherhoods of horsemen. (Bit like one's Transcendental Meditation word, isn't it? You dare not ask anybody if they've got the same one.)
Mike.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply the name of a secret organisation: it never occurred to ... word works, as that's the way she always looks at me. On the otherhand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.) Peasemarch.[/nq]
Please, it'a akin to blowing in the horses ear and it works wonders on people too and not just female types.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply ... me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)[/nq]
[nq:1]This time next year, let's be laughing together.[/nq]
"Rainen no kono hi mo issho ni waratteiy-oh".
Comments from British women include:
"Even if he looked like George Clooney I'd run a mile..." - Rachel, English teacher from Bath
"The Japanese should stick to inventing gadgets if that's the best they can come up with" - Sarah, musician from Bury St Edmunds "The Japanese population will die out if all the men resort to this line" - Laura, PR executive from Bristol
"It's quite creepy and you'd have to be really desperate to go for it" - Alison, writer from North London
"Why not now, cos I ain't laughing" - Zoe, TV executive from North London.

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply the name of a secret organisation: it never occurred to ... word works, as that's the way she always looks at me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)[/nq]
Surely it's just the whispering that does it? If you say "twa-in-yin" it sounds like a whisper (I've been practising all day since I read the Paterson article over breakfast). I can't speak for horses but I'm quite partial to having my ear whispered in. By the right sort of chap, of course.

I thought the article was interesting. I liked his swipe at Pinter but I don't entirely agree with his view on poetry as therapy - if you need it, read a poem rather than write one. Sometimes the right poem just isn't to be found and you have to write one for yourself: of course, you don't have to show it to anyone.

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I had always assumed that "The Horseman's Word", was simply ... me. On the other hand, I'm not an apprentice ploughman.)[/nq]
[nq:1]Surely it's just the whispering that does it? If you say"twa-in-yin" it sounds like a whisper (I've been practising all ... to be found and you have to write one for yourself: ofcourse, you don't have to show it to anyone.[/nq]Yeah, but that's not poetry (or is it?). It can be made into poetry every now and then, but it isn't poetry yet. You can hum while doing the dishes, but it isn't a string quartet, or even a vocalise. I know very well you're not as follows; but I once, on some insane whim, went to a meeting of a writers' circle. The woman next to me asked what I did, and I skipped the boring stuff and said "I'm trying to learn to write poetry." She then appallingly said, and I haven't made this up, "You don't have to learn to write poetry, you just spit it out." Remind me not to sit under a shelf she thinks she's screwed to the wall, I thought.

I didn't show for the next meeting. (I did find a more professional circle, but that's another story.)

Mike.

Usenet · Answer

The Horseman's Word is as good as his Steed!

John W Hall (Email Removed)
Cochrane, Alberta, Canada.
"Helping People Prosper in the Information Age"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The Horseman's Word is as good as his Steed![/nq]
OOPS!
The Horseman's Steed is as good as his Word!

John W Hall (Email Removed)
Cochrane, Alberta, Canada.
"Helping People Prosper in the Information Age"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]name ploughman in public in it? revelation looked way[/nq]
There is some truth to what she said "spitting it out" is a great first step, getting it all down on paper without your internal editor blocking anything. But then comes the revising...
dg (domain=ccwebster)

Usenet · Answer

Why not? I would argue that the idea is the poem, however long it may take to express it in the constraint of language.
[nq:1]You can hum while doing the dishes, but it isn't a string quartet, or even a vocalise.[/nq]
I know nothing about creating music but it seems possible that some music might spring into the mind almost fully formed.

I know
[nq:1]very well you're not as follows; but I once, on some insane whim, went to a meeting of a writers' ... I thought. I didn't show for the next meeting. (I did find a more professional circle, but that's another story.)[/nq]
I find the idea of spitting poetry out pretty repellent. In my experience, you sort of dig it out of yourself. When I saw Michelangelo's David, I was very disappointed but, in the Accademia, before you get to David, there is a series of unfinished pieces - called, I think, Slaves - where the people seem to be struggling out of the marble. Their unfinishedness is very powerful and I think good poetry often gives that sense of being part of an interrupted and continuing creative process.
But I'm not sure whether or how one learns to write poetry. I think learning to read it is probably the first step and that is not easy.

"..the process of the poem is that of a single unifying new idea being driven through the productive resistance of the form proposed by the marriage of two previously estranged or unrelated things." He also argues that poetry takes us back to an early way of knowing that is overlaid by the acquisition of language. And he expresses himself poetically: "We see the nerve in the bare tree; we hear the applause in the rain."

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

The Horseman's Word.

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