Watching YouTube Videos

[FranktheFrank]

I’ve been watching YouTube videos of shaper
machines, and fallen in love with them all over again.

It’s hard to write a poem about a shaper
When one knows most don’t know what it is
It is of course a big cast iron object weighing
up to a ton on occasions, but there are little ones too.
It can be described by how it looks or by its mechanical
properties, its constituent components and what
they do. Or it can be described by what it does
and maybe that the best way to proceed.

Someone wrote in the comments
‘This is mesmerising,’ I guess he’s not a poet
but he summarised it up in three words
of what and how I feel about this machine-tool
First of all it’s a stand-alone machine
no others look like this one, and with a good
paint job it looks regal, yes that the right word
regal. It’s a linear cutting machine, that is, it cuts
metal in a straight line, so one can never confuse
it with a lathe, which generate a cylinder, although
a lathe can cut flat surfaces.

And now I guess I’ve confused most readers
B.A. (Hons.) graduates, the people who have never
gotten rancid oil on their hands or brushed up against
a greasy machine tool. Maybe I’ll describe the cutting action
of the thing, how it moves forward in a swoop of action
and returns in double quick action because of Whitworth’s
quick return mechanism. Whitworth was a clever guy, he
developed thread forms also, now these are not forums
I am speaking about, but the configuration of the shape
of a helical form called a thread in engineering, see
have transgressed and friends will say in critique,
'Cut sharply.'

Okay, now I have to cut to the chase, which is what
The machine does, it cuts to the chase in a reciprocating
action which is as the guy said: mesmerising.
The irresistibility of the movement of the cutting
tool in the slideways, anything that impedes will be cut,
the whoosh of the tool peeling off the metal, the curl
of the swarf as it peels off the cut, the transition of work
done into heat, the change of colour of the chip
the sound of the feed lever ratcheting the next cut
the softer whoosh as the tool returns post haste
ready to start again, the subdued soothing sounds
of the inner working and one wants to open the door
to view the tens of working parts submerged in a rain
of oil splashing down and upon and drowning
sound, smoothing the path of so many components
working in unison. Then, and there’s no surprised
every stroke the same, reciprocating see, whoosh
and the metal peels, and I am getting paid to do
something I love, and with no effort I just sit
and watch and it is so bloody rewarding
and relaxing too to be a skilled shaper craftsman.

end.

Ieuan ap Hywel

[BobBradshaw]

Ieuan, this sounds like the early poetry of yours that I used to read here, full of machinery but in need of focus and trimming. Machinery and how it works is fascinating, but fascinating is never enough. Conciseness, precision, attributes of machine and poetry, are what are needed. For one thing, there are too many descriptions of sounds. I can't keep track of them. Lovely, precise details are what thrilled me about your recent holiday poem, which will be printed soon in the Wise Owl. I did like these lines a lot:

the subdued soothing sounds
of the inner working and one wants to open the door
to view the tens of working parts submerged in a rain
of oil splashing down

[FranktheFrank]

I guess I'll never be a regular poet Bob.
I'll try to apply what you teach me all the time.
Thanks old buddy.

[BobBradshaw]

What are you talking about? You’ve been writing splendidly for the last few years….this one is odd but it’s only one.

[FranktheFrank]

I will trim it, Bog. It is wordy.