By The Landlord
Pockets …
Are generally over or around
Erogenous zones, they seem to dive
In the direction of those
Dark places, and indeed
It is their nature to be dark
Themselves, keeping a kind
Of thieves' kitchen for the things
Sequestered from the world
For long or little while,
The keys, the handkerchiefs,
The sad and vagrant little coins
That are really only passing through.
For all they locate close to lust,
No pocket ever sees another;
There is in fact a certain sadness
To pockets, going in their lonesome ways
And snuffling up their sifting storms
Of dust, tobacco bits and lint.
A pocket with a hole in it
Drops out; from shame, is that, or pride?
What is a pocket but a hole? - Howard Nemerov, Pockets, 1975
They’re small, sometimes vulnerable portals to possessions, sometimes of secrecy, mystery, occasional memory lapse, often banality, yet also have a brush of intimacy. They're hand warmers and safe keepers, folds and holes with flaps, zips, buttons or just rips, openings into a miniature universe often of chaos and entanglement.
Sometimes stuffed, plundered, and habitually used, they're also quite precious places. Pockets can pertain to the everyday and general, but also the precise, individual and precious. So what's in yours now? Keys, wallet, phone, coins or receipts? Or darkness, heat, skin, old hankies, and crumbly-bitsy stickiness?
We all use them, but for in song reference, they may also be the specific tools and targets of spies, street thieves and snooker players.
It's time then this week to delve into these bijoux or baggy extensions of our bodies, clothing, perhaps even bags and briefcases, in a literal, idiomatic or metaphorical context, and anything contained therein, items defined by their pocket size and location, all expressed in song lyrics and/or titles.
Pocket often pertains to small or perfect fitting in a space. Perhaps then watches, editions in book form or maps compasses, knives or handkerchiefs will get pulled out in examples. Perhaps also plectrums or pens, lockers, or in a transportation of scale, or speedy metaphor, rockets? Or perhaps even a baby kangaroo? You decide what's inside. They just have to live in a pocket.
And in idioms, perhaps we can line them, burn holes in them, pick them, have deep ones, or be a pocket of change or resistance or more.
Pockets have a history that in part seems to define society. Discovered in 1991, the mummified of Ötzi (also known as "Iceman"), who lived around 3300 BCE in the German Ötztal Alps was found to possess a belt with a pouch sewn to it that contained all the tools that any respectable fellow of his day might need – a scraper, basic drill, flint flake, bone awl, and a some dried tinder fungus for fire starting. Whether now or thousands of years ago, pockets reveal much about our lives. They also say much about our behaviour and body language. Hands in pockets may be for warmth, but is also an expression of not being present.
Tie-on pockets were more the thing in the Middle Ages
Pockets didn't really come into fashion in clothing, at least in Europe until the 13th century, starting with vertical slits in tunics, allowing access to whatever may have been hung from a girdle. And pockets really started more as pouches, or purses. The word appears in Middle English as we know it today - pocket, and is derived a Norman diminutive of Old French poke, pouque, modern poche, or pouch. And it was traditionally more for women to carry these pouches – for items such as scissors, keys or pins. In the old nursery rhyme Lucy Locket, it's really a pouch:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Not a penny was there in it,
Only ribbon round it.
A pocket book of 1744
Today of course there are pockets of all kinds - inside and outside, tight and baggy, at hip level, ornately designed, front and back, big and small, the convenient and the secret, in all manner of coats, jeans and other clothing. But while men's clothing have traditionally worn metaphorical trousers (and jackets) when it comes to pockets, it's odd that centuries later it still remains a shortcoming in women's clothing, with handbags still a traditional form of carriage for vital items. I've often heard complaints about it - there's nowhere to put anything.
Paul McCartney's famously successful fashion daughter Stella is has popped into the bar to declare her design war on this lack of the pockets in women's clothes. "I love a pocket. I'm about helping women look as good as possible on the least amount of effort. I want versatility and comfort. Clothes that can go from the office to anywhere."
Is there a reason for the lack of pockets in the history of women's clothing? Is it a power and control issue? It is about not wanting to ruin the shape of the design?
Pockets are often missing in women’s clothing
Alice Duer Miller (1874 – 1942) was an American poet and writer, part of the early American suffrage movement. Her blank verse had a particular style, often satirical. This one, titled, Why We Oppose Pockets for Women, picks out a few ironic holes:
1. Because pockets are not a natural right.
2. Because the great majority of women do not want pockets. If they did they would have them.
3. Because whenever women have had pockets they have not used them.
4. Because women are required to carry enough things as it is, without the additional burden of pockets.
5. Because it would make dissension between husband and wife as to whose pockets were to be filled.
6. Because it would destroy man’s chivalry toward woman, if he did not have to carry all her things in his pockets.
7. Because men are men, and women are women. We must not fly in the face of nature.
8. Because pockets have been used by men to carry tobacco, pipes, whiskey flasks, chewing gum and compromising letters. We see no reason to suppose that women would use them more wisely.
But let's quickly move on to a more metaphorical term, one that's specifically musical. To play or stay in the pocket is a term related to getting into and maintaining a strong groove in the rhythm section of a band, specifically between drummer and bassist. Here's drummer Taylor Gordon, aka The Pocket Queen who just about staying in a pattern but about varying emphasis with skills and a state of mind. Check out her demonstration:
So then, perhaps we can get into the rhythm of pockets of all kinds, literal or metaphorical with this topic, and all that might be within them. Filling up the Bar's and sorting out the contents, let's welcome back to the other side of the bart flap - the excellent ajostu! Please nominate your pocketful of pocket-related songs in comments below, for deadline at 11pm on Monday UK time, and playlists published next week. Dig deep, before time is up…
Time gentlemen please …
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