tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71187454531159208032024-03-18T02:58:54.216+00:00101 SongsMusings on music and lots of listsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger713125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-20864072698276322302024-02-26T13:21:00.002+00:002024-02-26T13:21:38.248+00:00Oscars<p>I have watched every film nominated for Best Picture. Thank you, thank you, I accept the plaudits.</p><p>People are saying it's a great year, which it may be. I don't think any of the ten nominated films are bad or undeserving. Equally, the way it's going, I feel like I might disagree with pretty much every major award at the Oscars (apart from Davine-Joy Randolph, who will win and should win). Though I may not.</p><p>Here is a ranking. It is not exactly least favourite to favourite, but some charting of least enjoyed vs a combination of my own highest expectations and the extent to which it has been justly or unjustly venerated or pilloried ... it will include the 10 Best Picture nominated films and the five others I've seen which were around and about being nominated for things ...</p><p><b>Past Lives</b>. Theoretically right up my street, but I felt no strong emotions when watching it. Not a patch on some of the films it was favourably compared to, for me.</p><p><b>Napoleon</b>. Kind of fun, but probably a fair bit sillier than everything else here.</p><p><b>Rustin</b>. Enjoyed this very much, and the central performance is great, but it is a little formulaic.</p><p><b>Oppenheimer</b>. I thought Oppenheimer was great, but it's going to win everything, right? So I place it here. I think it has more obvious flaws than most of the other films. Lots of Brits and Americans doing weird European accents. The first half-hour's dialogue bring a real whistlestop tour of mild clunkiness. The last hour being about something that it is really determined you find as interesting as the second hour, even if it's not. But it has more than enough that is great to overcome that. Though if Downey wins and it wins Best Picture, and Cillian doesn't, that'll be a madness. He makes the film great. </p><p><b>Barbie</b>. Fun, clever, but felt a bit discombobulated by it, really.</p><p><b>Nyad</b>. The best acting performance I saw was Annette Bening in this. She should win Best Actress. The film is good. The story is a bit dodgy, apparently, which is probably why the film is not up for more.</p><p>The rest of them were all excellent, really ...</p><p><b>All of Us Strangers</b>. As with Past Lives, I was less moved while watching than i thought i'd be, but then certain elements of it really started to hit home later. </p><p><b>Poor Things. </b>Just a load of fun people fucking about and having the time of their lives on a superbly designed film. A hoot. Here, the phony accents are the making of the film, unlike with Oppenheimer.</p><p><b>May December</b>. Some major skills and dark humour in this.</p><p><b>Anatomy of a Fall</b></p><p><b>The Holdovers</b>. If anything, I thought I would love this a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more. Maybe I was expecting a fairytale or gut-wrenching ending. The ending is right for the film, but it's quite low key.</p><p><b>American Fiction</b>. Loved this. Strikes me that Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giamatti are pretty similar in status. Just absolutely guarantees of quality, mainly support acts, but can be great leads whenever the part is right. If either of them takes Best Actor from Murphy, think i'd slightly prefer it was Wright.</p><p><b>Killers of the Flower Moon</b>. De Niro should win Best Supporting Actor. Like, obviously. Why is the fact someone who was once considered the Greatest Film Actor of All Time has given his best, most thrilling, commanding, memorable performance for 30 years not more of a thing compared to the fact that, wow, Robert Downey Jr has done making billions of dollars in technicolor and also can act ok in black and white ... who knew ... anyway, i think this film has a lot that is great about it, and little that isn't ... and they do treat Scorsese like shit at the Oscars, they really do.</p><p><b>The Zone of Interest</b></p><p><b>Maestro</b>. I'm making Maestro my Number 1, because I was genuinely moved by it, it'll win nothing, and loads of people seem to hate it and be going all in on Bradley Cooper being a charlatan and a dick, whereas in fact he's directed excellently and acted excellently.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-68338036942398718552024-02-20T09:05:00.000+00:002024-02-20T09:05:12.212+00:00Poem (22): Swans<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfuuaXQwM98O_YTFTNgLtHFOe4PMgx8ktDzwyrrMLz6rnoZ-BZ3AAhk-3Ob_Vsac7tOX1GtOvRwgPTgx08kuPT_LSg_IODISJINs88b2vfs9K6GzenjiqJeyWUd3aZXFI4Nq26i0lGDygVu7VzH3c0lFHjheaf_sZ6HKDdLM-llrj9Orig_oNcXtp7iEHU/s4032/2023-08-18%2013.26.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfuuaXQwM98O_YTFTNgLtHFOe4PMgx8ktDzwyrrMLz6rnoZ-BZ3AAhk-3Ob_Vsac7tOX1GtOvRwgPTgx08kuPT_LSg_IODISJINs88b2vfs9K6GzenjiqJeyWUd3aZXFI4Nq26i0lGDygVu7VzH3c0lFHjheaf_sZ6HKDdLM-llrj9Orig_oNcXtp7iEHU/s320/2023-08-18%2013.26.15.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><b><p><b><br /></b></p>Swans</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s such a filthy river where<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the shopping trolleys dive then die in vain,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a seasonless reminder that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the bed’s been shat, the ooze attacks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the nose, the lack attacks the eyeballs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">where I used to push you to the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">outlet centre and you’d hoot - in the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dark pissy pass between the bins that overflow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with small town deeds undone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">beneath the railway - you still do, to wit, to woo,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and I’m still required<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with stern and stifled laugh<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to steer you off the lightning cycle path -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you name the pylon by the depot<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the Eiffel tower … why not, this slimy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seine is all we’ve got.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Between the needles and the beer cans,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you saw, last Saturday, a single family of swans,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">two parents and three chicks, hard to spot<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">below the zealot banks of nettles<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and complacent weeds, you made me stop<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and we discussed their history, whether perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">they were the poorer cousins of some<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Canterbury congregation or perhaps republicans in exile,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">distrusted of Tunbridge Wells.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not swan country round here, I said,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">it’s duckling country,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">it’s an ugly duckling country.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-44978697410615820162024-02-19T09:24:00.001+00:002024-02-19T09:24:26.579+00:00Poem (21): I had a dream that I was not free<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0VIVoVmrrDgaB9F_emeQHxKXkVQX8jUXePdF19XOFtYBiCK4B49gljz0AMc-U-Y884IXpAitCQXUUtYpTHRNPCLXE0PoKKEIa9MBSjFa0CyOdwi_YpKxNahX5fQATAZX39nguWOYJp4-6Q5_D-z7YKHp4SMsjSiUM8TnDB1rEZQEVDaaS70An2gc1b_T/s720/Helicopter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="720" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0VIVoVmrrDgaB9F_emeQHxKXkVQX8jUXePdF19XOFtYBiCK4B49gljz0AMc-U-Y884IXpAitCQXUUtYpTHRNPCLXE0PoKKEIa9MBSjFa0CyOdwi_YpKxNahX5fQATAZX39nguWOYJp4-6Q5_D-z7YKHp4SMsjSiUM8TnDB1rEZQEVDaaS70An2gc1b_T/s320/Helicopter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <b>I had a dream that I was not free</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The helicopter I can see through wintered windows<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">buzzes like a bat above allotments<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">spending their changeless days spying on<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the notoriously-near suburban twin tube stations,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which I’d join with icy tape in the dark blue shock of
morning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every night, modern with disaster, the pride of the skies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">clucks sudden and inevitable on its singular target<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">– which is me, curious and naïve - at a precise forty-five
degree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Move, boy, move, to the back room where you’ll be safe<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with the black cat purring like a machine with no cogs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here it comes the smoking agent of bright night, all<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">features framed in childlike wonder, blinking over the
newsagent<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the furniture showroom, pausing in kinship<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with the crumbling cinema, bursting the bravest alien from<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the sepia screen and spiralling to fill the frame of middle
age,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">clicked and cut like newsreel over the chimney<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of Sydney and Sally playing their morning saxophones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">viciously like a jazz lullaby, of Phillip the cameraman<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">crying his love to sleep, of Dennis the luminous drunk hitting
his<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pale children in the fragile explosive peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a dream that I was not free.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-73060141131597612682024-02-18T10:46:00.002+00:002024-02-18T10:46:49.101+00:00Poem (20): Pioneer<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaLCuD-HRsEZ_scd0EUyY4gi0Pnj-ezlWIJObnlzk7-JD47HA1yK3lKO_cO3tjGwe-Xuj-VgCveeVkhMhMm4Pw2qR50alsAAn6QHbwaQMlEVt1TyZhMwW7XzU540zKspFo3NaDEs5rXvZl93PJYW2K2P5-oOtyX9Lc1zyS_aIhwzY18kYkBwK0wiRQLr-/s1200/high-jump-approach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaLCuD-HRsEZ_scd0EUyY4gi0Pnj-ezlWIJObnlzk7-JD47HA1yK3lKO_cO3tjGwe-Xuj-VgCveeVkhMhMm4Pw2qR50alsAAn6QHbwaQMlEVt1TyZhMwW7XzU540zKspFo3NaDEs5rXvZl93PJYW2K2P5-oOtyX9Lc1zyS_aIhwzY18kYkBwK0wiRQLr-/s320/high-jump-approach.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p><p><b>Pioneer</b></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #141823;">I flopped before Fosbury,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823;" /><span style="color: #141823;">but stopped cos they threatened me</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823;" /><span style="color: #141823;">with infinite infamy.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823;" /><span style="color: #141823;">Now history’s forgotten me.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QT9qM99l9Yk" width="320" youtube-src-id="QT9qM99l9Yk"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="color: #141823;"><br /></span></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-75940592003295767082024-02-17T10:11:00.000+00:002024-02-17T10:11:04.050+00:00Poem (19): The hose<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3qCg34HeZnhHikCC7J7vI5GN81sjfQ8HeqahqcRMd5Dq4jjPbbCCBYy_kfACuPiHSnefegdbhFjDotO3NOfV2BvyyyAaOIn13-Jxa4G6V8EYvrNgs447rXLk3lPrtWCiPTY5FmetuRaHcPkxaR4uO_dqxZzsfGG6x91m7JSMiWu7VDiHMg7vDGnF_HOqi/s325/hose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="155" data-original-width="325" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3qCg34HeZnhHikCC7J7vI5GN81sjfQ8HeqahqcRMd5Dq4jjPbbCCBYy_kfACuPiHSnefegdbhFjDotO3NOfV2BvyyyAaOIn13-Jxa4G6V8EYvrNgs447rXLk3lPrtWCiPTY5FmetuRaHcPkxaR4uO_dqxZzsfGG6x91m7JSMiWu7VDiHMg7vDGnF_HOqi/s320/hose.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <b>The hose</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And after all that, it was me that left the hose<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on overnight. I only meant to water that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">new honeysuckle, as an afterthought at dusk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They had to cancel my book tour, of course, for one<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">mistake that flooded every town. Non grata now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Destroyer of civilizations, they’re calling me,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">just for one small, albeit significant, brain lapse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The honeysuckle won’t survive this dry summer.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-31017018613408939442024-02-16T08:49:00.000+00:002024-02-16T08:49:29.826+00:00Poem (18): Wrath<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpN2OP6t0k-Xl7NA96J0T_j9VAMqIV8CpHW0F6PQ-lEuLyKUAurEafiXmZlkh-8xtn3O5ZfPBWDs7kexhKLvnmsD0NcW4EzPwleoohhDWnmhwxgaPWSOinxWkfMpa8ZGS3_0TPBykT7Fen2oCVwZoEMMqqijPLSYwKn8uhgO2I7IRlR09_NPCqMdOpQz6/s639/Laxford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="639" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpN2OP6t0k-Xl7NA96J0T_j9VAMqIV8CpHW0F6PQ-lEuLyKUAurEafiXmZlkh-8xtn3O5ZfPBWDs7kexhKLvnmsD0NcW4EzPwleoohhDWnmhwxgaPWSOinxWkfMpa8ZGS3_0TPBykT7Fen2oCVwZoEMMqqijPLSYwKn8uhgO2I7IRlR09_NPCqMdOpQz6/s320/Laxford.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <b>Wrath</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You sleep beneath a bivouac
with nothing else<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">but tins of beans and worms
of words like carbon, like<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dioxide, sank into the
bracken, listening for<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the woken Kraken on your
not-yet-broken back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From somewhere near the
cerebellum, ghosts of choirs<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of fallen states sing
resurrection vigils while<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the wind spins mountains
round the bend of history, till<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">your fears of futures unknown
sink into the soil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You call across another
valley where was lost<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a plan for boundaries, where
was found a sound to dull<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the shock explosion of
aeonian progress, locked<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and loaded in the flow of
freedom and its will.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The right side of the loch is
lapped in blood red swarms<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of agitating midges,
darkening flint and tints<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of tingling scree – and now,
you cannot rest to send<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a message of remembrance to
the enraged expanse.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-62796414337225096102024-02-15T16:34:00.001+00:002024-02-15T16:34:58.331+00:00One day more, one more day<p>Some thoughts and feelings about the Netflix 'One Day' series ... </p><p>well, to start with, I'm a long-time sucker for a certain kind of slightly-indie time-jumping romance, from Before Sun... to Normal People to One Day. Every now and then there's a romance that gets the po-faced indie men involved and proclaiming it's serious art, which helps make it a big deal. Surprised there aren't more of them, really ...</p><p>Back in 2009, I used to see women on the tube reading One Day, and eventually must have had some indication that it would be acceptable for me, a manly man, to also read it on the tube, so bought it.</p><p>I liked it very much. It pushed various buttons, was neat, funny, and sufficiently well written that, in the end, it made the second most probable plot resolution feel like a thunderbolt of despair from the outer galaxy.</p><p>A couple of years later, there was the fascinatingly doomed film. Doomed, at Square One, by casting one of the most famous, talented film stars in the world ... but also by being a film, rather than a TV show, which it should obviously have been instead. The fact of the film being the dampest of squibs rather sedated One Day as a cultural phenomenon. David Nicholls wrote some more good, but not culturally phenomenal, books, there were other zeitgeist romances, the world got a lot worse.</p><p>Finally, a decade and a half later, it's a good time to get One Day right. Which they've done. 15 years since the book, 36 years since events of the book begin. Although my own graduation ball in a beautiful courtyard on a perfect summer's night at a Scottish university was 13 years later (almost a whole generation), I remember immediately feeling when starting the book, and this TV series, that this was my world, my age. Edinburgh. The steps, the flats. Tramping up Arthurs Seat. Crappy 90s TV, crappy 90s haircuts. Outer London, inner London, weddings in the country. Are You There Moriarty? Phone calls, letters, compilation tapes.</p><p>Maybe the TV series is better than the book. I'm not going to read the book again to confirm or deny. But there are new possibilities, new angles. The leads are both excellent, offering fresh perspectives and contexts for their characters. Leo Woodall, who I've never see before, passes through many just-different-enough variations on pretty-boy 90s haircut, looks almost like various 90s heartthrobs, but surpasses the book's (and especially the film's) main weakness by really making you care about him and understand what Emma sees in Dexter. Dexter's never been a great character before, but here, he somehow is. Ambika Mod is just killer. I wonder if Anne Hathaway will watch it and say to herself "ay oop, i fooked that oop ..."</p><p>In the film, Rafe Spall, as the stopgap loser boyfriend Ian, was so much funnier, more endearing, more memorable, than the two leads, you wish the whole film was about him. In the TV series, all the supporting cast are great, but don't get in the way. Jonny Weldon, who I'd only know before from twitter parodies of an out-of-work actor, does a lovely job in that role,</p><p>What else makes the TV series better than the book? Well, the music ... some of it is quite obvious, which is fine, some if it (e.g the use of Nick Drake and Karen Dalton) is arguably a little anachronistic, which is forgivable, and, towards the end, it hits notes of specificity I just wasn't expecting, which made me feel, as the modern parlance goes, "seen". The Wild Ones. On and On. Get Me Away from Here I'm Dying. Three tracks from Bewilderbeast at the turn of the century! Up With People! Lilac Wine. And Olympian by Gene, mentioned by name, at the start of the climactic 13th episode, the most "if you know you know" musical moment I've ever ... known.</p><p>Even in 2009, One Day was a nostalgic work, but I was unprepared for the piercing algia of the nost this time around. </p><p>No social media, no twitter, no facebook, nothing. There aren't even any e-mails sent in the whole series, I don't think. The introduction of mobiles is a feature of the story, of course, but that helps you cherish the absence of the rest. How much we've lost. There is no mention of the USA in the whole thing. There's a bit of American music, but only great American music. It made me feel so angry at myself. How did I get so consumed by US culture, by the US model of cultural criticism, by always looking west? The film is set in an era when Britain was large enough and Europe was close. God, I know I sound like a reactionary bore. I was as grateful as anyone for text messaging and e-mails saving me from awkward phone calls, But, yeah, we grew up and grew into adults in a very different age, and it's ok to miss it.</p><p>Anyway, what was One Day missing? A scene on the East Coast mainline.. Shorley Wall by Ooberman. One scene in Leeds. SFA. Hoopers Hooch. Caffreys. A day where they watch Neighbours and Home and Away twice each. But not much else. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-87820797931909535512024-02-15T08:27:00.000+00:002024-02-15T08:27:30.203+00:00Poem (17): There's a man in black who's waiting at the gate<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpAOSnK4D3ZCdCF7M6D_0cRtw5kyJ6eBA0YXBcvoMF1iOqF_g_0s3ZoW8j4vz_VQUUS3cpjzSyq6XjuQK-MArwe-3_3cs0bJlVWOPYaK3FdEcihJNR_Gsg9IrrANre3HcVGncTwgc6ZvH4cGBIr-4wTh9a7G2Y7fr2RV_GADptTBHDgCZP5wr6tzE9Fha/s1000/abbey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="1000" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpAOSnK4D3ZCdCF7M6D_0cRtw5kyJ6eBA0YXBcvoMF1iOqF_g_0s3ZoW8j4vz_VQUUS3cpjzSyq6XjuQK-MArwe-3_3cs0bJlVWOPYaK3FdEcihJNR_Gsg9IrrANre3HcVGncTwgc6ZvH4cGBIr-4wTh9a7G2Y7fr2RV_GADptTBHDgCZP5wr6tzE9Fha/s320/abbey.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> This is another villanelle. I suppose it's about a man.<p></p><p><b>There's a man in black who's waiting at the gate</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man in black’s still standing at the gate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You warned us he’d be there and he’s still there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The demon you compelled us to create<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was not identified until too late.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So many still can’t walk past the place where<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the man in black’s still standing at the gate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A doctrine of god’s love has turned to hate -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">there’s not one with forgiveness left to spare<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the demon you compelled us to create.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, you, you’ve had your reckoning, your fate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">is, of itself, agreeable and fair.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man in black’s still standing at the gate,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">though, waiting for the ones you’d separate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and celebrate, and order not to share<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the demon you compelled us to create.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The narrative you’d nervelessly dictate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">will never free the ones you did ensnare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The man in black’s still standing at the gate -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the demon you compelled us to create.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-82690139467409016482024-02-14T08:38:00.000+00:002024-02-14T08:38:26.309+00:00Poem (16): Clearing up the mess, the mess<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbvun3kNuku-jW-oG4ih-dXmle9KNRFSXZQmgU6YL8AKqx_mMJcJOs6ugYhXd6MtA8y6jBbsZiGP7M6UFAg9N1E6XdbaclTHaQ8nbphz13gFXJe0aTQZT7b5y_cyPEe1cncSUCDGhazbr0OgR8lHjEqIoG_fvtLqo3pv3iZoMsB6hG-2ie0x8uycXrdA9M/s976/tory.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbvun3kNuku-jW-oG4ih-dXmle9KNRFSXZQmgU6YL8AKqx_mMJcJOs6ugYhXd6MtA8y6jBbsZiGP7M6UFAg9N1E6XdbaclTHaQ8nbphz13gFXJe0aTQZT7b5y_cyPEe1cncSUCDGhazbr0OgR8lHjEqIoG_fvtLqo3pv3iZoMsB6hG-2ie0x8uycXrdA9M/s320/tory.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I'm not sure this is terribly good, but contains a couple of phrases that amuse me.<p><b>Clearing up the mess, the mess</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have come to love the gangsters of pitilessness -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with their courteous knives and their speechwriters<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you met in a Clapham bar in 2004,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">getting the titles and plots of films wrong<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">looking askance like you owed them a drink -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have come to love the lights out of them<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">eventually, for what else is there to do -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as they sledgehammer printing presses<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the name of growth and utility,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">after all, we were the ones who failed to practise penalty
shoot outs -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">yes, what else is there left on this rebounding earth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">but to love their sternly empty lectures & inept grasp of
history<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">since they were on their bike and entrepreneurial<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and we were watching late night poker<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">while eating pistachios in the bath, and they advise us<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as they recongeal more righteous and new than ever<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to wrap ourselves in foil and buy a new kettle<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for our rusty oligarch yachts for which we overpaid<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">because we were lazy fools<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who were holding Britain back.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-68507550192708620652024-02-13T09:51:00.002+00:002024-02-13T09:51:43.181+00:00Poem (15): Last night I dreamed in colour<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdtMYkjT2uAI1VUJGt6ubLNi9m1frZsYSG9XyvVyE1DXUeG_4KsTqkTan-B5-mXfpe9pm0XLLFO4WYk7YtS32c3AixtqK3oP_6br64kaN2yEtFB2miHT2hqBF9gl5B86qcw0qbdpQhqUWffZfDCddwudmAAkxzcZSwo7cQRYOh_IN3qJQpSjhsv9ZHnHE/s950/Donald%20Campbell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="950" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdtMYkjT2uAI1VUJGt6ubLNi9m1frZsYSG9XyvVyE1DXUeG_4KsTqkTan-B5-mXfpe9pm0XLLFO4WYk7YtS32c3AixtqK3oP_6br64kaN2yEtFB2miHT2hqBF9gl5B86qcw0qbdpQhqUWffZfDCddwudmAAkxzcZSwo7cQRYOh_IN3qJQpSjhsv9ZHnHE/s320/Donald%20Campbell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b>Last night I dreamed in colour</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At school, they used to show us Pathé films</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the Hindenburg, or Donald Campbell </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the Bluebird</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, and I would wonder from</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">how far away it’s sport to stare at death,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or whether they were testing our response</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for nascent signals of psychopathy.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m still not sure what I was meant to feel<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or whether I’ve evolved to greater depth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of understanding in the face of fire<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and flash, of farce and fury as we trip<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and totter backwards like stoned kids caught in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a bar fight, mesmerised by shards of glass<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">like milk-rich babies, seeing black and white,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">just black and white with gentle shades of grey.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last night I dreamed of Donald Campbell fast<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and brave on Coniston, I saw his face,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I felt his breath, and now, we lift, we lift.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-1241577859332168202024-02-12T08:43:00.001+00:002024-02-12T08:43:07.300+00:00Poem (14): The bicycle<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-OjbT4JCItXY2R_ery_-2hr8oVwwixCagVKAoXIHwHtdsQfIw9hIAFnGXtaNKi60XW0ADgTg-dEwiXGpwv5ljsVoRAYGXQPXD5CGkomDKw8GHZe0r9aSwfuKZvP2qJbrnBwAF3F1QMZcvhfSXTMeDBcJW3gk9wf4T-_3PUaQ1ErqAPFUgV2U6MH55e4N/s875/bicycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="875" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-OjbT4JCItXY2R_ery_-2hr8oVwwixCagVKAoXIHwHtdsQfIw9hIAFnGXtaNKi60XW0ADgTg-dEwiXGpwv5ljsVoRAYGXQPXD5CGkomDKw8GHZe0r9aSwfuKZvP2qJbrnBwAF3F1QMZcvhfSXTMeDBcJW3gk9wf4T-_3PUaQ1ErqAPFUgV2U6MH55e4N/s320/bicycle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p>This was prompted, in a weird way, by Keats' To Autumn ...</p><p><b>The bicycle</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pens down; it’s funeral week. The walkers hew<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a clear-sight track, straight through the wheat field, past<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the footbridge which the summer stun-girl threw<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">her bike off, on the shortening squint-bright last<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">good day of August. Puddles brown the farm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">car park where families scan the apple fayre<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for ritual, while a distant smoke alarm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">unsettles even the most debonair<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of silver-haired consultants in retreat –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">another apple falls to earth, to eat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The woods don’t breathe for dens half-made, those spring<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">escapes to in-between world, long before<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the purple sky rose like a flood chasing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a holed hulk off a dried-out mudflat’s floor,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to bathe a skate boy’s late girl in her choice<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of dead ends. Quick commuters now reflect<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">they’d heard her pure and unaccepting voice<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">send echoes through the underpass, unwrecked,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as yet, unspoiled, as yet, by freeze and fall.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They know her naiad face, her siren call.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s funeral week. Dried flowers rack the rails<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">beside the road bridge. Trains crawl in, delayed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">by on-line strays from loosely tied hay-bales,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the first free gales of winter’s ghost parade.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A nonplussed uncle sniffs the small-town drain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as soon as he steps to the taxi rank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He stops. The town, the season, his again,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the open summer roads, the gods he’d thank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The season, the quiet cries of her despair,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the town, the bicycle that went nowhere.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-57971078102634198022024-02-11T10:08:00.001+00:002024-02-11T10:08:58.147+00:00Poem (13): Aquarama<p> <b>Aquarama</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When halfway through a
somersault<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in equidistant bliss,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he saw the concrete loom and
smirk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In choosing the abyss<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">that blinding day in media
res,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he bent towards the mean.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet shame it was, and so
remained,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to linger in between.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdndswuEpBOLz7vtWV7PQ5oBAPqSyof5LvRhynODWGVrG2HPeEpmEh6Ux1olbY8KfH2RogTgu4j7lfCDm_s6Z-RnS_mDuErWOWRVl6oBql3yBCR3jEoYXDLbVUur6NoGOm4YLUZJ6bPvi4JHlf1eQEaaGaxQS0o0okm_g0YCrSD_2n0vPZ9sOHg5Ie1Q1a/s533/somersault%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="533" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdndswuEpBOLz7vtWV7PQ5oBAPqSyof5LvRhynODWGVrG2HPeEpmEh6Ux1olbY8KfH2RogTgu4j7lfCDm_s6Z-RnS_mDuErWOWRVl6oBql3yBCR3jEoYXDLbVUur6NoGOm4YLUZJ6bPvi4JHlf1eQEaaGaxQS0o0okm_g0YCrSD_2n0vPZ9sOHg5Ie1Q1a/s320/somersault%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-21230506245110040502024-02-10T09:48:00.000+00:002024-02-10T09:48:27.347+00:00Poem (12): The killer whale in North Berwick<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKcMNZ4gxxYK3SaFcharcjmk_Fgu0yGMUzyhvgbNg8b1706fYU1HD2WsmLBCcBvrxFRO2iZyVWRqSlnKnE-Gkyj7igtWNfTIuDQ10IlRGYfK4JI6le_-IKsyRtpobOc4iEM06oJPOpvh8HkenJ7ZL0kAIlU458AXc0EA2mVyAwjGVWx1xLcCSvpxO5v5k_/s894/killer%20whale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="894" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKcMNZ4gxxYK3SaFcharcjmk_Fgu0yGMUzyhvgbNg8b1706fYU1HD2WsmLBCcBvrxFRO2iZyVWRqSlnKnE-Gkyj7igtWNfTIuDQ10IlRGYfK4JI6le_-IKsyRtpobOc4iEM06oJPOpvh8HkenJ7ZL0kAIlU458AXc0EA2mVyAwjGVWx1xLcCSvpxO5v5k_/s320/killer%20whale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b><p><b><br /></b></p>The killer whale in North Berwick</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember a killer whale with luxury skin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">doing clown tricks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">near the pier at North Berwick<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 86,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the summer after Maradona,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">we were chasing our mother<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">along the promenade<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for cheap fish and chips and we saw<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">an orca in the water of the sea life centre,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the summer of the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the lonely middle distance runners -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">we were looping around East Lothian<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for the most extravagant ice creams we could find.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Remember the ice creams? I asked my sister<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">last month at her 50th birthday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The triple marshmallow deluxe oyster shell chocolate covered
flake extraordinaire, with sprinkles?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I remember them, she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And the gannets on Bass Rock,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seb Coe and Steve Cram<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on the TV? I asked my other sister,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on her 46th birthday, last month.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kind of, if you say so. I do remember the ice creams, she
said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And remember the killer whale? I asked my brother,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">at his wife’s party last month,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as our creaking bones tried to keep up<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with our children playing football.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The what? He said. The what? In the sea?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No, not in the sea, in a pool near the pier.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A killer whale, with a holiday smile,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">doing tricks for the kids on warm and windy summer days,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the August after Chernobyl, on<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the southern coast of the Firth of Forth,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">where we stole golf balls from the rough<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and staged cricket matches in corridors<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for our mother’s horrified Morningside friends<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who’d lent her the seafront flat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was no killer whale, he said, don’t be silly,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">you’re confusing yourself with the kid from Free Willy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was, there was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But my sisters agreed with my brother that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">there was no killer whale, nor even dolphins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe seals, definitely gannets, we remember the ice-creams.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I asked our mother last month,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as she watched her<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">children and grandchildren<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">kicking lumps out of each in slow motion<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on a makeshift football pitch,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">at the end of the summer of fear and reconvention,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">there was a killer whale wasn’t there?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A killer whale in North Berwick,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">that transitional summer of 86?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yes, she said, of course there was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He was there for the ice cream, he leapt with contempt,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">slid without fear out of the pool and across the pier<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">saying what happened to your humanity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">your prisons cannot contain me<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m returning to this here North Sea,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">believe in me now or I will be<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">forever gone from your memory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, that’s the one, I said. I thought so.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-82790845286095029592024-02-09T10:24:00.005+00:002024-02-09T10:24:55.327+00:00Poem (11): True beauty<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdNhHWZavayspMjcGMzOAuO8hwCq4c6sIuDUlTt339tJL520ZUwUnONpo0dJGGNKPm2hXt_G68hruRFeSMtuLNsPJjaeXyjT-u0qniyfLQ8-_0hy23ew8EHMDylfkesqZs9wcik_V1YQD-BJYDpDjxOJhCAeVodO9daD7eYx374n1N0TLK1_e0vNhvKC1/s615/room%20service.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="615" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdNhHWZavayspMjcGMzOAuO8hwCq4c6sIuDUlTt339tJL520ZUwUnONpo0dJGGNKPm2hXt_G68hruRFeSMtuLNsPJjaeXyjT-u0qniyfLQ8-_0hy23ew8EHMDylfkesqZs9wcik_V1YQD-BJYDpDjxOJhCAeVodO9daD7eYx374n1N0TLK1_e0vNhvKC1/s320/room%20service.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br />I wish i had an actual picture ...<br /><div><br /></div><div><b>True beauty</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">True beauty was<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the contents of the tray I spilled<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which fell<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and smashed upon the marble hall<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">outside the lift<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on the 6th floor<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the 700-room 5-star hotel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I worked room service<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in 1996.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">True beauty as<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I disappeared<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in shame and shade,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">just to return<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">some three hours later, past midnight,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">see the scene was just the same,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the shattered glass,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the scattered chips and chops,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the wine-stained stone –<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">my masterpiece, my worth.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-78864608666005976502024-02-08T09:59:00.001+00:002024-02-08T09:59:55.453+00:00Poem (10): Shades of blue<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecESY3nZoKbx_U7v1LmGDGNkkzJnLgKLZtQs3HITuckX5EJp70kE6Nu6b-1xo1jDWHc7G_8kG_RvTje3URvKZrOamsvTkvO2kajyouomKkLsU6KVA3OFvcmygnpvJATp8_61K7UXyNcZtyIgNtY5UUAigqEv7K3YZY1lg2y_4A47naD9RJXg7S28LwsHi/s3872/South_Ealing._London_Underground_Piccadilly_Line.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="3872" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecESY3nZoKbx_U7v1LmGDGNkkzJnLgKLZtQs3HITuckX5EJp70kE6Nu6b-1xo1jDWHc7G_8kG_RvTje3URvKZrOamsvTkvO2kajyouomKkLsU6KVA3OFvcmygnpvJATp8_61K7UXyNcZtyIgNtY5UUAigqEv7K3YZY1lg2y_4A47naD9RJXg7S28LwsHi/s320/South_Ealing._London_Underground_Piccadilly_Line.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <b>Shades of blue</b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He grew up on the blue line<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">between green spaces<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and white trails,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">joined jejune dots on tube maps<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">like Georges Seurat’s<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">childhood nightmares,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was impressed by twin impostors<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">standing stock still<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">through dark tunnels,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dreamed of driving to Cockfosters<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in a steam train<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">made of money.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Watching rain drip down the windows<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he saw Pollocks<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the background<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the Mondrians on the seating<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">between Northfields<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and South Ealing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hearing Heathrow every morning<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he held Rothko<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in his dreamline,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he grew up international<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">through the blue line,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">blue as Yves Klein.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWoqlMiyc9WA-q4ghOqRO9VMA_fcIh4AfOnt2VIevESWLln_aCtktSe7s8N1JA8mkgKy-HauzjFLmJIxKFVRD_Z8ipOxepX5ag9Hhs9AGCRe2KCSJ0oBCuBgHaYdMzARynSwpUMcSr196mieXzcnlQBsPmsShpdBvFXqXYT5HUxZVw3k-07AlxK_oBr3S/s1319/IKB_191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1319" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEWoqlMiyc9WA-q4ghOqRO9VMA_fcIh4AfOnt2VIevESWLln_aCtktSe7s8N1JA8mkgKy-HauzjFLmJIxKFVRD_Z8ipOxepX5ag9Hhs9AGCRe2KCSJ0oBCuBgHaYdMzARynSwpUMcSr196mieXzcnlQBsPmsShpdBvFXqXYT5HUxZVw3k-07AlxK_oBr3S/s320/IKB_191.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-45076739595212508552024-02-07T10:36:00.001+00:002024-02-07T10:36:53.744+00:00Poem (9): The trickle<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWJGqwrBMEAQXP7nL9VxEEuHH01Gf_cOLxM8IwiwY6PvGv3B_8N9MeHhnWVGhwXkQcuBRIYQmH8rvJr30HXwaLoSCSS8JdxpdgjTQ-eorkGVG4pFrr_vW7If-cQzplezsetGd78Je_ZCMADi_PQ65sjfYPqyuULenc7JeODu4Gmr5XuKGSLBWp6YB5O0m/s640/northfield%20cinema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="640" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWJGqwrBMEAQXP7nL9VxEEuHH01Gf_cOLxM8IwiwY6PvGv3B_8N9MeHhnWVGhwXkQcuBRIYQmH8rvJr30HXwaLoSCSS8JdxpdgjTQ-eorkGVG4pFrr_vW7If-cQzplezsetGd78Je_ZCMADi_PQ65sjfYPqyuULenc7JeODu4Gmr5XuKGSLBWp6YB5O0m/s320/northfield%20cinema.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b>The trickle</b></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The toilet by the tables in the smoke-<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dark snooker club was shut - a sign saying “Closed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for Cleaning” stayed in place for several hours<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and so the lager-topped break builders forced<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to find relief elsewhere told staff that it<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was just not good enough enough enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The snooker club below the cinema<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was shut on Sundays, so a crowd of men<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">would gather on its steps with stacks of cans<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of Becks, from sinking moon through scolding bells<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to heavy hints from spurned street lights to drink<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">one week into the next, the next, the next.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The cinema which faced the park was not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">renowned for cleanliness or friendliness;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nevertheless, when suddenly it closed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for sixteen days, then opened boasting live<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">sex shows, there was a buzz of local loss<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and letters of disgust, disgust, disgust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The park which marked the start point of the high<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">street, though not noticeably beautiful,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was much appreciated by new mums,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">street drunks and dog walkers, so when it was<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">replaced by flats, the neighbourhood was not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nor would be quite the same the same the same.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The large department store down from the park<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was, in its day, the envy of the rest<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the suburban high streets leading straight<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">into the city’s heart, so when it shut<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">it felt as if the fabric of the place<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">they’d come to love was torn was torn was torn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The toilet in the snooker club was closed,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">they said, because someone detected, first,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a crack, a little crack, and then the crack<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">begat a trickle, just a trickle, but<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the trickle in the city changed its course<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and trickled up and up and up and up.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-65341719006938958462024-02-06T10:39:00.000+00:002024-02-06T10:39:47.583+00:00Poem (8): The former alchemist<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlQlKXKh6PxGmKM6GcO6cf8Q3nbagPDlnulFxaFlNZFKEEpuKZIcnITIiNO2RLv7p3IuCM34bJM7EgRRSk3NFIyAZKZoyQm4ntU8jQOn4qL3Y3kp4dPGe6kGg6VeY0u_5ThKVn9BAmWV4n4sieU9i3PkpBsev6S_Fymy_ElbXruRk4q6-SNzg6CDtquwh/s259/scared%20rabbit.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlQlKXKh6PxGmKM6GcO6cf8Q3nbagPDlnulFxaFlNZFKEEpuKZIcnITIiNO2RLv7p3IuCM34bJM7EgRRSk3NFIyAZKZoyQm4ntU8jQOn4qL3Y3kp4dPGe6kGg6VeY0u_5ThKVn9BAmWV4n4sieU9i3PkpBsev6S_Fymy_ElbXruRk4q6-SNzg6CDtquwh/s1600/scared%20rabbit.jpeg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b>The former alchemist</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This disappearing rabbit trick is quick<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to dull on impact, thought the alchemist<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who’d lost his knack, so hoped to puzzle thick<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">kids with some sleight of hand and snap of wrist.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His show, though slick, was underwhelmingly<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">received by all but the most gullible;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">some disappointed parents warned him he<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">should sharpen up to keep his coffers full.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I once turned copper into gold, yet now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">can barely hold a thrill for killjoy lads<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who tell me they’ve already looked up how<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to catch a bullet on their dad’s ipads,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he sighed, and tried to find the Midas lost,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he tried in vain at that poor rabbit’s cost.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-32884074824983675372024-02-05T10:42:00.001+00:002024-02-05T10:42:16.101+00:00Poem (7): The end of the affair<p>Well, if you know the book with this name, that's what this is, by and large, all about... this 3.75km perimeter triangle of sadness ... she never thought it would happen, that night she ain't forgotten ...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcK8kVd5iiTk8p6ukUjhJi0PcaF1H-K7AHX2kWKfNBhAtCUFmHf5-ytIaf-LXd6a-V5JvhTyPft_oK6s4THSlrJvWuwsVh9ppjp4N7rgH_X7zY4WQ_Z84FyYA1G3yKMdL9Md5pN4lMNHHCqmCRY17ovh57yAiiH-GP9BOc3UzqcG5oCPxVppSQaZkoZVZU/s512/clapham%20common.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="512" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcK8kVd5iiTk8p6ukUjhJi0PcaF1H-K7AHX2kWKfNBhAtCUFmHf5-ytIaf-LXd6a-V5JvhTyPft_oK6s4THSlrJvWuwsVh9ppjp4N7rgH_X7zY4WQ_Z84FyYA1G3yKMdL9Md5pN4lMNHHCqmCRY17ovh57yAiiH-GP9BOc3UzqcG5oCPxVppSQaZkoZVZU/s320/clapham%20common.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>It is a rondeau - the third last line is wrong. I only noticed that a bit late, and tried to think how to change it (it should rhyme with "ain") but in the end settled for the mistake ...</p><p><b>The end of the affair</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I walked awhile within the rain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to sting the edges from this pain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which had begun in heart and head<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">but inconveniently spread<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">from Cedars Road to Crescent Lane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The doctor’d told me to remain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">inside - to leave would not be sane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I did agree, and yet, instead,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I walked awhile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It felt, to walk that land again,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as if, in bloom, I could remain<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">unknowing of what lay ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But then, unbid, a drop of red<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">told me that as the waking dead<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I walked awhile.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-43903047702650654522024-02-04T16:57:00.000+00:002024-02-04T16:57:33.892+00:00Poem (6): The land below<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulmFtPOi7VTkoRayP7pFv9CgPNCPDfFaBgFb8j65gujCJGD9PyJKlY_3x8CUPXY160Z8cep91WVujEeoSg4uAdDzOf3Mzcwszarwv8RMxFrXyftnJ8KNDt-LLQJhEHUBR_1Ha2Ro0KZVtNJDknejFM9JukdIhUg2vjUXLfn2acBShzX86GzHJeiZyLS_Q/s2592/Stroud_from_the_air.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulmFtPOi7VTkoRayP7pFv9CgPNCPDfFaBgFb8j65gujCJGD9PyJKlY_3x8CUPXY160Z8cep91WVujEeoSg4uAdDzOf3Mzcwszarwv8RMxFrXyftnJ8KNDt-LLQJhEHUBR_1Ha2Ro0KZVtNJDknejFM9JukdIhUg2vjUXLfn2acBShzX86GzHJeiZyLS_Q/s320/Stroud_from_the_air.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>For reasons I don't really understand, when I posted this poem on allpoetry, lots of people liked it. To me, it's kind of ok, but I'm a bit interested in whether it does have a characteristic I otherwise struggle to muster, or whether it was just a coincidence of the day ...</p><p><b>The land below</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The oak tree was at the bottom of six sloped acres,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">its sinewed branches eavesdropping<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on the villages below – I’d no time not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to trust the ropes and splintered seat,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">no choice not to follow those who’d swung before<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">out into the world. All at once<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the orchards, the war memorials, the midnight<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">meetings and farmer’s markets, petty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">crimes and fights in car parks could all be mine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As large and attainable as any world could be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gripping the rope with palms used to scraping<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">tarmac, extending knees never unscabbed,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I could have done somersaults, I swear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s easy enough to be brave, I think now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">every other tough choice comes before being brave,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">now I know the side of every path holds<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a fresh threat, a trip, a test, a letter home,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">every acre could shrink or slip, each sledge<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">could jackknife, each swing could snap, but<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I could have jumped, executed a somersault<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and landed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in a world I’d already conquered, I swear.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-17330316458343446232024-02-03T12:02:00.004+00:002024-02-03T12:02:49.913+00:00Poem (5): The returned<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MKyzGWGyOFdgjXw0PwdTa6yYPHNsT_NLKavcCiI7TKPJU9OUM5w1Y8t0rRnAyjxclZITkT2CRqDY-4T1JyVqwwnkrUU_cHHe_9O2EiRN5JyOTzo_l9hKxmYsDcUdCsBx6NbLUB6cLfghX4JKuvLneHHR1qatluc3-47I37-jbwp-Fcmg-W4rfeVxpKTx/s1280/wren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MKyzGWGyOFdgjXw0PwdTa6yYPHNsT_NLKavcCiI7TKPJU9OUM5w1Y8t0rRnAyjxclZITkT2CRqDY-4T1JyVqwwnkrUU_cHHe_9O2EiRN5JyOTzo_l9hKxmYsDcUdCsBx6NbLUB6cLfghX4JKuvLneHHR1qatluc3-47I37-jbwp-Fcmg-W4rfeVxpKTx/s320/wren.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>It has 14 lines but it's not a sonnet, I wouldn't say.</p><p><b>The returned</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wren, again, calls green-blood men<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to prise a paean from their pen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for memories of long-dead scions<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of long-lost far-west Europeans<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who couldn’t stay but never left.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The turf unearths their bardic bones<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which chant their widely spread unknowns<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of legends gained in twists of mist<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">then lost to every stone unkissed,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">each cliff unclimbed, each sea uncleft.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The alder, pine, the oak, the birch<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">wrap arms around this broken church<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which fills with lewd and loving air –</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the birds, the trees, they sing, to share.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FMi3AGWsm0I" width="320" youtube-src-id="FMi3AGWsm0I"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-17865062783490306772024-02-02T10:07:00.002+00:002024-02-02T10:07:56.283+00:00Poem (4): Side Story<p>This is a villanelle - a very strict and unnatural form that I rather like, as you always end up with something a little beyond your control. If you're lucky it looks like it's been somewhat within your control.</p><p>Here's a video of a song ...</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MQwu08Sc2vA" width="320" youtube-src-id="MQwu08Sc2vA"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>And another one ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GrFkgyOOY30" width="320" youtube-src-id="GrFkgyOOY30"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><br /><p>Here's</p><p><b>Side Story</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wine is drunk, the guest has gone to sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His dream is broken briefly, then restored<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">uneasily. Two harrowed eyes now peep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">around the door, then furtive footsteps creep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">away - duress now swallows all discord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wine is drunk, the guest has gone to sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your silence splits the uncensorious deep,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a spoken truth you can no more afford.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Uneasily, two harrowed eyes now peep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">beneath the calm no one would choose to leap<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">into. There once were four, now three, on board.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wine is drunk, the guest has gone to sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stay close with those whose secrets you would keep,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">poor star-shot girl whose sorrows were ignored<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">uneasily. Two harrowed eyes now peep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">below the surf where wounds untended seep -<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">poor, star-sunk girl so brutally adored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The wine is drunk, the guest has gone to sleep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">uneasily. Two harrowed eyes now weep.</span><span style="font-family: Bell MT, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-40710256994506387602024-02-01T10:06:00.003+00:002024-02-01T10:06:53.508+00:00Poem (3): Cube<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozN5Epf4nicfcqTNbPtaPok5ix6t5HgepvSloTX28neeRETe5m8Q4ucmJ27TjHB_l4Bl30phySdEpjvf0UtgtArfuXiPUxTKkW6OZfqKYY_EyJ0NWFPpkxu_koUR6uXH_ZDAoJikMqCQlL7_uiAN7Sl_9C2mUb06p22VAEnkgsz3rQHAamZe9S0CP6Ma2/s500/rubik.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="493" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhozN5Epf4nicfcqTNbPtaPok5ix6t5HgepvSloTX28neeRETe5m8Q4ucmJ27TjHB_l4Bl30phySdEpjvf0UtgtArfuXiPUxTKkW6OZfqKYY_EyJ0NWFPpkxu_koUR6uXH_ZDAoJikMqCQlL7_uiAN7Sl_9C2mUb06p22VAEnkgsz3rQHAamZe9S0CP6Ma2/s320/rubik.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>Well, this is called Cube and is self-explanatory<br /><b><br /></b><div><b>Cube</b><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I learnt to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">solve a Rubik's<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cube last year<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">by watching and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">rewatching a video<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on YouTube.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">greatest achievement of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">my adult life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For weeks I<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">showed off my<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">amazing new skill<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as if I<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was Houdini back<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">from the dead.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps I could<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">run for high<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">office after all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And now I<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">have already forgotten<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">how it’s done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Already I now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">forgotten have oh<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">shit shit bollocks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My brain has<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">reached its limit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">___ ___ ___.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><i>The exciting footnote is that i've relearned how to do it since writing this. Keep believing! Anything is possible!</i></p><b></b><p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-10140507874763747292024-01-31T11:41:00.000+00:002024-01-31T11:41:01.212+00:00Poem (2): Where I live, people don't understand<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Wm35uq_tsy2Lzs7SZm1Whn9YcTVpsM3Prvo3J25HXqe9XuNjsLkS9hIiMdTsFBkvj06KIxeb6eJLvGWizTBlDMw46_x7wNZNr_eBO-vFRsdLhToBYbyqEAo8-qFv4KX0WhhrStPSK_y4V0lw66Q1WykzcnvjzUMAypGQAnLQYdvQn9K5SwBHGunQ1vWr/s640/Wharncliffe_Viaduct_205167_3b413d4c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Wm35uq_tsy2Lzs7SZm1Whn9YcTVpsM3Prvo3J25HXqe9XuNjsLkS9hIiMdTsFBkvj06KIxeb6eJLvGWizTBlDMw46_x7wNZNr_eBO-vFRsdLhToBYbyqEAo8-qFv4KX0WhhrStPSK_y4V0lw66Q1WykzcnvjzUMAypGQAnLQYdvQn9K5SwBHGunQ1vWr/s320/Wharncliffe_Viaduct_205167_3b413d4c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is a classic example of a bad title. The title is the opposite of the meaning, really, but I like it, so keep it.<p></p><p>Anyway, in the pandemic, I thought about outer West London in the 1980s and early 90s a lot, and this is mainly about that.</p><p><b>Where I live, people don't understand</b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People don’t understand where I live, a real place<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">within the tamest imagination which has slipped<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">off a cliff it clung to – just a workplace mishap,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">they say, those who dare not venture beyond the script<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to the source material, to the bodies buried<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in the concrete of the overpass in summertime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For all the conversations I hung on but was not<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">invited to join, all the errata I underlined<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in green suburban pen, the blood smudge picnic<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of only-child nitpicks, that’s not so hard to grasp,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">now, is it? Is it, now we write Horatian odes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to Brunel’s first viaduct as history chugs past<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">with trousers down, sunburnt and swearing it’s blind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">like Oedipus, wise like Tiresias, broke like<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the marbled ankle of an intercity jewel thief<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">who lied about falling off his childhood bike,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">just a journeyman millionaire slowly turning blue<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">from embarrassment. I live there, a skittering dog<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on a working lock, while narrowboats wait for romance<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to fade and a stranger to stroll straight out of the fog.</span><span style="font-family: "Bell MT", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #5b9bd5; font-family: "Bell MT",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-themecolor: accent5;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><b></b><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-7519396597655182462024-01-30T16:27:00.004+00:002024-01-30T19:09:52.140+00:00Poetry for all (1)<p>For a few years, I've been posting poems on a site called allpoetry, where other people can comment on them. As well as that, the site has an AI algorithm which instantly gives each poem a "mark" out of 10, which sounds dreadful, and is a bit dreadful, but can be helpful in certain respects. </p><p>It looks out for things like misplaced capitals, repetition, "good" words, ""bad" words, cliches etc. All to be taken with a pinch of a salt, but it can be a helpful way to slightly improve poems or to know if your poem's a bit hackneyed (if you didn't intend it to be).</p><p>The comments can also be a bit desultory ("You did a great job with your nice poetic flow here ...") though are occasionally valuable. Sometimes poems get chosen to go on the front page, and you'll get more comments then. Mostly, I'd say, the site's members are American and not necessarily the audience I'm playing to. Still, all of that is, in its way, part of the point. What point? What's the point? I'm not looking to make money from poems, have made no attempt to be published nor will, but, still, I find there to be more intrinsic worth and pleasure in writing poems than any other writing I do. By some margin. My aim is to write one really good one. Or five pretty good ones. It's a beautifully achievable aim which is always out of reach.</p><p>I read quite a lot of contemporary poems these days, some of which I like, some of which I don't, but one thing I've learnt is that I am not a natural, not in terms of what is mostly commended in modern poetry. I am operating within emotional, cultural and linguistic limits which the most lauded modern poets are not. Yet still, I might be able to use what limits define me to write one good one if I am able to reshape it and push beyond it. There's a certain push and pull between making the most of the facty, quizzy, listy me and running from it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, all this to say, I'm going to change tack for a while on this blog, by posting poems (as I did right at the beginning of the blog). One per post. I'll accompany them with a song or two, a photo perhaps, a thought, maybe an explanation. Most won't be very long. I'll try to post one a day.</p><p>I suppose this is just to continue the process of looking at poems I've written in different contexts, to see which ones are most robust. Every time I post one, it is an opportunity for me to look at it with new ideas and maybe improve it. </p><p>Feel free to comment if you like one particularly, or if one just doesn't make any sense at all to you, or if there is something fundamentally wrong, you think, with how it scans or plays out. Feel free not to, of course.</p><p>I also, a year or so ago, did a Zoom poetry course, which was ok, gave some confidence and some steps forward, and I did learn one or two useful things - one of which was that I'm not very good at giving titles, and sometimes my poems are too much like riddles, or they ask too much prior knowledge from people (naturally enough, considering who I am and what I do). So that's something I'm also working on, and I'd be happy to receive any notes about.</p><p>I'll begin with a short one, called:</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Taking the L</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I made a small mistake<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which made<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the engine stall and broke the brake<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which woke<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the cat who lived next door.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He doesn’t live next door no more.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 1.0pt; margin: 1pt 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ErnoSNCMbn8YfKeo7bvVOgqVL4I6NkhDi8k79zLREcX6OyDL2ffB_Jj7iz3ADnrbnA0Y9EjgrrwE3TN4q3McbT4IWL-Y9EPywgOW5VSMmDLBgKnEoBz39usJElOWfJdXp_SQsYyfaIqRnN0XUsJHyy0Wo6K-85-jf2MsX8jZjfkcuwXQTrJdRrclcG_h/s690/cat-scared.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="690" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ErnoSNCMbn8YfKeo7bvVOgqVL4I6NkhDi8k79zLREcX6OyDL2ffB_Jj7iz3ADnrbnA0Y9EjgrrwE3TN4q3McbT4IWL-Y9EPywgOW5VSMmDLBgKnEoBz39usJElOWfJdXp_SQsYyfaIqRnN0XUsJHyy0Wo6K-85-jf2MsX8jZjfkcuwXQTrJdRrclcG_h/s320/cat-scared.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7118745453115920803.post-77680467098528009732024-01-14T09:18:00.001+00:002024-01-14T11:05:45.054+00:00Top Singles of the 1990s<p>This is hardly a new idea, either for me or for anyone else. I have previously made a list of 89-93 (The Capital Years), I've done 93-98 (Britpop Years) and I've done 98-05ish (Interim Pop). But, still, I think this is worth doing. It is a thing that can be somewhat perfect.</p><p>It's going to be a playlist of 100 songs, not a rundown from 100 to 1. There'll be 10 from each year (or maybe 9 or 11, but no more variance than that) from 1990 to 1999. There'll be a spread of genres. There can only be one song by each act. Anything eligible for the singles charts counts, which includes songs from EPs (which I'll get to shortly).</p><p>This decade was a time for great singles, but, conversely, not a great time for singles. It was the era when the cracks (which have never healed) started to show in the singles charts - too many high new entries, too many one-week Number 1s, a gradual spread of indifference to Top of the Pops.</p><p>There were a lot of fabled genres battling for space in the 90s - daisy age rap, gangsta rap, trip hop, acid jazz, grunge, britpop, house, ragga, dancehall, new jack swing, rave, shoegaze, garage, nu-metal, punk-pop, alt-country, but, let's be honest, the main thing in the charts, and the most resilient genre of all, was dance-pop. Pop music you could dance to. Dance music you could pop to. A sound came along in the late 80s/early 90s which hasn't really gone away.</p><p>Some of that stuff is good, though it's not my favourite. There was more weird stuff at the top of the charts in the early 90s than in the late 90s, I think. Everything got more and more focused and professional, and that trend carried on with a vengeance into the 2000s.</p><p>It was when I was compiling playlists for our wedding day in 2014 that I realised, looking at what I'd put together, how much fondness I had for the chart hits of the early 90s, a time I'd previously assigned to being a bit of a dead zone for my taste, before I got into music in a big way, but also not full of "classic" rock. That fondness holds. 1992 and 1993 are surprisingly vintage years for big, slightly weird singles.</p><p>An interesting thing I've noted is that, while pretty much all the music I deeply love now is not truly popular, the music I listened to until around 2000 was pretty much all popular. When I was a kid, I knew nothing but pop music and classics; when I initially got into indie music, indie bestrode the charts. I was used to songs I instinctively liked being hit singles throughout this whole decade. Something that has not really been true since (though I do still like plenty of pop songs, or tell myself i do).</p><p>Putting this list together, I tried to have a rule that I had to love every song I include, both at the time it was released, and now. The latter is true; the former is almost true, but not quite. There are a few classics which passed me by when I was younger. But not many. None of this is highly obscure. All singles. Mostly successful singles - that's broadly the point of the list. Some weren't that successful, but that will be hopefully interesting too. </p><p>This is a combination of "best" and "favourite". A lot of it is chosen for notability, but some are just personal favourites. I don't think anyone else would put Shorley Wall by Ooberman in their list of 100 Greatest Singles of the 1990s. But, still, Shorley Wall is interesting, because people did really try to make it happen. It was re-released twice, it was Single of the Week in various publications, you'd hear it a lot on the radio in the late 90s, but it never quite made it.</p><p>Talking of the late 90s, it is my contention that the EPs released by the Beta Band, Super Furry Animals and Belle and Sebastian in the late 90s were the all-time high point for British indie - such imagination, singularity, range, songcraft. Anyone who thinks British music was in the doldrums in the late 90s is very mistaken - that's the future we could have had. All of those bands were influential, but deserved to be more influential.</p><p>And it's something of a relief that this list is defined by the UK singles chart. I don't have to include Pavement. I'm not even going to include Wilco. Other acts I'm not going to include, for reasons I've discussed before (the "reasons" being I just don't like'em, mainly) are Primal Scream, Prince, The Stone Roses, Michael Jackson, the Backstreet Boys and The Spice Girls.</p><p>And there will absolutely be naff stuff. Some, not much:</p><p>Here it is:</p><p><a href="https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/100-from-90-to-99/pl.u-76MjyuJg3pr" target="_blank">https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/100-from-90-to-99/pl.u-76MjyuJg3pr</a><br /></p><p>and here it is:</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Groove is in the Heart - Deee-Lite</li><li>Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor</li><li>There She Goes - The La's</li><li>The Magic Number - De La Soul</li><li>Vogue - Madonna</li><li>Being Boring - Pet Shop Boys </li><li>Can I Kick It? - A Tribe Called Quest</li><li>Nothing Ever Happens - Del Amitri</li><li>Doin' The Do - Betty Boo</li><li>Unbelievable - EMF</li><li>Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana</li><li>Justified and Ancient - The KLF ft Tammi Wynette</li><li>Birdhouse in your Soul - They Might Be Giants</li><li>Crazy - Seal</li><li>Stars - Simply Red</li><li>Sit Down - James</li><li>Fall at Your Feet - Crowded House</li><li>Summertime - Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince</li><li>You Got the Love - The Source ft Candi Station</li><li>Innuendo - Queen</li><li>Too Young to Die - Jamiroquai</li><li>November Rain - Guns N'Roses</li><li>People Everyday - Arrested Development</li><li>Walking on Broken Glass - Annie Lennox</li><li>Goodnight Girl - Wet Wet Wet</li><li>Stay - Shakespears Sister</li><li>Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers</li><li>Sheela Na Gig - PJ Harvey </li><li>One - U2</li><li>Out of Space - The Prodigy</li><li>Sound of Da Police - KRS-One</li><li>No Rain - Blind Melon</li><li>Cannonball - The Breeders</li><li>Two Princes - The Spin Doctors</li><li>Oh Carolina - Shaggy</li><li>Everybody Hurts - REM</li><li>Ain't No Love Ain't No Use - Sub Sub</li><li>Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine</li><li>Rebel Girl - Bikini Kill</li><li>That's The Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson</li><li>Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos</li><li>Regulate - Warren G and Nate Dogg</li><li>Confide in Me - Kylie Minogue</li><li>Stay Together - Suede</li><li>Live Forever - Oasis</li><li>Basket Case - Green Day</li><li>Sabotage - Beastie Boys</li><li>Here Comes the Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze</li><li>You And Me Song - Wannadies</li><li>Trouble - Shampoo </li><li>Back for Good - Take That</li><li>Yes - McAlmont and Butler</li><li>Tiny Tears - Tindersticks</li><li>Set You Free - N-Trance</li><li>This is How We Do It - Montell Jordan </li><li>Waterfalls - TLC</li><li>Fantasy - Mariah Carey</li><li>Buddy Holly - Weezer</li><li>Common People - Pulp </li><li>You Oughta Know - Alanis Morisette</li><li>Hyperballad - Bjork</li><li>Come Out 2Nite - Kenickie</li><li>Ocean Drive - The Lighthouse Family</li><li>Give Me a Little More Time - Gabrielle</li><li>If It Makes you Happy - Sheryl Crow</li><li>On and On - The Longpigs</li><li>A Design for Life - Manic Street Preachers</li><li>Born Slippy - Underworld</li><li>The State I Am In - Belle and Sebastian</li><li>No Diggity - Blackstreet</li><li>Torn - Natalie Imbruglia </li><li>No Surprises - Radiohead</li><li>Beetlebum - Blur</li><li>Don’t' Speak - No Doubt</li><li>Mmmbop - Hanson</li><li>Dry the Rain - Beta Band</li><li>Sock it 2 Me - Missy Elliott </li><li>Triumph - Wu-Tang Clan</li><li>Perfect Day – Various Artists for Children in Need</li><li>Sun Hits the Sky - Supergrass</li><li>Music Sounds Better with You - Stardust</li><li>Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals</li><li>Never Ever - All Saints</li><li>Teardrop - Massive Attack ft Liz Fraser</li><li>When I Argue I See Shapes - Idlewild</li><li>Monday Morning 5.19 - Rialto</li><li>Brimful of Asha - Cornershop</li><li>Road Rage - Catatonia </li><li>Outside - George
Michael</li><li>Goddess on a Hiway - Mercury Rev</li><li>Shackles - Mary Mary</li><li>Waiting for a Superman - Flaming Lips</li><li>I Try - Macy Gray</li><li>Drinking in LA - Bran van 3000</li><li>My Name Is - Eminem</li><li>Maria - Blondie</li><li>Shorley Wall - Ooberman</li><li>You Get What You Give - New Radicals </li><li>Doo-Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill</li><li>It's Not Right But It's OK - Whitney Houston</li></ul><div>And here, for what it's worth, because i can never keep a lid on it, are some others that almost were included ...</div><o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">7 Seconds - Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'dour, Nancy Boy –
Placebo, It's Alright - East 17, Gone Till November - Wyclef Jean, Insomnia –
Faithless, Your Woman - White Town, Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger, Apparently
Nothing - Young Disciples, The Size of a Cow - The Wonder Stuff, Sleeping
Satellite - Tamsin Archer, River of Dreams - Billy Joel, Jump Around - House of
Pain, One Night in Heaven - M People, Pretend We're Dead - L7, Faded Glamour -
Animals that Swim, Call it What You Want - Credit to the Nation, Today -
Smashing Pumpkins, Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill, Ebenezer Goode - The
Shamen, Right Here – SWV, Always – Erasure, Reverend Black Grape - Black Grape,
Wake Up Boo - Boo Radleys, For the Dead – Gene, Lady Killers – Lush, Sweetness
- Michelle Gayle, Turn on, Tune in, Cop Out - Freak Power, Summertime - The
Sundays, Always - Bon Jovi, Three Lions - B, S and LS, How Bizarre – OMC, El
President – Drugstore, Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison, The Drugs Don't Work
- The Verve, Even After All - Finley Quaye, I Ain't Mad Atcha - 2Pac, Hallo
Spaceboy - David Bowie, He Got Game - Public Enemy, This Feeling – Puressence, The
First Big Weekend - Arab Strap, Chase the Sun- Planet Funk, The Boy is Mine -
Brandy and Monica, End of the Line - The Honeyz, Black and White - Asian Dub
Foundation, To Earth With Love - Gay Dad, Sing it Back – Moloko, Stay Young -
Ultrasound , Jungle Tings Proper - Roots Manuva, Fade Into You - Mazzy Star, On
& On - Erykah Badu, Glory Box - Portishead, Connection - Elastica<o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0