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POETRYETC  January 2015

POETRYETC January 2015

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Subject:

Re: come friendly bombs

From:

Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Poetryetc: poetry and poetics

Date:

Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:12:51 +1100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (163 lines)

Never take on 'the records', L. 


> On 23 Jan 2015, at 9:43 pm, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> That is so funny Doc Daneeka because so well observed. I recently
> complained to HSBC, "my" bank, that they hadn't told me. They said they
> had, date and time; and when I protested that whoever said that would have
> found the phone just ringing, answerphone not on, they denied it on the
> grounds that their records supported them
> 
> L
> 
>> On 23 January 2015 at 02:11, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>> No cheering for German planes here that I can see, Pat but a fascinating
>> poem. Reminds me of 'Poor Doc Daneeka' in Catch 22, whose death is lamented
>> because he is on the flying list when McWatt crashes his plane deliberately
>> into a cliff after accidentally slicing pontoon-standing Hungry Joe in half
>> with a too-low pass in his plane. Doc bounces around, pointing out that he
>> is still alive and that the list had been forged to boost his flying hours.
>> No matter; to Yossarian et al, he is a dead man.
>> 
>> Can it be true that your continued existence is due to this quirk of fate?
>> 
>> Thanks, Max, too, for reminding me of the Slough poem, a beauty.
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> 
>>>> On 23 Jan 2015, at 10:27 am, Patrick McManus <
>>> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Bill I found it !!not easy in my 400 or so poems
>>> Published in 'Jigsaw'
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> FAMILY SECRET
>>> MY SECOND AFTERNOON
>>> -NOT AT SCHOOL
>>> 
>>> First day
>>> I saw school, I did not like it!
>>> I screamed and screamed, and screamed
>>> my mother was summoned, to take me home
>>> 
>>> second day
>>> I saw school, I did not like it!
>>> I screamed and screamed, and screamed
>>> again my mother, was summoned
>>> later in disgrace, big disgrace
>>> headmistress's office, big and cold
>>> my mother was told, told off!
>>> never have we allowed, a child
>>> a child to go home, on his second
>>> his second day, it's disgraceful!
>>> sort him out, bring him back tomorrow!
>>> or there will trouble, a lot of trouble!
>>> 
>>> later I sat snug, with biscuits under
>>> under the counter, at my mum's job
>>> safe in the hairdressers, all cosy
>>> I remember nothing, nothing more.
>>> 
>>> over over forty years later
>>> my mother so ill, so ill said
>>> said, all drugged and confused
>>> I want, to tell you something
>>> I do not want to upset you, but
>>> but do you remember, remember
>>> on your second day, at school
>>> when you made your second, yes
>>> second big scene, and was disgraced
>>> and the headmistress, was outraged
>>> and, I took you with me to work?
>>> 
>>> soon after, the school was bombed
>>> many children, and teachers died
>>> 
>>> on the radio, they read out sadly
>>> read out the list, of those killed
>>> your granny heard it, heard your name!
>>> they found your card, by your desk
>>> 
>>> we decided not, not to tell you
>>> also you had a sister, Margaret
>>> who lived, lived just three days.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> pmcmanus
>>> 413
>>> Published in Jigsaw
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>>> Behalf Of Max Richards
>>> Sent: 22 January 2015 15:47
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: come friendly bombs
>>> 
>>>> On Jan 22, 2015, at 9:22 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Find the poem, Herr Pat or re-write it. What a hoot!
>>>> 
>>>> Bill
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On 22 Jan 2015, at 8:08 pm, Patrick McManus
>>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Enjoyed this warm tale oops nearly wrote tail -and to think that I
>>>>> was a top speller at school -(long long since) I lost my grandmother
>>>>> early on was devastated for years-I remember but probable can't fine
>>>>> a WW2 poem about us together-where the aircraft I was cheering on
>>>>> were actually German and I got hauled back into our air-raid shelter!
>>>>> Cheers P
>>> Slough
>>> 
>>> Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
>>> It isn't fit for humans now,
>>> There isn't grass to graze a cow.
>>> Swarm over, Death!
>>> Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
>>> Those air -conditioned, bright canteens, Tinned fruit, tinned meat,
>> tinned
>>> milk, tinned beans, Tinned minds, tinned breath.
>>> 
>>> Mess up the mess they call a town-
>>> A house for ninety-seven down
>>> And once a week a half a crown
>>> For twenty years.
>>> 
>>> And get that man with double chin
>>> Who'll always cheat and always win,
>>> Who washes his repulsive skin
>>> In women's tears:
>>> 
>>> And smash his desk of polished oak
>>> And smash his hands so used to stroke
>>> And stop his boring dirty joke
>>> And make him yell.
>>> 
>>> Slough
>>> 
>>> by John Betjeman (1906 - 1984)
>>> 
>>> John Betjeman published his poem about Slough in 1937 in the collected
>> works
>>> Continual Dew. Slough was becoming increasingly industrial and some
>> housing
>>> conditions were very cramped. In willing the destruction of Slough,
>> Betjeman
>>> urges the bombs to pick out the vulgar profiteers but to spare the bald
>>> young clerks. He really was very fond of his fellow human beings. Slough
>> is
>>> much improved nowadays and he might be pleasantly surprised by a stroll
>>> there.
>>> 
>>> http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/intuition/Slough.html=
> 

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