Followers

Monday 10 May 2010

DEDICATED TO T.P.


This night is as quiet as you,
as cool as the feeling inside,
and the skies as clear as free space
in your thoughtless apathy.

A warm bed is protection,
wombed from the world
in fragile contentment,
but the child is born,
expelled to the world
and struggles to survive.

You will be born,
as surely as nature's inevitability,
alive or stillborn,
for you must develop
in your eiderwomb,
if you are not to die.


Now Read The Truth Of This ....



LAURENCEAUX NCEAU 

MR. AVERAGE?



Mr average
Mr median
Mr middleman,
Mr standard deviant
Mr mean root squared,
Mr miserable
Mr lost
Mr too old to change?
Mr unsuccessful
Mr not to fail
Mr worried like hell today
for Mr off the rails.
WORK Career Promotion Job LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL


DEATH



The inevitability
of the blind-date with death
is a man's solace in life,
a final escape
to a permanent engagement
and marriage in the house of God.
GOD Heaven Death UNION Solace LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL


Monday 3 May 2010

Oh my God I'm still not famous!




You may remember from an earlier blog that I was lined-up for a poetry reading session for a local radio station. Well, I attended that and having spent just over two hours there I can report that my expectation never happened. Sure I read one poem, but then so did many others. The meeting was not as I expected it to be, but none the less enjoyable enough to wish to return for the next "recording" session.

My surprise was an Iraqi immigrant rapper call Mohammad who took one of my poems to rap - I was promised a copy of the final product and if I get it you can hear it. If you wish to read the poem,  That's Life, there is a copy in an earlier blog.

Joe Hakim and Mike Watts, local poets of repute who now obviously wish to expand their public service roles did an excellent job of selling their current project; a vocal / radio celebration of the life and time of the great Hull poet, Philip Larkin, on the 25th anniversary of his death. They want local people to voice, in poetry, their experiences of Hull itself, whether as a visitor or resident (past or present).

I rarely write to order but when asked by Joe to give it a go here is the result - some of my memories of a near lifetime in Hull.

THIS IS 'ULL ...

CHILDHOOD Playing LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL


THIS IS 'ULL (Upton Street)




The firm leatherette feel of well rolled tarmac
and it’s once warmed smell,
and the blackened knees and hands
of interaction
are familiar prints in my galleried mind.
A grey playmate;
a giver of second-hand chewy
and ciggie ends,
uniquely flavoured
but eagerly sought for secondary use
or swops.

Our street,
our Hull street
was our street,
not for Courtney street's gang,
not Mucky Buckies
nor Montrose's
it was our Upton Street,
a dead end street
of clean houses
of clean people
in clean beds
and mucky, happy kids.

Hull was a small place
till I was 11 but I never knew it,
our world was our street,
our wood yard at the dead end
our "farreey" across the drain
where trains and girls could be explored
in equal measure,
ducking down in the long grass
if anyone came.

I didn't know that I lived in a city called Hull,
but I knew my friends,
their parents and Johnny Greensides
who owned the only car.
and the original Mitchell brothers
on their rocker bikes,
hero’s in leather and white scarves.

I was happy in Hull.
I am again happy in Hull.
Even the immigrants are happy in Hull
’cos we are Hull,
we are Kingston Upon Hull
and proud,
proud to know most people;
southerners and media,
even Yorkshire people
don't really know us well,
'cos 'ull is our secret,
a hoard of decent friends.


For reads who may have lived in Upton Street, off Dansom Lane, I have found the following Facebook entries.

One,  Two,  Three


Personal comment - someone came across this poem and made the following comment on Facebook

From  Linda Franks (nee Wildbore) - I lived down Upton Street with the Greensides, the Hewitt's and the Hairsine's . We lived down Rosedale Avenue, where the backyard backed onto a passage and then onto the woodyard. Great times there, playing double ball on the house walls and hanging on to the boot of a car, with our skates on,  for free rides. The Mainprises, the Mitchells and the Moores lived down Primrose Terrace, the Moore's being the last house down there next to the Church in the next street (Courtney Street). Brings back memories.
CHILDHOOD Playing LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL


Sunday 2 May 2010

Sex, Sex, Sex and then just a bit more sex



Maybe because of my age, or a growing awareness of the ages of my four granddaughters, I am becoming sensitised, almost to a point of anger, to the constant drip-drip of overt and overly sexualised images and attitudes that we are all exposed to by "the media". Maybe I am just becoming an old git?

The lazy, easy-money sales pitch that sex(ynes) is all we need to be successful, appreciated and happy, even normal, is seemingly becoming more prevalent, whilst the further assertion that to be "sexy" you have to be young and thin is almost as obscene as the constant exploitation and pitching of aspirational sex(ynes).

Anyway - I'm not sure where to go with this blog so I've posted a poem (from long ago) when tenderness and affection did not require an obligatory fist of fun. (Wink Wink - know what I mean!)

Speaking Hands ...
LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KINGSTON-ON-HULL Kingston On Hull YORKSHIRE East Yorkshire HUMBERSIDE Yorkshire DEPRESSION ThisISUll FED-UP Pissed-Off LONELY Disgruntled DISSOLUSIONED Blue BLACK Thinking BLOG Blogger LYONEL


SPEAKING HANDS




The tender clasp of hands in love.
A combing hand,
a caressing hand,
the tear-trickle of a finger
on a ruddy cheek,
slow movements of tenderness
with the faintest touch
expressing pure love.
No worldly experience;
entwining fingers
searching for oneness;
open hearts joined in touch.
How little cannot be expressed.
SIGNING Purity LAURENCEAUX England LAURENCEAU Lawrenceaux LAWRENCEAU Laureanceaux LAURANCEAU Lawranceaux LAWRANCEAU Loranceaux LORANCEAU Lorranceaux LORRANCEAU POETRY Prose POEMS Social Comments HUMOUR Humerous SMILE Smiling LAUGH Laughing LAFF Laffing CYNICAL Truism TRUISMS Welcome HULL Kingston-Upon-Hull Kingston Upon Hull KING