Have a Nice Day by Spike Milligan

Obviously the poem -  Have a Nice Day- is still in copyright, so instead of posting it here are a number of links,

video https://vimeo.com/96133058
Poetry site http://allpoetry.com/Have-A-Nice-day

Have a Nice Day starts...
'Help, help, ' said a man. 'I'm drowning.'
'Hang on, ' said a man from the shore.
'Help, help, ' said the man. 'I'm not clowning.'
'Yes, I know, I heard you before...
...

Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan is one of the people in this world who was happy to turn his hand to anything, television, writing, poetry, all with an endearing gusto and often biting black humour. He had severe bipolar disorder,

"I have got so low that I have asked to be hospitalised and for deep narcosis (sleep). I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much ... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning – I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo. Normally I am the centre of attention, keep the conversation going – so that is depressing in itself. It's like another person taking over, very strange. The most important thing I say is 'good evening' and then I go quiet.^"

 ^{Why I chose this poem even though I couldn't actually post it..}

Even without Spike Milligan's history it's pretty obvious the absent Dr Browning is no bit-player in this poem - but in the face of death and disaster the protagonist says he's had a very nice day. The stiff upper lip, ubiquitous phrases that permeate modern (and not so modern) life, "have a nice day" "how are you/I'm well" "good evening" where nobody says it like it is. So yes, I really enjoyed it, as it hit the spot on the complain-o-meter without actually complaining ;)

So that's it for this week, a total cheat, and remember not to have maybe not a nice day, but a fantastic week! Hopefully will be up for a poem by then.

A.J.

This week - working toward Waste Not

This week, I'm working on a new piece - Waste Not - although I admit several other titles did jump to mind. WastE NotE being one of them. Too much. Yes, obviously. But you know...too much waste is kind of the problem.

There have certainly been some interesting advances, discoveries when it comes to recycling.

People are looking at obtaining gold and precious metals from sewerage, and of course drinking water is a precious resource that many cities have been recycling for years.


Turning food waste into glass is newish, although banana skins and sugar cane have long had the fiber within used as a strengthening agent instead of fiberglass because of the weight savings. And to be honest to me it seems an interesting experiment, but possibly not the best use possible for food scraps.

It's interesting that waste and energy are two of our biggest problems, so it will be equally interesting to see how (and if) the advances in each field will compliment the other. It seems some countries are even importing waste for that purpose!

The video? Bill Gates swigging down some recycled water  :)

So yes, apologies, but poems at this time of the year are slow...

(Links)
Gold/precious metals: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/23/gold-in-faeces-worth-millions-save-environment
Glass: http://ceramics.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Cover-Story_Aug14.pdf
Water etc: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jan/20/turning-human-waste-into-drinking-water
Energy: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/14/norway-waste-energy

Port of Poems: for pirates, smugglers and other rogues

Given the popularity of the Portal to Fairy Tale Poetry, I thought, why not pirates and the like!
With links to my poetry, some great poets, and some I've just found. If you find some more, I'd love for you to leave a comment, or for my shy friends, (you know who you are:) ), talk to me and I'll add them.

In the meantime, 
Enjoy!
(poems are in alphabetical order)

A Ballad of John Silver by John Masefield

We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the cross-bones and the skull;  

read aloud or read the words yourself

 

A Smuggler's Song by Rudyard Kipling

An amazing poem...if you don't remember, it starts like this...
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.

Articles of Faith

Part 1: Pirate's life & Part 2: How Doth the Deinosuchus

Part 3 Dancing Pirates by A.J.Ponder

The use of pirates as a metaphor for

Cargoes by Poet Laureate John Masefield

Nice contrast of the exotic against industrial Britain. And in the juxtaposition lies the tragedy. The poem is featured by both Helen McKinlay and Helen Lowe on their Tuesday Poem blogs.

Here be Dragons by A.J. Ponder

Yo ho
and there's a map to
where the skeletons lie,
sunning themselves
on the sand and
Spanish gold...

 

Murdering Poetry by A.J. Ponder

I would kill... 

Timothy The Pirate by Charles M. Moore

 "...Timothy the pirate
he didn't like the sea..."

Piracy by A.J. Ponder

I still quite like this, it's space pirates (so insane) and the pace gathers momentum as the tragedy unfolds. :)

Pirate Story by Robert Louis Stevenson

I'm not sure how anyone can resist the cute version of kids playing pirate on the lawn.

And so, there we have them all. The pirates we love to love, and love to hate, have a great week! And if you haven't yet had enough poetry, there are always more fabulous poems on the Tuesday Poem Hub, or on my blog,

 

A.J.

Find my stories and support my writing on ko-fi 

And tell me which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024? https://ko-fi.com/ajponder

The Pirates in England by Rudyard Kipling

When Rome was rotten-ripe to her fall,
  And the sceptre passed from her hand,
The pestilent Picts leaped over the wall
  To harry the English land.

The little dark men of the mountain and waste,
  So quick to laughter and tears,
They came panting with hate and haste
  For the loot of five hundred years.

They killed the trader, they sacked the shops,
  They ruined temple and town-
They swept like wolves through the standing crops
  Crying that Rome was down.

They wiped out all that they could find
  Of beauty and strength and worth,
But they could not wipe out the Viking's Wind
  That brings the ships from the North.

They could not wipe out the North-East gales
  Nor what those gales set free-
The pirate ships with their close-reefed sails,
  Leaping from sea to sea.

They had forgotten the shield-hung hull
  Seen nearer and more plain,
Dipping into the troughs like a gull,
  And gull-like rising again-

The painted eyes that glare and frown
  In the high snake-headed stem,
Searching the beach while her sail comes down,
  They had forgotten them!

There was no Count of the Saxon Shore
  To meet her hand to hand,
As she took the beach with a grind and a roar,
  And the pirates rushed inland!


Rudyard Kipling (Saxon Invasion, A.D. 400-600)

First published in Three Poems (1911) The Pirates in England was originally called The Pirates of England. It's quite different to his, A Pict Song here, whatever anyone else may say. Because Rudyard Kipling is so awesome ...and out of copyright...other Rudyard Kipling Poems on this website are The Vampire and, my favourite, A Smuggler's Song.

Enjoy your week!

A.J.  
P.S. Next Week's Pirate Portal...(and various other vagabonds - it depends what I find)...should end my obsession with pirates for a while.