Rudyard Kipling " A Smuggler's Song"

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.
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk.
Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by!
Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrels, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine,
Don't you shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play.
Put the brishwood back again - and they'll be gone next day !
If you see the stable-door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm - don't you ask no more !
If you meet King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you " pretty maid," and chuck you 'neath the chin,
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been !
Knocks and footsteps round the house - whistles after dark -
You've no call for running out till the house-dogs bark.
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb they lie
They don't fret to follow when the Gentlemen go by !
'If You do as you've been told, 'likely there's a chance,
You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France,
With a cap of Valenciennes, and a velvet hood -
A present from the Gentlemen, along 'o being good !
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson, 'Baccy for the Clerk.
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie -
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by ! 

This is such a lovely sweet poem with amazing rhyme and rhythmn, but it's the sinister edge and atmosphere that make it great!

P.S. "Touchdown!" is now out.  School Journal Part 2 No4 2010  "Scene: A spaceship is landing on an alien planet... "

A..J. Ponder 

Fairy Tale Conventions

We are the child

Stepping out into a world of danger

We are the guardians of the child

Watching the path

And although the answer is no

It's always, 'no'-

The child goes -

We go

All the way to the end

Because

When the road is bleak

And full of wolves

Someone must hold our hands

A..J. Ponder 

In the world of Fairy tales danger lurks around every corner, which of course only makes the journey more more irresistible.  This poem is for every child with whom I have walked that path into brilliant darkness.

For more fairytale poetry click here to my Fairytale Poetry Hub

 

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A Sonnet to the Muse

Shall I compare thee, or shall I just write

Oh my demon, summer died as you drove

A plague of words

As black and dark as night

Through my heart and through my head.  Words you wove -

Yes you did - with a tongue so slick and sweet

My world held neither shadows nor delight

Nought but bloody threads

Spilling your own neat

Hell upon darkened pages of my life

But my torment is not your tapestry of text

Nor ink-smudged tears dried long upon my face

Tis but the fear that

You will set me free -

So let dead summers sink without a trace

Let words plague every corner, every part

My demon stitch the small world of my heart.



Much as I adore simplicity, there is no way I could compete with Helen's poem, Truths, so I thought why not go to the other extreme!  Everyone should have a go at writing a sonnet, with the reversal et al. at some stage of their life. One could say this sonnet is a little more textured than a traditional sonnet, but only a little, and it was great fun to write. 

A..J. Ponder 

Also, if you love sonnets and want to read some more "This Year of Fire"  and "Running Away with a Christmas Sonnet" are fun, and if you want to learn how to write a sonnet The The Poetically Incorrect English Sonnet is there to help (watch out for the bad language though!

 

Memorial

Mind the present that

I give you

The bow is tied askew

Just for you

A rainbow

Of love

The cupboards

And the kitchen wall

Brushed bright in every hue

Just for you

Confound it

All the words

Shall fall

Forgotten paintings

Blank and white

Against the wall

Against the page

And always you shall see

The note that never set you free

Just for you

#

A certain warhorse

Teeth kicked askew

Hearts beating

Bites all its tongues in laughter;

Half without

and half  -

Forever After

A..J. Ponder 

There is a certain saying, never look a gift-horse in the mouth.  And yet some gifts come with their own sadness.  This poem refers rather obscurely to a gift from my colour-blind grandfather to my grandmother.  The bright colours intended to cheer her had a somewhat opposite effect, serving only to remind them both of their thwarted passion for art.







For more poetry please go to the Tuesday Poem blog by clicking on the link.

No Tuesday Poem: Sick

.

Questioning the Status Quo

Questioning the Status Quo

Why do we measure achievement in money?

Why do we allow ourselves to be held hostage by tradition?

Why is the food pyramid still taught in schools?

Why is birth control not encouraged along with aid to impoverished nations?

Why, after we won the right for a 40 hour working week, did we throw in the towel?

Why do older kids do better at school

and sport?

Why is there no consistency of care for our vulnerable youth?

Why do we have a four-term school year?

Why were women expected to stay at home,

expected to work,

and finally expected to do both?

Why does everybody shrug and say,

that's the way it is, because that's the way it's always been.,

Since when has that lie been an acceptable answer?

Many things have a long and revered history,

racism

slavery

cannibalism...

Fine, the history isn't revered, but at the time

Such behaviours were accepted as normal,

even respected, worshiped,

as the order of things.

The fight against the old evils isn't over,

while the fight against new evils has just begun.

But let us not start with,

"That is the way things have always been."

In the past they were worse.

Don't we have more hope than that for the future?

For the youth we farm out
to schools to welcome them in
and throw them away
four times a year,

How could we care so little? 

A..J. Ponder 

Sometimes it's not the perfect answer that is needed but the perfect question. Sometimes it seems to me that we do things simply because they seem the right thing to do, or we use emotion or tradition or simply what other people are doing to make our decisions rather than looking at all the information objectively. 

It seems wrong to allow ourselves to become so complacent, especially now when times are tough and making good decisions is more important than ever.  Because when there's no room to question the decisions we make, individually and as a society then there is no real freedom.

Don’t Care

Don’t Care

Don’t care didn’t care,
Don’t care was wild:
Don’t care stole plum and pear
Like any beggar’s child.

Don’t care was made to care,
Don’t care was hung:
Don’t care was put in a pot
And boiled till he was done.


Anon.


Another blast from the past.  It's got the brutality and morality of an old fairy tale, a very very short fairy tale, and I remember a certain grandmother having a particular fondness for the second verse.  It wasn't until later that I discovered there was a first verse to go with the second.  with it the poem makes somewhat more sense, and has a wonderful tone and gathering of rhythm that's kind of fun -- but mostly its great because now my children hate it almost as much as I did :)



A..J. Ponder