The Final Happily Never After (Part 3)

 If you're not sure what this - or how how intrepid heroes could have got this far - then check out the first edition of Happily Never After, and Happily Never After part 2 or we could kick start everything with the short version - but where's the fun in that? 
   
The short version.   The Narrator is having a bad day.  He (or she) is angry the story-book characters are not behaving like they're supposed to.  They don't want to speak in rhyme and they certainly don't want to get married.  So the narrator's decided to conjure up a giant with the help of his magic book and get rid of these annoying characters once and for all...



And so with no further ado
The next section after part two:

NARRATOR turning page: Ahem. 

Since our heroes would not wed,

The giant came and killed them --

JACK: Stop right there.  We don't want to die.

RAPUNZEL: And marry?  Never.

RAPUNZEL runs to NARRATOR and turns the last page of the narrator's book.

RAPUNZEL: Jack and Rapunzel become famous pilots and live happily ever after.

JACK: But--

RAPUNZEL: And they never get married to anyone.

JACK: Yay. Let's go! 

JACK and RAPUNZEL run off stage.

GIANT (sniffing): But I'm still hungry -- and I can still smell the blood of an Englishman.

NARRATOR: How did you know I was English?

NARRATOR runs off stage followed by GIANT.

THE END

A.J. Ponder

And so the end of our epic tale, the boards are bare,  the heroes have gone home for dinner, and thanks to these people for the book cover.  It's perfect.  (After all, I believe the giant is still chasing that narrator!)

Don't forget to always climb beanstalks when the opportunity presents.  Sometimes there may be giants, but more often I think you'll find geese with golden eggs and other such novelties.  So go on, go, and search for your treasures  at this your local beanstalk.  (Otherwise known as The Tuesday Poem Hub.)
Or this beanstalk leading directly to the Portal of Fairytale Poetry. 

If anybody knows some I've forgotten, please message me (note, poems are in alphabetical order)

A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

Happily Never After (part 2)

If you're not sure what this - or how how intrepid heroes could have got this far - then check out the first edition of Happily Never After - right here.

Otherwise, how about kicking back with the short version: The narrator is disappointed because his story is not quite going as planned - Rapunzel is refusing to be rescued on the grounds she'd rather stay with the witch, and  so sensibly she declines the extremely painful experience of having someone climb up her hair. Jack, the ostensible hero is somewhat relieved...   

And so with no further ado:
Happily NEver After
Part Two

RAPUNZEL: And have him climb up it?  I told you -- I don't want to be rescued.

JACK starts walking away.

NARRATOR: So Jack the oaf went on his way,

no princess would be wed this day.

RAPUNZEL (waves): Thanks for not rescuing me.

JACK: Any time.  Dashing pilots never rescue people unless they really want to be rescued.

RAPUNZEL: A pilot?  I love flying, -- and broomsticks are so cold and uncomfortable.  

RAPUNZEL jumps down off her tower and runs to Jack.

NARRATOR: What?

RAPUNZEL: Let's go.

JACK: Good idea.  Where?

NARRATOR turns page.

NARRATOR: Long our heroes walked and walked

to seek and find the huge beanstalk.

JACK and RAPUNZEL walk offstage.

NARRATOR: Then they climbed up, up, up, up,

until they reached the tip, top, tup.

 JACK and RAPUNZEL walk onstage.

JACK: Gosh that was a terrible rhyme.  I think they're getting worse.

RAPUNZEL: I think you're right.

NARRATOR glares at the two heroes and turns the page.

NARRATOR: Fine.  Here's a giant for you to fight.

GIANT walks onstage.

GIANT: Fee, fi, fo, fum.

I smell the blood of an English-man.

JACK: English?  Do I look English?

RAPUNZEL: Man?  Do I look like a man?

GIANT: Boy on toast, girl on bread,

with just one bite you'll both be dead.

     GIANT chases JACK and RAPUNZEL.

JACK: Oh no!  When the narrator turns the page, whatever he says comes true.

NARRATOR turning page: Ahem. 

Since our heroes would not wed,

The giant came and killed them --

And so...(dramatic music)...will our two intrepid heroes survive?

Or will the narrator manage to kill off his two less than accommodating lead characters?

Hold onto your glass slippers - keep your finger on the magic portal at the Tuesday Poem:(same magic portal, same magic time, same magic place if you don't want to miss awesome poems from New Zealand and all around the world)and hold your breath for next week's final exciting edition of Happily Never After.


Happily Never After part 3 - just a small magical twitch of a finger away....

A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
 

Happily Never After: A play where the narrator plays with poetry

ok this probably deserves a little introduction - it's a play where the Narrator has got it in his/her head that rhyming is the order of the day...but nobody else quite has the narrators enthusiasm.

Happily Never After
by A. J.  Ponder

CHARACTERS:

• NARRATOR
• JACK
• RAPUNZEL
• GIANT

Scene: The NARRATOR is reading from a large book.  RAPUNZEL is in her tower.  JACK is walking onstage.

NARRATOR: Long ago and once upon a time,

Our hero Jack would speak in rhyme.

JACK: What?  No I don't, I want to be a famous pilot.

NARRATOR turns page.

NARRATOR:  Hmmm.  Jack didn't look where he was going, and fell into a puddle.

JACK falls over.

JACK: Ouch!  What do you think you're doing?

NARRATOR: Not rhyming.

JACK: You rhyme, I'll fight the monsters, ok?

Jack walks to RAPUNZEL's tower.

NARRATOR: Soon our Jack, so brave and bold,

found a tower of burnished gold.

RAPUNZEL (leaning out): That better not be some idiot prince come to rescue me.

JACK: No, definitely not.

NARRATOR: Jack go rescue the fair maid,

an evil witch has her afraid --

RAPUNZEL: That's not true.  Well, she is a witch, but only her cabbage stew is evil.

JACK: Yuk!

RAPUNZEL: Yes it's horrible, but on the up side she is giving me flying lessons.

JACK: Really?  Could I learn?

RAPUNZEL:  No.  Whoever heard of a boy riding a broomstick? Go away.

NARRATOR: Now Rapunzel, maiden fair,

Shouldn't you let down your hair?

RAPUNZEL: And have him climb up it?  I told you -- I don't want to be rescued.



And so (dramatic music) you will have to wait till next week to discover:
Will the fair maiden be rescued?
Will the narrator get the rhyming and romance they desire?
Or will Jack become the famous pilot he always wanted?
Hold onto your glass slippers -keep your finger on the magic portal at the Tuesday Poem:(same magic portal, same magic time, same magic place)

Or go straight to Happily Never After Part 2
 
and remember...
Sometimes its important to let down your hair. And sometimes its best not to let people climb up it - but when they do - I think P S Cottier's Rapunzel (here) has the exact right attitude ;)

A.J.
 
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

The Cold Truth

dead men stare
with open eyes
(O)     (O)
they cannot see
and you
likewise

A.J. Ponder


The cold truth was brought to you by a very young cynic. Grown into an older one.
Again after twenty odd years, thought I'd better actually claim this one - before somebody else does - if they haven't already - can't imagine I'm the only one who thought of it!
Sorry Hells, I do have some cheery poetry, but I'm saving that for the dead of winter :)

And damn - but it's annoying how it keeps loosing the gaps between the eyes. It's a very squinty skull!


Yes, this is a reblog from over two years ago - I can't believe I've been running  "An Affliction" for so long - but there you are. 

So, to business, lots of exciting writing projects are happening right now, I'd better get on with them, but not before wishing you all the best with your endeavours, 

A.J.
 
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

Tuesday Poem: Colour Management

Warning:
the document's embedded colour file does not match
the current RGB working space

There are no words to describe it
binary codes do not do it justice
after all your eyes are only
prisons
for light
and management will always
make the final decision.

Interpreted and
mismatched
and discarded
just as quickly
the cones
have discontinued service
this workspace is now
torn assunder:


 
Alright - quick and dirty -  and yes - my mind has been completely blown away by the latest Photoshop - it wouldn't be so bad - but I really totally and completely cannot get me head around the colour management.  Last minute I was told my old standby the JPG was out - so now...

Help!!!???


And for more wonderful poems at the Tuesday Poem, I believe there is even a poem of pictures by Andrew Bell - so I can't wait to look - I just have to return to the PS hell imagine being able to do so much and not even knowing where to start.




A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W. B. Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, 
Enwrought with golden and silver light, 
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths 
Of night and light and the half-light, 
I would spread the cloths under your feet: 
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; 
I have spread my dreams under your feet; 
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.


 I found this poem by W.B, Yeats recited by Sir Ken Robinson in a TED speech; "Bring on the learning revolution!" (youtube)

It had some great - and one would thing really quite self-evident titbits of wisdom like -


 "A three year old is not half a six year old."  And while one would think that is self evident, sometimes - not so much.


But most enthralling was the way he wove this poem into the end of his narrative about how schools should - and I think they (very) gradually are - becoming places that are less interested in the factory model and more interested in growing individuals.  The problem is as he points out earlier in the speech -

"It's very hard to know what it is you take for granted - and the reason is...that you take it for granted."

In science it's called questioning your assumptions.  So while his speech was about the learning of children - perhaps it is the learning revolution of adults that most urgently needs to take place in this fast paced modern environment.

Anyway that's more than enough philosophising and speechifying when more poetry awaits with wonders and adventure for all those who dare to travel the 'verse. Travelling the Verse portal is just a click away! ;)

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

Cul-de-Sac

I am walking

I was walking

I will be walking

past the road to nowhere

down the oft turned lane

where the green grass is speckled with daisies

Time to turn the fresh-faced flowers

into chains

 link to more Richard Ponder art

I am picking flowers                                                         

I was picking flowers

I will be picking flowers

in the lost paths

down in the meadow

where the horses are grazing

Keeping the grass

            short enough 
for ghosts


 A.J. Ponder


Alright - that's not exactly the picture I wanted - or at least not the one I had in mind - but I think it works well enough.  Better possibly.  Let me sleep on it and make up my mind.  In the meantime I hope you enjoyed meandering through this temporary field speckled more with pixels than with daisies, so I would caution you not to try picking them out - or in fact using them for chains, not even to make crowns or bracelets, after all some flowers were always meant to be wild.

To connect to more Fairy Tale poetry I've installed a rabbit hole within this field, so if you find yourself, by chance, becoming curiouser and curiouser - please at least know I gave fair warning.   And enjoy :)

 A.J. Ponder's work is also available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores