This isn't really a post - just a link. It's an old poem...it's in the book and it's here too. The other thing that sparked it (that I don't mention elsewhere) was a poem by a schoolgirl in one of the local papers. I wrote it in 2006.
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Alchemy by Rae Spencer
2 hours ago
4 comments:
Liked the 4th stanza best of all.
I once tried to write a Bush and Blair Anthem as you put it - I wasn't exactly lost for words, but I've lost them since - must be in some corner of a hard-drive somewhere.
I never think of "radical anthems" without thinking of Shelley's Mask of Anarchy.
It's such a tricky subject. You want to write about it (or at least I do) but there are risks (not least looking like a complete twat writing about something you don't really know/understand...or even worse coming up with some really neat piece that bangs drums but is all wrong, totally missing any points there might be to find).
I've read this one aloud to audiences a few times (and in fact there is an audio version on my website - see poems, see occasions). I always find my voice goes funny at 'some quickly, some slowly'. Even typing it there's a tear coming. Jeez, I'd be no use in a battle situation (unless you can cry a person to death).
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Well said! You'd think after millions of years, men could think of a better way to settle their differences than by killing each other.
I like that you didn't point fingers at anyone in particular, because this allowed the focus to become those left behind.
It is part of the job here I suppose (and part of the job with all writing for me in a way). You don't want to simplify but you don't want to overcomplicate either.
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