This week's Poetry Bus task comes from Kat (details here) and she wants us to take a pub's name and come up with something fun and funny. Hm... fun... I can't say I'm really in the mood for writing fun this week. I have been watching a lot of funny TV shows of late but I think that's in a bid to rediscover laughing (after the sad changes of recent months). I've been watching, in case you're interested, 'Big Bang Theory' (excellent – so tight, so well-written), 'Miranda' (charming, innocent, nostalgic... daughter loves it too), 'Six Feet Under' (not really a comedy programme but some wicked funny moments) and 'The Trip' (not funny very often but still... beautifully made and oddly addictive, I find). I've always lived and worked in a place that's caught somewhere between music and comedy, if you know what I mean.
But for now there isn't a funny poem brewing anywhere round these parts I'm afraid – and in fact I think I've only ever written funny poems unintentionally. I'd say 'sorry' about this but I've already posted a poem that has a lot of sorries this week (back here). So instead I present you a new poem about pubs – or about a pub-related memory anyway. After a couple of formal weeks (villanelle two weeks ago... sonnet last week) this is more your splurge of freedom poem. Splat! Take that! Kapow!
Tiles
We were never meant to be there at all
We were years too young
Still smelled of homework
But tapped crazy cats all psyched and hyper
We ran up the street in the dark, dark night
Let doors bang shut 'Hello! Hello!'
Inside, the lights all twinkling, sparkling
Glasses of warm intoxication
And men at the tables, instead of boys
RF 2010
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34 comments:
I don't care if you didn't do "fun", I LOVE this one!
"Still smelled of homework" and "men, instead of boys" - brilliant!
Kat
Cheers Kat. The homework part is pretty literal... at boarding school in a North Yorkshire village some of us used to finish our 'prep' time at about 7.30pm and then escape from school to one of the local pubs (all illictly of course... and for a village it had a lot of pubs!). I was about 14 or 15.
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I tried to find a picture of a glass of lager and black (blackcurrant) because that was what I used to drink in pubs back then - that or vodka and black or orange (neat vodka out in the fields though...). Couldn't find a decent pic though - hence the cat.
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Big Bang theory and Miranda - good choices. Try 'Outnumbered' if you can get hold of it - that's comedy gold that it. I really like the pome as well. It came over as a few frames grabbed from a film and the ending with the surpise of men instead of boys - great stuff.
We have watched 'Outnumbered' a bit... the last series mainly. Daughter loves it (she's 10). I think it has some really good lines but I tend to find a full 30 mins a bit tiresome. I get a bit sick of looking at Hugh Dennis and I don't find the kids as endearing as others seem to. I loved the bit when the grown-up guys were playing tennis though ("I used to play for my county" "where was that wankershire?").
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Interesting what you say about film... being drunk is a bit like being in a film in places, isn't it? And of course memory is all film too.
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I can feel the exhilaration of being too young and breaking free!
I fixed the problem on my blog - it was a snow effect that didn't work. (These newer templates are not compatible with every little thing).
I like the "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" pic. Lager and Blackcurrant sounds tasty. I've had it with cider. If you see my latest post, you'll find a very good photo of a pint of Guinness.
Good poem Foxo!
Lovely - really evokes the thrill of being there when "not allowed". Sorry you have been dealing with sad. Hope you turn a corner soon.
I like how I got the whole picture with such a few words - excellent!
I was such a scaredy cat - never did anything remotely illicit. Well, at least until I went to college. But drink never took with me - I'd rather have chocolate :)
Oooh, this one I relate to so much. It tells also about my friends and me, all too young, running around downtown Reno - in and out of casinos. The last line...wow.
Glad you're liking things in this poem.
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My scaredy cat days came later, Bug, but they got me in the end! These days I would probably choose chocolate over alcohol too. I can still enjoy a drink... but I can't say I find pubs as exciting as I did!
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It is good fun, Rachel. Smelling of homework! I think I still do.
Thanks NanU. Lovely addition.
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Since it happened in 1958 I think I can safely confess my boyfriend and I would sneak into a nightclub where Ike Turner and his little Tina were jamming (her name wasn't Tina then) ... served cocktails too ... today, somebody would have gone to prison for allowing that to happen. Thanks for a fun trip back in time.
Even better addition! Thanks Helen.
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I second Kat: brilliant!
Brilliant sounds good. I'll take that for now.
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This is great, Rachel. I love the deflation of that last line.
Interesting choice of word, Dick! And thanks.
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Bit confused by the title but, like yourself, I started early and can relate to the thrill of illicit drinking
One of the pubs I went to at this point had tiles in the name (hence the title). And there's the 'out on the tiles' saying... plus the cats (on the roofs)... you know?
We did do a lot of drinking out in the fields/hills/wilds too. Another poem altogether...
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Strong one Rachel. As with Kat, I loved the 'still smelled of homework' 'and men instead of boys'.
yes, that last line.
Ooh, loved it. And exactly the same lines Kat picked, plus this one:
'But tapped crazy cats all psyched and hyper'
This one makes me smile. So joyous and adventuresome. Really like it.
It's a strong memory - maybe that's why you're finding the poem strong too. And it's funny - I had such drive and direction then, was absolutely sure about what I wanted to do and when... and these days I rarely feel that way. I feel like I just float about aimlessly a lot of the time now. Maybe it's easier to see drive in retrospect...
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I do believe we can supply you with a giggle or two, if you come to read our tickets! :)
Rachel, maybe because of your "sad" remark or my understanding of the changes, I found this poem ominous rather than funny. There's menace waiting for those crazy cats, those silly vulnerable girls...
X-rated rhymes
Thanks troublesome twosome!
And EO - menace is an appropriate word... and certainly it came close a few times. A lot of the most exciting things have that dark side though, don't they? They wouldn't be as exciting without it... which is tiresome... but true!
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Beautifully done. It conveyed the atmosphere, the warmth and the smell of the place. I was there with you all. Loved it. Don't know how you did it, but you did it!
Thanks Dave... it's funny the memories that are vivid!
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