Poetry Forum

I must go down to the graves again
where they put them when they die,
all I ask is a hare lip and a shiny red glass eye.
I hear the groofs they grittle down
the bedlam and the lamb,
the red, red fox, the grey, grey wolf,
and Mrs Barnetts pram.

Oh woe the cliffs they rocky steep
I climb the kerb so high,
a star a star I bang my head
so hard that I must die.
The graves, my love, I go to graves,
my kingdom for a horse,
my funeral costing sixteen pence
with a thrown in German course.

False teeth steep slow in a china cup
my eye is glassy green,
I look the whole world underneath
not a microbe to be seen.
”Is this the end?” I yell out loud,
my teeth fast in my foot.
My foot replies, “Its not the end!”
the sky so red and hot.

Oh bobby man, oh bobby man,
him ride him little trike,
a fish, a cat, a letter box,
for little spastic Mike.
He kills the cat with daddy’s axe,
he axes daddy too,
he axes mummy in the head
and does himself in too!

Oh mighty Gerald on the cross
the world is upside down,
I call a mouse an elephant,
and a small black thorn
a crown.

Were there mushrooms growing out of the ceiling Barrie?
Going to have to have an hour or so with this one - too good to be hurried.
Cheers.
Mick

Thanks Mick - The only fungus was growing out of the poem itself - it's that old.

cheers

Barrie

amazing rhyme, amazing. I'm jealous already, only 4 reads through.

It's thick and takes a few reads but I think I get it. Obvious Christ and Hitler references, Do you mean "with a throne in German course" perhaps?

Ooooh,,, I get it - "thrown-in"!

I wanted to ask though, any significance in "Gerald"? Or just a random name?

This is very fresh for something old, I think.

- Caleb

Rare to write rhyme without committing a crime.

"Oh bobby man, oh bobby man,
him ride him little trike,
a fish, a cat, a letter box,
for little spastic Mike."

LOL, excellent.

I'm ashamed to say I don't get it though. Who represents who, if anyone!

Look forward to an expo.

Yes, so am I, seeing as my family call me Mike and I have a brother called Gerald. Isn't most of it nonsensical ramblings of a luni though Barrie? Would have used "no microbe to be seen" for the meter, and possibly "and shines another shoe" or something after the killing (as a contrast and to avoid rhyming "too" with "too") but it had me in stitches - no matter how many times I read it.
Brilliant.
Mick

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by"

My guess though, is that you were thinking of Milligan, not Masefield:
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
I left my shoes and socks there - I wonder if they're dry"

This is intriguingly opaque.
Did you bump your head going into the rabbit hole or was it what you drank afterwards?

Images from a child's perspective - is "booby man"
PC Plod? - mixed in with images of death and religion (I think).
Is this your life flashing before you just prior to death?

"Gerald on the Cross" - Gerard's cross?

Like Kris, I would appreciate an expo.
It's a joy to read, even though I haven't the faintest idea what I've
just been reading.
Geoff

Caleb, Kris – I wrote it about twenty years ago as a sort of social/religious comment - I used the nonsense stuff to keep it light. There is no direct reference to Hitler but it’s funny that you should mention him. I had been reading a book called ‘The Morning of the Magicians’ (Louis Pauwels & Jaques Bergier) and it was observations on the changes in attitudes in the two decades following WWII that led to this poem. Among other things dealt with in the book are the occult beliefs of Hitler and his inner circle.
It was a comment on the inability of the police to wipe out the growing, low level, anti-social behaviour. They were good at strike busting, and cracking down on crimes against property – but crimes against the person, unless you were well heeled – you could forget it!
‘Oh bobby man, Oh bobby man
him ride him little trike’ – Useless bunch of helmets (back then?)

The junior axe-murderer was supposed to represent the seemingly growing population of psychopaths who left their trail across the popular press..

Gerald (It was orinally Gerund) – Jesus. I had to get my bit in about upside down values. You know, materialism, consumerism in the mainly Christian West, where Jesus teaches them about the virtues of poverty and the camel and the eye of a needle!

Mick – It’s not all nonsense, everything has a meaning if its looked for. Just my thing against preachy political and religious poems – I thought I could maybe get away with it.

Geoff – It was Masefield actually (well the first couple of lines), Milligan looks better though.

Thanks everyone for your comments, I hope it’s a little clearer now (?)

cheers

Barrie

Yeah, it makes more sense now. Here's where I was coming from -

The graves, my love, I go to graves,
my kingdom for a horse,
my funeral costing sixteen pence
with a thrown in German course. - This I took as Hitler.

Oh mighty Gerald on the cross
the world is upside down,
I call a mouse an elephant,
and a small black thorn
a crown. - This I took as Jesus. ("The world is upside down" made me think it could possibly be Peter, crucified upside down as he was...which is why I asked about "Gerald")

"Joshua" is, I hear, the same name etymologically as "Jesus" - which both come from Hebrew "Yeshua." Is Gerald similar? (I bug you about it again because you seemed to know a bunch about some languages in the past...and all those 40 years of reading you know.)

Broken Crosses - evoked images of the swastika and holy relics

Oh bobby man, oh bobby man,
him ride him little trike,
a fish, a cat, a letter box,
for little spastic Mike.
He kills the cat with daddy’s axe,
he axes daddy too,
he axes mummy in the head
and does himself in too! - Hitler's youth? was my guess, but you say this preceded Hitler, so, guess I was wrong.

Fascinating, even if not fully understandable -

- Caleb

Broken Crosses was meant to represent the breakdown of Christian values (hypocrisy) in Thatcher's Britain.

'Oh bobby man, oh bobby man,
him ride him little trike,
a fish, a cat, a letter box,
for little spastic Mike.
He kills the cat with daddy’s axe,
he axes daddy too,
he axes mummy in the head
and does himself in too!'

This didn't precede Hitler, it's just a comment on the deterioration of society in the Eighties.

Seems like nothing much has changed, in Britain that is. I hear teenage crime and violent crime is down in the US (according to the Washington Post).

cheers Caleb

Seems like nothing much has changed, in Britain that is. I hear teenage crime and violent crime is down in the US (according to the Washington Post).

Psh! you wouldn't know that by the headlines and evening news! "So-and-so killed," "so-and-so raped," "so-and-so left for dead!" - as Neil Postman said (and I paraphrase), we are told in one news hour what should give us months of sleepless, mournful nights.

I also hear from a British professor I had late last year that American culture is generally thirty years behind England's culture philosophically and politically at any given point in history. Using his rationale, you're not giving me much to look forward to barrie...

ah well,

- Caleb

Almost makes me happy to be ignorant!
Mick.