Author |
Topic  |
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San Diego
Swinger
  
509 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2009 : 17:59:51
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"Two tin cans...and...a thousand miles of string..." |
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Doug L
Firefly
    
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 01:09:50
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My last night there, Ailinn, after dinner with Christy, he drove us to Phoenix Park and then over to Chapelizod. We crossed the bridge that is called Anna Livia, or Droichead Abhainn na Life. It was renamed on the 100th anniversary of Joyce's birth. Frank Harte, the great ballad collector and a dear friend of Christy's, lived in Chapelizod.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925569-1,00.html |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
   
2196 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 15:48:00
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Doug, I liked her limbs and high forehead in the fountain, but I don't know where she rests now. That whole bunch from the Wake, though...they're all waiting for us at the big table. |
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Doug L
Firefly
    
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 20:47:29
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I found the best way to read Joyce was to drink one shot of Jameson's per page. It took me about three years to finish Finnegans Wake. By then I'd learned to walk on glass. |
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Doug L
Firefly
    
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 20:59:22
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The thing you realize after being on the island a littl ewhile is that the nearby pub is the neighbourhood's living room. It belongs to the people. Houses and rooms are small, tighter, and an evening walk and visit to the pub is a social tradition. The drink is part of it, sure, but it's the gathering that keeps the spirit going. There's always a corner where the guitars, whistles and ballad singers hold court. No matter the cost of a pint - and it's too much now for everyman - you'll always find the folks in the pub, three generations of them, having a laugh, heated debate, telling tall stories, catching up on the news firsthand, making fun of it all before joining in on the chorus right on key. |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
   
2196 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2009 : 17:06:57
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For you I undress down to the sheaths of my nerves. I remove my jewelry and set it on the nightstand. I unhook my ribs, spread my lungs flat on a chair. I dissolve like a remedy in water, in wine. I spill without staining, and leave without stirring the air. I do it for love. For love I disappear.
Kim Addonizio |
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Bill Smith
Windchimer
   
2390 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2009 : 21:46:41
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Unbelievable! We get one day of heavy sleet and freezing rain every two or three years, and you pick this one for your burial. |
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Doug L
Firefly
    
Canada
5446 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2009 : 20:35:02
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I understand Death's contract and the finite ends of life: however long a man lives he lives only to die. At the end, every scream pours like a river into silence, but the most dazzling star is that which shows the caravan its way when moss has covered our memories and grief runs wild through the house.
Muhammed Al-Faituri |
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Craig
Firefly
    
Kyrgyzstan
3793 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2009 : 19:03:26
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More on East Bay...later. Memories, thoughts, and secrets...
"Be careful who you tell your secrets to..."
Believe it or not, I am a simple man...
Craig |
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Ginny G.
Windchimer
   
USA
1810 Posts |
Posted - 09/20/2009 : 21:15:34
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"'Bein' lost is worth the comin' home."
Neil Diamond, "Stones" |
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Ailinn
Windchimer
   
2196 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2009 : 16:04:30
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They're walking slowly down the beach in the wine-colored light as the sun slides toward Hawaii. The Blue Sailors are still. Tiny jellyfish. Stingless almost. Saphires in the sand. The twilit canyons are filling up like clay bowls behind them. Brimful. The laurel is alive with delirious bees in October. A blizzard of broken branches. "You an' me, Ma'am..." he says as light breaks through his bandaged side. He guns the engine when they finally step off the page. |
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buckman
Firefly
    
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2009 : 17:19:13
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It was after midnite she came up to my room.
Eyes aglow in the moonlight three feet above mine. Smell of lavender & oranges. She said quietly, It's time for me to go. I said, I don't suppose we could roll around a little for old times sake... She said, Your credit's all used up and turned and left me...
I still loved watching her leave...
~*~ |
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buckman
Firefly
    
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2009 : 17:29:07
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City Lights Book Sellers, 1970. Mr Ferlinghetti was always so kind. I would pass by, nod, go downstairs with a bottle of wine and grab a book and read.
Nobody ever said a negative word to me about what I was doing. I believe I first read Neal Cassidy's The First Third there. I know I lifted my copy of Howl from the rack on the landing of the stairs. [Yeah, I know, but I had no rules; if i wanted it or needed it, it was mine.]
My income was $10.00 a day, between the bloodbank and the doorman gig- I could not spend money on books.
So much started from that building, not just for me, but for all of us. |
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buckman
Firefly
    
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2009 : 20:25:24
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No more the back of the saloon, though I miss it. The table, the bottle; you painting in the corner.
Remember? The figurines on the tabletop. The dusty pictures on the walls, the white bearded handsome man that sings his waltzes quietly in the corner... The friends stopping by on the odd nite.....
I get up at 5:30 now and tend the farm before the real work starts - pretending all day that I belong in the real world.
I go to bed early. I write dirty poetry and drink Propel water [@#?#].
The room goes on forever....
Spin around for me sweetheart, I love to listen to you dance. |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
   
1825 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2009 : 12:02:26
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Dear Hank !!!!!
Is it really you ? I have missed you, my unknown poet friend. There are those on these porches that really touched my heart from the beginning and you are most certainly one of them.
How about doing a New Topic and just say hello if you will. Well? Will you, Hank? You have so many friends here, and did you read what Andrew said? Huh, Hank ? Huh?
WHY you been gone so long, Hank? You come on back, now, and generate some new stuff that I know is just waiting to pop out of your chest and your brain.
You have been reading this stuff and finally jumped in. The water's still fine, and warm. This request isn't a challenge, friend. Its a heartfelt request.
Love, BarbraG |
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rodeo
Swinger
  
USA
733 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2009 : 20:50:53
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I can't remember the first time I saw him but, when I did, I knew he'd seen me many times. Not just from his usual seat, where he must've sat and watched me wallow in my new found fame over and over again... but years and years before...back in "the day"...in himself.
After we met, he said he didn't know whether to sit me down and tell me that "young guns" seldom become "old guns"...or to wait and see whether I'd die...or learn how to live.
Must've been pretty amusing to him; disappearing for weeks...even months at time; then...showing up and sitting down in that same old spot (his spot)...waiting to see if I'd walk in...if I was good enough to keep walking in...or... if he'd hear one day...
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Edited by - rodeo on 10/06/2009 11:42:25 |
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Craig
Firefly
    
Kyrgyzstan
3793 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2009 : 22:00:48
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Moonlit night, clear night. Lunar reflections upon East Bay. It lights up the entire bay. No lights are needed.
The waterman and his two sons. The Bolivar Lighthouse, sweeping it's broad light for all to see.
Cloudless night. Stars sparkle in the jet black night as brilliant as the most radiant of diamonds. The waves slap, slap, slap the side of the small wooden boat. A rocking rhythm is developed by the occupants of the small craft.
Anchored. Hannah's Reef. A few bites here and there, not much action. It doesn't matter, it was the moment, even to one of the sons not quite nine years old. These are the nuggets of our memory we all remember. Bits and pieces of time...treasures more precious than pure gold...
Craig |
Edited by - Craig on 10/06/2009 00:11:24 |
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buckman
Firefly
    
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2009 : 18:30:23
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I have marveled at her quiet strength and dignity.
The way she has suffered at the hands of men yet has not lost her love for all men... I have marveled at how she has met all that she feared and in so doing has nothing left To fear...
I have marveled at one that appears so empty and aching herself yet can find a wellspring to give others to drink...
I have marveled at how from a cold room a world away she can appear silently and warm my cold room and heart of stone...
I have marveled that The Great One continues to remind me how wonderful a woman can be...
Oh yes, I have So marveled .... |
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BarbraG
Windchimer
   
1825 Posts |
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buckman
Firefly
    
USA
2825 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2009 : 19:38:06
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Melinda said to me that if I could have a few small victories every day I might feel better about things.
I said, It's hard to learn new dance steps when you're still working on walking upright.
She said, Is there a point to all of this introspection? I said, I don't know; I was letting it be your turn to bring the point... |
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