Billy for Bogus

[twelveoone]

I think you are right, Plath is head and shoulders above Billy and some more.

Plath certainly had problems made worse by the medical industry. It's a long time since I took notice of her and reading her biography again she was certainly demented, a state without you which you feel her poetry wouldn't have been as powerful but who knows.

I think 15 minutes with Plath is five times longer than advisable and I suspect 15 with Billy would cure insomnia. I like Buk, there is something earthy and honest about him even when he's being a lying bastard.

Not many people know this (cause I just made it up) but he is hell with a harpoon.

 

[Angeline]

This has nothing at all to do with Billy Collins, but Bogus as a thank you for the terrific poetry here's something I found whilst trucking around the net that made me think of you.

Top ten cabbie-recommended places to eat and drink in Berlin.

It came from a foodie blog, so I bet they're great places. Ever been to any of them? (No thanks necessary lol, just keep writing that poetry!)

 

[bogusagain]

It came from a foodie blog, so I bet they're great places. Ever been to any of them? (No thanks necessary lol, just keep writing that poetry!)

No I haven't eaten at any of them but I do notice several are in Kreuzberg where I go at weekends to watch football in a bar there when Hertha Berlin play away and take in some live music at night. You get there on the S-bahn known locally as the Istanbul Express for reasons I am sure you can guess. I live in Charlottenburg next to palace and not too far away from the Olympic Stadium

 

[bogusagain]

This is a good 'un

Getting back to Billy Collins, I like this one, it reminded me of Hillaire Belloc for some reason. A nice bit of nonsense poetry which I think is often underated.


The Golden Years by Billy Collins


All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasants to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.

I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge.

I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.

Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

 

[twelveoone]

Getting back to Billy Collins, I like this one, it reminded me of Hillaire Belloc for some reason. A nice bit of nonsense poetry which I think is often underated.


The Golden Years by Billy Collins


All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasants to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.

I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge.

I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.

Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

oooh sonnet of some sort, must be about America. Americans have a tendency for naming things they just killed. Like Indian apolis.

 

[twelveoone]

I think you are right, Plath is head and shoulders above Billy and some more.

Plath certainly had problems made worse by the medical industry. It's a long time since I took notice of her and reading her biography again she was certainly demented, a state without you which you feel her poetry wouldn't have been as powerful but who knows.

I think 15 minutes with Plath is five times longer than advisable and I suspect 15 with Billy would cure insomnia. I like Buk, there is something earthy and honest about him even when he's being a lying bastard.

classic stuff
Carrington's high end simplicity
good seeing those people again
thread bumped again

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Where else can you find a thread that makes you laugh, think and weep, not all at once, of course? Wonderful!

 

[bogusagain]

I'm going to read this thread again this evening when I've finished work. Yes, work on easter Sunday, I've got a large exhibition in three weeks time. We artists are the cultural slaves of civilisation.

I like playing the martyr, it makes me feel smug, satisfied and superior when reject my work.

 

[Angeline]

In honor of my neighbor's dogs

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House
Billy Collins

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

 

[HarryHill]

I had a vivid image (aural) of the dog barking between the silences of a certain celebrated piece. You know the one I'm talking about.
Dah, dah, dah, dah...
bark, bark... lol

 

[Angeline]

I had a vivid image (aural) of the dog barking between the silences of a certain celebrated piece. You know the one I'm talking about.
Dah, dah, dah, dah...
bark, bark... lol

I'm reminded of the poem whenever the neighbors' dogs go off. I love dogs but these guys get each other going and I feel like there's a kennel next door. Beethoven could only improve it.