Four sleeps to go. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
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Four sleeps to go. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
I'll be there at 10ish and plan a slow, steady trot round.Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
This is lovely...I love Robert Frost and hadn't seen this one.Quote:
Originally Posted by XRunner
One word........LUSH!!!!!!! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
I like it. I hope to meet your inspiration some day.
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Originally Posted by freckle
Only four sleeps?Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill
Holey moley!.......
And on that bombshell think I will turn in with that early night and a book I have been promising myself...night all
Aw you are kind...that last line sounds corny but it ain't really (if you know the context!) ;)...anyhow apologies for being all sentimental i'll be posting plath again tomorrow no doubt!Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill
Nice one Freckle. Now...where can I get one of those testosterone ear baths?
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Originally Posted by freckle
It's been a long and busy day....I do like it when the Tupster pitches in with a bit of JCC. Makes me feel younger.
And DT - I particularly liked the froggy haiku - felt I got a sense of your surroundings without having experienced them. Which, I think, makes it a fine and above all successful verse.
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Originally Posted by Derby Tup
the wonder of Skype
enabling loving looks
across continents
:cool:
But i've not been on the phone with you tonight mate:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Sorry Andy, couldn't resist, safe journey back pal:)
Hey Steve. You okay? Hoping travel issues resolved by next Tuesday! :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
Skype to the rescueQuote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
warmed by contact so precious
my eyes fill with sleep
Oh, and yikes to the monster marriage!!
Oh and go to sleep - I can see you're still on here :D
Fine mate, Stef's here now, i'll get me coat:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Now that made me chuckle!! :D:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
I'll be looking for running mates for bank holiday if he doesn't make it home in time...sobQuote:
Originally Posted by merrylegs
I am supposed to be in bed.............aaaaaaaaaargh! i NEVER get an early night these days!....anyhoo, regarding the ear bath issue, my understanding is that Asda have a special on at the moment where if you buy ten pork pies and subscribe to their weight loss programme they throw in an ear bath for free (mini facials for the laydeeeees).....Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Whippet
right...having read what I have just written I can only conclude that i need to rest immediately!
ta ta !
Thanks Mossdog, and others who commented. The easy jet line was one of those lightbulb moments and then the thought - should I? Will it spoil the poem? Glad you liked it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
It was, and still may be, traditional for The Times newspaper to report the first cuckoo sighting (hearing) each spring. Hence the Times readers competing to get their letter published as sighting the first. In my head the cuckoo is unaware of all this hullaballoo and just carries on as normal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill
Not really intended as a pun, but I saw the virgin atlantic connection and decided I liked the ambiguity as to whether it was a pun or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
I like this a lot Freckle. The "Testosterone bathed ears" line is interesting. I read it as you being the one with the testosterone bathed ears. i.e. hearing the sound of a male voice. The word bathed tells me it is a pleasant experience, otherwise you might have said "blasted" or "assailed" or something. Is the "Magnificent" verse yet to be written?Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
Good Lord, the forum had an early night last night didn't it? 10pm? What's going (gannin?) on?Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
Good luck to everybody in the Anniversary Waltz! I had planned to enter the TWA this year but for various reason's didn't. It would have been good to meet a few of you.
My memory of running the AW a few years ago is pushing hard to Dale Head and off Dale Head and then having completely shot legs over Maiden Moor and the last descent. It is a tough race, definitely one to start at an sensible pace.
Sir Edwin Arnold
Destiny
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul,
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.
It’s that time of year again
My brother said she’s drunk is your mum
Then I knew your ghost had taken the train
To Ravenglass from Eskdale
Thirteen years to the night
- How can it be possible -
After the hospital call that taught me
Life unravels as fast as travels the tide
On the Mite sands where you swam
Before your war arrived
Thirty-three years after I’d watched
You strain like Sisyphus with a pipe
At a stranger’s car tide-bound
In the shifting sands of the Mite
And afterwards we took the train
From Ravenglass to Eskdale
Forty years on from the night
The hospital called you to a new son
With roses from the garage for mum
But I became your world
Away from the shore that moves
With the tides of the Esk and the Mite
It was April seventeen and I thought
In the breeze I felt the ghost
Of your hand encompassing both mine
Like it did that distant afternoon
We sat happy on the line
To Ravenglass from Eskdale
Good choice Mossdog, is this for anybody in particular?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
I was reading about Yeats as I was looking to get a collection of his poems and I discovered he had a lifelong unrequited love for Maud Gonne and this poem, like a lot of his poems, are about her. They did get together eventually but it was a bit of a disaster apparently. I don't know if you have ever read the book (or seen the film) "Love in the time of cholera", their relationship reminded me a bit of that situation as well.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
Thats a great poem Tooshy, well done :cool::DQuote:
Originally Posted by Tooshy
Thats a nice choice Mossy and with Tooshy's wonderful poem has certainly kick started my day! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Definitely catchup time today .... love that poem Freckle :DQuote:
Originally Posted by freckle
This is very moving Tooshy, after reading it a few times the sense of time passing and family history really comes through. Some things in life are constants (the Mite and the Esk and the railway), and others change, but although you become more distant in time from events in the past there are some key moments there to hang on to. The things that stay with you may not be the things you expect to stay with you - the red roses, the car on the sand. But one thing that always stays with you and is the memory of your Mum, obviously very intense. The train ride with and without your Mum is a good way of getting the feeling across. Thanks for posting this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tooshy
I am doing the TWA so if I get timed out at Newlands Hause I might be one of the first back :rolleyes: otherwise one of the last :(Quote:
Originally Posted by freckle
I have had a bash at a 3 Peaks poem. Personally I feel bound and gagged by rhyme and metre, but it does have an effect. I thought this one needed to rhyme.
Three lonely Peaks to call us north
To Yorkshire and its Dales.
Hardy runners all come forth
With banter and tall tales.
Of too-fast starts and blowing up
On Inglebugger's length.
Now all talk must be followed up
With action and with strength.
Pen-y-Ghent the first tall hill
Will spread the eager pack.
A running climb goes on until
The summit - then turn back.
Across the rolling countryside
We go, to Ribblehead.
Below the arches, match their stride,
Now watered and well fed.
The second peak is Whernside's top
It's Yorkshire's highest place.
Push for the top it's steep, don't stop,
A key point in the race.
Here you can cramp up as the climb
Sorts out the men from boys.
The men will push on, waste no time.
The boys Whernside destroys.
The third and final lofty peak
Is Ingleborough hill.
Legs are tired and growing weak,
The runners test their will.
To scale the mighty summit and
Achieve three Yorkshire peaks.
Of Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside and
Of Ingleborough bleak.
The finish line is still a way -
Beyond the Sulber Nick.
Five miles to run, to our dismay,
We better get there quick.
Three peaks of stubborn Yorkshire pride!
Three hammer blows to drive!
The hills afford no place to hide -
For honour now we strive!
Stevie
5Hr 30 Mins.
My time for the Anni is slow,
But Al F he says no,
He thinks i'll be faster ,
This young running master,
And i said i'm twice your size you know.
By Herakles.
Here is a poem for Stef F:
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding
Nights are growing very lonely,
Days are very long;
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song.
Old remembrances are thronging
Thro' my memory.
Till it seems the world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me.
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams:
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.
All night long I hear you calling,
Calling sweet and low;
Seem to hear your footsteps falling,
Ev'ry where I go.
Tho' the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile.
I forget that you're not with me yet,
When I think I see you smile.
by Stoddard King
I'm sure you'll do it faster than that ok. Half of it is downhill don't you know! ;) And everyone will be walking some of the up hill bits. I know I will.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herakles
That is fabulous Stevie. I think all the better for rhyming too as it keeps a good pace and makes it enjoyable to read.
I can relate to that very well. Too fast a start then I was one of the Whernside boys that got found out.
One of the best fell running poems we have had.
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Originally Posted by Stevie
That is really interesting Tooshy.
Ian Hislop was on BBC4 last night talking about poetry, and he said that the purpose of poetry was to take something specific or personal and make it universal. I think you succeeded there.
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Originally Posted by Tooshy
Thanks for the kind comments. :o
It's actually about my dad Stevie - he bought the roses for my mum when I was born (nearly) forty years ago. He was born and grew up in ravenglass and took me there and on the railway when I was seven.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevie
But I wrote that because something quite unusual just happened.
I was in Eskdale last weekend with some friends, and because of a bad foot on Saturday, had to entertain myself while they went walking.
So I took the little train from Boot and from it spied the cottage on the Mite estuary where he grew up. I wandered round Ravenglass, got misty-eyed, had a couple of pints and that was that.
Until last night, when I spoke to my mum and I realised with a jolt that for the first time in thirteen years I'd missed the anniversary of my dad's death.
But with a second jolt I realised I hadn't really. April 17 was Saturday.
oh er ... that's torn it!
ah well, anonymity's overrated ...
Just catching up and what do I find?...this beautiful little gem.....lovely work Tooshy, very moving, especially when you give us the context...wow!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tooshy