The Weekly Walkabout (part 2.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 08:30 AM

What I can't understand is, if some people don't like what is written in these threads, why they even bother to open them, much less take the time to abuse the person who starts them. I'm guessing they like to get their jollies by bullying easy targets. Or maybe the only way they are able to feel good about themselves is by belittling others

If people set themselves up as something, relentlessly promoting themselves and their life's work, then they are openly inviting and actively encouraging criticism, often entirely negative. But it's not a matter of bullying easy targets, rather one of fighting a particular ideological corner that has been breached and otherwise affronted by ideas as odiously inhumane as we find expressed in many of these poems. The only truly offensive thing we find in these threads is the reactionary ideology of the poet coupled with his seemingly desperate need for a platform for a relentless self-promotion which in itself will be regarded with various degrees of suspicion by many here given our own involvements with creative work, on whatever level.

Apart from anything else, Mudcat is a place of recreation; a place to sit around and chat, with a little bit of self-promotion here and there, but for the most part we're just getting on with what we do in our creative / professional lives and coming here for a bit crack on topics that interest and amuse us. There are other places for self-promotion and publication - and, personally, I would dearly love to see an end of it on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: Joseph P
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 08:19 AM

I think Red Dwarf is, or at least certainly was a vital part of English / British culture. Indeed watching it is a shared tradition among my contemporaries. Hurrah!

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 08:00 AM

Gee.... I thought it was a critique of the poetry.

Actually I agree with moving this thread out of BS. It has a place as folklore above.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 07:29 AM

Well what kind of television series is it then, Volgadon? And I meant that I read quite a lot of Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Blake, and other "big names" in the English anthology of verse. I've also read a bit of American verse, as well as Australians such as Henry Lawson.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 06:27 AM

I never knew Red Dwarf was a television play.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 06:26 AM

How does studying one anthology qualify as quite a lot.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 04 Aug 08 - 06:17 AM

As for Arnold, Eric, sorry but I rarely, if ever, watch television plays. Thanks for the Leacock poems, Carol - before and during writing "Walkabouts: travels and conclusions in verse" I was reading/studying quite a lot of poetry (despite what my old Spawing-partner said!), but it was nearly all from an English anthology, frankly, and I'd not read any of his poems (although I knew the name).
And thanks, Charley - I've just had another message from a moderator, and this thread may be moved up to the music section, where the "walkaboutsverse" now-dead-thread was originally.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 10:27 PM

Spaw is doing a public service, providing balance. :)

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 08:44 PM

Walkabout-

Thanks for posting this again and becoming a member.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 03:51 PM

What I can't understand is, if some people don't like what is written in these threads, why they even bother to open them, much less take the time to abuse the person who starts them. I'm guessing they like to get their jollies by bullying easy targets. Or maybe the only way they are able to feel good about themselves is by belittling others.

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 02:53 AM

You may comment on the poetry, and even critique it. But personal attacks are not allowed. Message deleted.

WAV doesn't write poetry either..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 02:25 AM

I don't think Arnold Rimmer wrote poetry.

I am reminded more of Stephen Leacock...

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/oh-mr-malthus/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-social-plan/

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Aug 08 - 02:14 AM

I've just remembered who WAV reminds me of, Arnold Rimmer.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Aug 08 - 11:00 PM

Thanks, W. Your poem arouses clear pictures in my mind.

When my husband and I went to Europe one year (I believe it was 2004), we got the wacky idea of photographing the surfaces we were walking on. There was a 'marble' floor in Heathrow airport with beautiful fossils which we photographed. I'm sure thousands of people walk over them and never notice them.

Subject: Folklore: The Weekly Walkabout (temp.)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 02 Aug 08 - 08:14 AM

(I've been told a mod. will look at why The Weekly Walkabout was closed and, meantime, to start this new temporary thread.)

THE WEEKLY WALKABOUT, E.G.

(I wrote this just after repatriating 11 years ago.)

Poem 43 of 230: A BAYSWATER BED-SIT

Arrived in London,
    At Heathrow Airport -
With sixty kilos
    Of luggage I'd brought.

Found a paper, Loot,
    And called an agent;
Stored two heavy bags,
    Then to him I went.

For one week of rent,
    He'd ensure a bed
Within Bayswater -
    A bed-sit, he said.

It was eighty pounds
    Per week, nothing more,
With a lift arranged
    To the building's door.

Knackered and sleepless,
    I took the deal;
Checked-in quickly,
    Had a rushed meal.

Collected my bags
    (Tube there, shared-van back),
Then carried them up
    To my top-floor shack.

A penthouse - no need,
    It did me just fine;
A cook-top and fridge,
    A table to dine.

Seated, I could watch
    The clouds roll by -
Often from the west -
    Or jets cut the sky.

There were large plane-trees,
    A squirrel or two;
And pigeons dropped by -
    Foregrounding the view.

Plus, at dawn, the sun
    Shined in from the east -
Filling the small room
    As on egg I'd feast.

And contemplating,
    It occurs to me -
If all lived that well,
    How great it would be.

But a lot do sleep
    Outdoors many nights -
On sheets of cardboard,
    Without basic rights.

From walksaboutverse.741.com

---

I allowed this thread in the music section because I thought it was mostly poetry. Since it's not, I think it should move back down to the non-music section. No offense intended - it just seems to be time for it to go below the line because it's more "insider" Mudcatter stuff than music-related.
-Joe Offer-
13 August 2008