I chose the path less travelled and that made all the difference.
Acrylics by Candia Dixon-Stuart
30 Saturday Mar 2019
Posted art, Environment, Literature, Nature, Personal, Poetry
inI chose the path less travelled and that made all the difference.
Acrylics by Candia Dixon-Stuart
26 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted Humour, Literature, Poetry, Psychology, Suttonford, Theatre
inTags
Beachy Head, Center Parcs, Duke of Gloucester, Goneril, I-Talk, Iron John, Regan, Samaritans, samphire, Scott Peck, St Wilfrid, The Road Less Travelled
Candia?.
Yes?
You know you were talking about Goneril and
Regan recently…
Mmm, the ungrateful children of King Lear…
Yes, well all the families seemed to be
dysfunctional. I mean, what about
Gloucester and so on?
Well, Brassie, knowledge comes at a profound cost sometimes.
Look at Lear himself… He’d have been phoning I-Talk or some such NHS
Counselling Direct site.
You wouldn’t have another poem on that subject, would you?
As a matter of fact, yes. But it focusses on Gloucester and his counsellor,
who evidently lacks training!
Let’s be having it then!
THE BAD SAMARITAN
Hi, Samaritans here. My name is Mike.
Would you like to tell me yours…or just talk?
Gloucester? Well, Glos., are you suicidal?
You’re in a BT phone box, Beachy Head.
Beaten up? Red hot pokers in your eyes?
That must have been rather painful for you.
Someone has rubbed egg whites in the sockets?
Homeopathy can work for some folk,
but promise me you will see your GP.
You stumbled when you saw. Very poignant.
The only person you can change is you.
The fact you have a friend waiting outside
who pointed out the sign and our number
and helped you with the digital buttons
must prove that you are an OK person.
Easy to get lost. The mist comes down fast.
He intended to lead you to Dover?
Just because St. Wilfrid saw Saxons leap
here because of famine, no precedent
needs to be established. Projection’s bad.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.
People from dysfunctional families
are the norm. Some end up working for us.
Have you read “The Road Less Travelled”? Scott Peck.
“Further Along the Road” is good as well.
You are not responsible for your son.
Hey, illegitimacy is all right.
You feel that you’ve misjudged your other son?
“Iron John”: now that’s another fine read.
Go to Center Parcs and bond one weekend.
You didn’t get on with your wife? Pity.
“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”
has quite recently been a best seller.
Yes, it should have been a semi-colon,
but Shakespeare got his apostrophes wrong,
so, we mustn’t judge others too harshly
and we must be tolerant of ourselves.
But you say your son mocks astrology;
had he been born under Virgo’s aspect,
he feels he would still have been a bastard.
(Should that have been a colon, I wonder?)
Everyone’s entitled to their own view:
certainly we would never express ours.
But, we can help you to clarify yours.
Bastards can have a nice side to them too.
Do you feel any better now we’ve talked?
There’s a pub behind you called “The Beachy Head.”
Go and speak to some samphire gatherers.
There’s always someone worse off than yourself.
Look at all the fingernails left on the cliffs.
Yours are still attached Oh, sorry, they’re not.
Take the Stagecoach bus to Eastbourne. Things change
come the morning. You could take a short break.
You’ve gone off the idea of Cornwall?
You’re afraid of Goneril and Regan?
Look, the clinics are quite anonymous.
Have it checked out. It may only be thrush.
Five hundred feet covered in six seconds?….
1471- Are you there, Gloucester?
We are always there, day and night. Call again.
04 Tuesday Dec 2012
Posted Arts, Humour, Poetry, Psychology
inTags
Beachy Head, Centre Parcs, Duke of Gloucester, Goneril, Iron John, King Lear, Men Are From Mars, Regan, Samaritans, samphire, Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled
After Juniper had tricked her mother with a complaint about Shakespeare’s plays and their unsuitable content- see A Book By Its Covers, previous post- I remembered that I had had similar thoughts after reading King Lear. What if Gloucester had telephoned for help on the cliff top? Here is a poem I wrote when contemplating alternative strategies that he might have adopted:
Hello…Samaritans. My name is Mike.
Would you like to tell me yours…or just talk?
Gloucester? Well, Glos., are you suicidal?
You’re in a BT phone box, Beachy Head.
Beaten up? Red hot pokers in your eyes?
That must have been rather painful for you.
Someone has rubbed egg whites in the sockets?
Homeopathy can work for some folk,
but promise me you will see your GP.
You stumbled when you saw. Very poignant.
The only person you can change is you.
The fact you have a friend waiting outside
who pointed out the sign and our number
and helped you with the digital buttons
must prove that you are an OK person.
Easy to get lost. The mist comes down fast.
He intended to lead you to Dover?
Just because St. Wilfrid saw Saxons leap
here because of famine, no precedent
needs to be established. Projection’s bad.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.
People from dysfunctional families
are the norm. Some end up working for us.
Have you read “The Road Less Travelled”? Scott Peck.
“Further Along the Road” is good as well.
You are not responsible for your son.
Hey, illegitimacy is all right.
You feel that you’ve misjudged your other son?
“Iron John”: now that’s another fine read.
Go to Center Parcs and bond one weekend.
You didn’t get on with your wife? Pity.
“Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”
has quite recently been a best seller.
Yes, it should have been a semi-colon,
but Shakespeare got his apostrophes wrong,
so, we mustn’t judge others too harshly
and we must be tolerant of ourselves.
But you say your son mocks astrology;
had he been born under Virgo’s aspect,
he feels he would still have been a bastard.
(Should that have been a colon, I wonder?)
Everyone’s entitled to their own view:
certainly we would never express ours.
But, we can help you to clarify yours.
Bastards can have a nice side to them too.
Do you feel any better now we’ve talked?
There’s a pub behind you called “The Beachy Head.”
Go and speak to some samphire gatherers.
There’s always someone worse off than yourself.
Look at all the fingernails left on the cliffs.
Yours are still attached Oh, sorry, they’re not.
Take the Stagecoach bus to Eastbourne. Things change
come the morning. You could take a short break.
You’ve gone off the idea of Cornwall?
You’re afraid of Goneril and Regan?
Look, the clinics are quite anonymous.
Have it checked out. It may only be thrush.
Five hundred feet covered in six seconds?….
1471- Are you there, Gloucester?
We are always there, day and night. Call again