As promised


Ask for me in Kilmacud
and this is what you'll get
'Yeah, I knew him
and his old man too
None better in a scrape
Trust him with my very life
Steady hand with the gun
And just as easy at rest
Oh, I recall the time...'


Now a fugitive in smaller spaces
With smaller people
With no history
A name is just a name
A face is just a face
A man is a number on a card
In a place that's all sharp edges
No smooth stones
No memories


A man who's Black and White
in a land all shades of gray
A man born to Yes and No
enduring a life of Maybe
A man who trusts Always and Never
adrift in a people of Sometimes
This feckless, vulgar chorus
handling the stout cloth of Kilmacud
as a loose thread

A great read Jack. Kilmacud, Ireland (?) it could be anywhere that life is changing too fast. Many of us miss the days when things went a little slower than they do on the 6 lane freeways.


Les

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2021 04:22PM by les712.

A man who's Black and White
in a land all shades of gray
A man born to Yes and No
enduring a life of Maybe
A man who trusts Always and Never
adrift in a people of Sometimes

Yeah, man I can relate to this. Thought it was about me there, for a minute. Nice work Jack....stay with us.

Joe

I don't know who you are. I see, I think, by your piece that you are a person from 'somewhere'. I am not from anywhere. I never know what to say when people ask. I don't have a hometown. I very much appreciate someone who does. I very much appreciate what your poem says. H.

Bienvenidos.

I too like what your poem says, Jack. Time can be handled in a way that distorts history and wipes away features!

K.Q.

JP was asking about you. I told her you'd be back soon as you got parole.

Carol and I are going to Ireland next month. VACATION!! First one in several years.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2021 01:49PM by Merc.

Jack- Holly
Holly- Jack.

Watch her Jack, she's a Texan.

Hey, now.

Many thanks to all.
Holly, I'm an old-timer here, but I got locked out for a long time.
I read and like your stuff, though I have a hard time keeping people straight now. You have had other names in the past.
So has the man from Kilmacud.


Jack

Holly=
hollygolightly
mrsharris
hrfarris

Who were you?

merc-

did i remember to tell you how i collect shells/rocks from ireland? lift one for me, will ya?

Holly-

As my screen nane implies, I was Jack, JustJack, and other variations.
I'm the guy who did all of the marginal "Cowboy" poetry about Terry and Brucefur.


Jack

Anybody heard from Brucefur? J.H.? J.P.? Keeper? Ell Green?


Les

Les-

They probably fell down the same frustrating rabbit hole I did.
It was a long, hard slog to get through, but perseverence paid off.
Now I hafta learn all the new names.


Jack

It's been a while since I contacted Bruce, but I guess he is ok. I get the cosmic mails from his forum. I think if he had problems signing in he would complian but he is probably a bit busy. If I know anything I will report back!!

Thanks for the info. K.Q.

Now I hafta learn all the new names.


True Jack, me too. Keeper has had so many different names, that she's probably been posting all along as Slinky, or somebody like that.


Les

I just briefly exchanged a few words with Bruce online. He says he is ok and will be visiting the mule soon!

K.Q.

I'm noticing a pattern here.
Nobody discussing my unworthy submission.


Now I feel alienated!

Sorry!! Somethings just happen.

A man who's Black and White
in a land all shades of gray
A man born to Yes and No
enduring a life of Maybe
A man who trusts Always and Never
adrift in a people of Sometimes

Reading this over again, I see new dimensions. I think this will always be the case. Gray keeps turning into black and white as new gray shades emerge.

K.Q.

People like this are hard to find around these parts:

'Yeah, I knew him
and his old man too
None better in a scrape
Trust him with my very life

No greater complement could be paid to a family.


Les

It is funny how our backgrounds bring out different ideas, Les. In my culture, the point you state as "hard to find" is the general situation, except it is either stated that way or the opposite of the second two lines, where the reference is negative. The problem is that either way, you are carrying someone else's reputation that does not necessarily apply to you!
I think I am diverting from the context of the poem! Excuse me.

K.Q.

"Nobody discussing my unworthy submission."

Methods unknown have resulted in comments, crits or anything else being placed
as response to poems. It is a little difficult to get used to.

Any poem now becomes fair game for any comment that used to be placed on Friv. it is confusing, wish we would return to Friv as a place to make comments not related to the poem.

Hey, I did. And you didn't.

Hey Jack, Les, Terry, KQ, et al.

Jack,

I read the poem but it didn't rhyme. I am surprised that Terry didn't point that out. Maybe you should do something about that? lol. I think I was expecting something more akin to the B&O boys, so I will have to come back without expectations attached and read it again sometime soon.

JP wrote me 2 months ago. Only got around to writing her back the other day and that was actually in response to Izzy writing me wondering where JP had gotten to.

Yes I had trouble getting back here. I arrived just before Nutmeg returned but haven't had the time to come and comment (or even read really).

I am also not really writing, unless you include political correspondence with my nations leaders writing, or newspaper articles which I have had the good fortune of having published and seem to have actually made a difference in getting our roads repaired here, etc... Poetry is something that may be past tense for me, but we'll see.

I wasn't aware that John Summers was MIA. I will email him soon and see what is up.

Oldeyes; that's Johnny right? personality has always bled out on the posts on Emule's USP. That is what makes this site more endearing than other sites of its kind. Friv was originally created to just keep the chatter of entirely personal conversations off of the threads, not to completely restrict asides. ;o)

Thanks KQ for letting me know that peeps were looking. )

Brucefur

Hi Jack. How have you been?

Like Brucefur said, I was expecting a rhyme so it was hard to get past that when reading. I'm not so sure about Kilmacud, but the whole Always and Never thing rings out with this....the sharp edges vs. smooth sides.....the speck against the grand scheme of things....the everything between the black and white.

Good to see you finally posted a poem. Write again.

Marty

Brucefur, I think oldeyes is Jerry?

Brucefur, I think oldeyes is Jerry

True, Marty, and John Summers was last seen as "Grizzled": [www.emule.com] />

Les

I think he's fallen amongst the godless in the land of non rhyming poetry. I didn't care to point out this obvious flaw in his characture.


I'll get ya the Blarney stone if they turn their backs upon it for a wee moment. Anything in particular? Strange hobby.... sez a feller who has over 2,000 toy trains in his library.

Many thanks to all.
It's good to see more of the "Old Timers" here.

Marty-
We're headed to Madison again, but won't be going the long way (through the You Pee) this time. We WILL be passing throuhg JP's territory though. I don't have her email to give her a "Heads up" but if anyone does, could you ask her to contact me at:

jdevins@applied.com

Thanks again


Jack

Bump for a friend.

I am not sure why, Jack, but this poem reminds me some of H. G. Wells time machine and the morlocks. Perhaps it is because the Fomorians and the Morlocks have always seemed intertwined to me.

I am doing well, bought a house, got married, have 4 children, closed the security company after a decade and have started up a new one with my wife, called Delivery Ahoy; the website of which is still under construction. Due to financial difficulty around September, 2008, Cosmic Poetry was forced to close, but will be reopening again in mid-March, 2010.

Our house is heated by wood and powered by the sun. On Monday, my wife and I bought more solar panels, increasing our solar array by 150%. In early November we traded in the old Franklin Fireplace for a high efficiency Flame model, which was a big improvement, but was still struggling to heat the whole house strictly via radiant heat, so we invented a new style of furnace for use with it and now the whole house is toasty warm; although the unit still needs some tweaking.

I can also be found on facebook for any of you that are looking for me; a bunch of you and the cosmic crowd already have. *laughs.

Good to read this again, Jack. Thanks for the bump, even though it wasn't for me. :0)

Brucefur

Good, we're gonna need somewhere to go once this place finally dies.

Dear P.

Don't write no obituaries for us yet, old chum.

Peter