Long Theatres Poems

Eric Mottram on the American literary and cultural scene during 1965-66 while he was the recipient of the American Learned Societies’ award for a year. (begun in the last post and to be continued)

January 2,...

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I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

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Afterwards.

Didn’t we once used to smile and laugh?
I can see that we seemed to be happy 
As I look at an old photograph.
But now our mouths
Seem almost paralysed
Or are tight and grim.
I vaguely recall a...

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Bygone Days
Written: By Tom Wright
4/3/2007

Remember the slogan
 “Haskell is moving, are you pushing?

The railroad depot stands no more
In the spot it occupied for so long.
Instead in it’s space, a Homeland store,
But in my memory it...

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The aqua-blue sky’s currents are overhead…
Showering rain of soft, but pitiful dread
I’ve cried too many times now…
My hopes are no longer sea-deep and my woes are gone somehow
Pray for me, brethren…
Let His glory carry me...

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this place... Weymouth - a small tranquil village! 
How far is my Stratford from here? 
my Stratford-on-Avon! 
The Shangri-la of a dramatist's imagination!

Assuming, I had a very very long slumber…
the world has completely changed!
This area looks so distant...

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the

 

art of                                ...

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London

The tour of London begins
 In the streets of my mind,
  Through past and present
   Intrinsically entwined,
    Through people and places
     It's heart we will...

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Scratching Fanny in Cock Lane, a true tale
The year1762 a tale of murder or mystery they boast
 A teenage girl, a drunken parish clerk, and maybe even a ghost
About hordes of aristocrats and wealthy men...

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Forever extinct seems the age of classical poetry,
With all its cheers from caves, cottages, marble domes and temples,

When now a country honors not classical bards:
O Hugh MacDiarmid, Petrarch, Ono No Komachi, Thomas Chatterton, Robert Browning,...

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The year1762 a tale of murder or mystery they boast
 A teenage girl, drunken parish clerk, and maybe even a ghost
About hordes of aristocrats and wealthy men assembling
 Crowds rivalling Covent Garden, Theatres were now...

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Death isn’t that significant, is it?
just like life is nothing peculiar.

The importance, however, is that life is given 
to an individual only once and cannot be shared with others, 
whether it was acquired through one’s...

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While listening to Schumann’s “Arabesque” 
and “Fantasiestüche” for the Mozart B flat Sonata,
I feel the warmth and love that’s powerful within;
a moment of instrospection, a source of intervention.

I live in a wonderful country, beautiful and...

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From time to time, people ask me
About my education.
Only then, I remember
I have no degrees or diplomas.
I attended no university either.
I hated textbooks and exams.
I still do.
That's bad education, they say.

But they don't know
I was...

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I’m about to tell what’s an important story,
Of a singer who is sadly now long gone,
Whose story needs some increased recognition,
He could p’raps be described a special one.
He was born in nineteen forty two,
And sadly...

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you know that you need forgiveness for…

A.	Distrusting (even just a  little)     any person who looks or seems different 
from you in any way.
B.	Wishing someone crazy would use one of those...

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Light shining through stained glass windows 
Rainbows tearing light from worldly shadows 
From the windows of aeons
With Valentinus and Seth as icons  
Banners of the sayings of Christ
From the bright Gospel of Thomas unpriced...

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McRaccoon had a plan to steal again… He would usurp all the theatrical arts.
No holding back, mind running high on ambition, he’d rule Vegas, from the start.
He would dominate Sigfrid and Roy, with only a...

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Circular motions of mice dressed in vividly printed mushroom skirts. Could be acronyms for stars. Could bring the brooms to the brooks. Many a flea could clean a flowered stalk. While the emblem of an...

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Sprawling green gardens super 
Brilliant, breezy cool weather 
Bustling busy night life 
Clubbing culture that does strike 
Thriving tech talent pool 
With culture uniquely cool 
Fastest growing tech hub 
City of many clubs and pub...

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On this subject of fair play, as War has had, its deathly day
Where once it had meaning, and came from the heart
Families moved on with a different start.

In Fairness and War
These rules were laid down
Where...

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Depression times – no one went out
To theatres, concerts, movie shows –
They had friends in or went to their homes.
The whole country was more than broke.
There was always drinking at the parties
And a low-lying cloud...

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As the dancer elegantly performs
This oldest classical dance heritage of India
The Bharatanatyam: A Divine dance art form, 
The grace and beauty of the art, 
Is enhanced by movement, mime and music. 

The facial expressions and...

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Destination 
A historical place
But these Gettysburg landings
A place of race
 
The signals our droids
To the Kestrels they return
For their cargo on board
To them will be, infinitive burn
 
Over Pennsylvanian lands
These USAF ships fly
To rid these...

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Came from a very good loving family in a small Kansas town just as World War Two 
was about to break out, it was nineteen thirty nine
As a very small child I remember hearing Walter...

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