There was an entertaining response to the opportunity to put a new spin on some lines famous, or in one case at least not so famous. (Initials supplied.) Electoral results and the state of the environment reared their heads once more as well as literary or personal comments. It seems Gail White thinks of baseball games and beer in daffodil time but gin and Seconal when icicles appear. Michael Swan doubted the use of quantum theory, while Mary Cresswell battled with a bolshie baby and Alan Millichip employed Auden’s Night Mail as a political vehicle.
Below, in no particular order, and with thanks to all who sportingly took part, are the entries of those who survived VAR rulings or successfully sailed over the bar.
Michael Swan
It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar’s work was done,
Another load of poppy seed
Lay drying in the sun.
(RS)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Mike Mesterton- Gibbons: The (21st Century) Brook
I come from haunts of coot and hern,
And once was fit for drinking –
In Alfred's day. Today he'd turn
His nose up, 'cos I'm stinking.
With raw untreated sewage that
Decrepit pipes deliver,
I poison wildlife habitat,
Then foul the brimming river.
(ALT)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
I.V. Neversere: From Blake To Boob-Tube
The atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s Particles Of Light
Are grist for documentaries
On TV every night.
(WB)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Michael Swan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree;
Sadly, the costings overran:
two billion rose to eight point three,
and central to the KK plan
was access via HS3.
(STC)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Conor Kelly: Second Comings
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The roller-coaster goes higher and higher.
The darkness drops again but now I know
The electricity was bound to go.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Is now the media’s iconoclast.
(WBY)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Mary Cresswell
By the shores of Gitche Gumee
by the shining Big-Sea-Water
ran the endless line of traffic
cacophony of curses graphic
lots of children in the middle
desperate for a chance to piddle –
parents likewise thataway
who can but sweat and honk and pray.
(HWL)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Tracy Davidson
Tyger Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night;
Selfish humans chopping trees
Brought your species to its knees.
Habitats began to fall,
Climate change now burns us all.
Tyger, Tyger, please forgive
Those who stole your right to live.
(WB)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Michael Swan
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
‘Seven days of sunshine!’ It sounded so much fun.
‘Magic places! Deep blue sea!’ Sadder now but wiser,
I’ve sent off my impressions to the guys at TripAdvisor.
(WW)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
John Wood: Protocols
What can I say to you, how can I now retract
All that that fool, my voice, has spoken –
Given the tax hikes I must now enact,
The raft of pledges that must now be broken?
Once all I had to do was kiss your baby, while
Trying to look earnest and endearing.
Oh, for my old, safe bench across that aisle –
For a barrister's life of sniping and sneering.
(VS)
⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎ ⸎
Julia Griffin
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert;
And now I know thou art a bloke,
I'm going to call thee "Bert".
(PBS)
