Feiffer

[PrinceMyshkin]

On reading an autobiography of the cartoonist. playwright and screen-writer Jules Feiffer



How did that guy
get to live my life?
I too was meant to be famous
and to be blithe
and gay about it,

was meant to wear my honours
lightly, to be the envied object
of someone scribbling in a notebook
in some scruffy café

[Buh4Bee]

very humorous and fun.

[Dr. Cambridge]

On reading an autobiography of the cartoonist. playright and screen-writer Jules Feiffer



How did that guy
get to live my life?
I too was meant to be famous
and to be blithe
and gay about it,

was meant to wear my honours
lightly, to be the envied object
of someone scribbling in a notebook
in some scruffy café

Now you're talking. What's so special about them? Hey, I'm doin' stuff too, ya know. I get this great little poem all the way. Good one, Prince.

[Mfdoom]

was meant to wear my honours
lightly, to be the envied object
of someone scribbling in a notebook
in some scruffy café


Actually made me smile! Good poem :D

[PrinceMyshkin]

Jersea, Dr. Cambridge, Mfdoom, many thanks!

[blank|verse]

An enjoyably light piece, Prince.

Not knowing anything about the man in question I think I would have liked more comparative details between his life and yours, otherwise I suppose you could just change the dedication and the poem could apply equally to anyone else.

(And typo: playwright.)

[Hawkman]

I think when one gets to an age where one sees ones contemporaries (and worse) some bright young thing reaping rewards, with talents we also have but never seem to have managed to exploit for significant gain - well you just feel like that, don't you.

[AuntShecky]

This exactly reflects the "feelings" of yours truly, although some of us lack the courage to come out and admit it, in the fear of seeming bitter or envious. (Not that you are either.) I read a review of Jules Feiffer's autobiography, and it brought back some of the pleasant memories of the sixties, an era from which pleasant memories are few.

My only quibble with your posting is that contemporary times have greatly narrowed the connotation of the word "gay," and that your use of "blithe" is sufficient.

RE: "playwright." I'm planning on doing a word blog on the suffix "-wright," and its homonyms and hope to post it on Wednesday.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hawkman: " I think when one gets to an age where one sees ones contemporaries (and worse) some bright young thing reaping rewards, with talents we also have but never seem to have managed to exploit for significant gain - well you just feel like that, don't you.

If there is some scale for measuring the norm for envy, I don't know where I'd come out - but much, much higher than I would like to.


This exactly reflects the "feelings" of yours truly, although some of us lack the courage to come out and admit it, in the fear of seeming bitter or envious. (Not that you are either.) I read a review of Jules Feiffer's autobiography, and it brought back some of the pleasant memories of the sixties, an era from which pleasant memories are few.

My only quibble with your posting is that contemporary times have greatly narrowed the connotation of the word "gay," and that your use of "blithe" is sufficient.

RE: "playwright." I'm planning on doing a word blog on the suffix "-wright," and its homonyms and hope to post it on Wednesday.

Of course I hesitated before using "gay" but did so almost in the spirit of thumbing my nose at the narrower meaning it has today. I'd prefer to go on using it and risk anyone's misconstrual.

Actually, I have a bit of a crush on the avowedly gay owner of 'my' cafe and declared to him once that I was "a non-practicing gay man." He, Michel, loved that.

[PrinceMyshkin]

An enjoyably light piece, Prince.

Not knowing anything about the man in question I think I would have liked more comparative details between his life and yours, otherwise I suppose you could just change the dedication and the poem could apply equally to anyone else.

(And typo: playwright.)

Thanks, B|V, it must be a matter of both generation and nationality because Jules Feiffer was for many years here a counter-culture icon, initially in The Village Voice but then carried widely in many newspapers. Google him if you want more.