Finders Keepers

[Hawkman]

On days like this when summer shows her face
I want to get outside, and simply pace,
to walk the fields and beaches
seeking treasure in the sand,
to dig a hole to find lost gold
and hold it in my hand.

A Viking hoard would suit me very well,
an Anglo-Saxon burial would make me feel swell;
a medieval ring
or a piece of Norman bling,
would occupy, in pride of place,
that space upon my shelf which needs a thing.

But all I do is gaze out through my window,
the patch of warm blue sky I see, just tempts.
No trove will I discover in the soil hereabouts
the fields are all planted - close to harvest, by the shouts.
The seashore swarms with tourists
and the storms are too long past,
so anything worth finding has been found -
just lying on the surface of the ground.

How I long to make a notable discovery,
to have it fund in style, fiscal recovery…
the only problem here is that you have to part with stuff
when just to keep and look at it is almost good enough.
Plunder is so wonderful but cannot pay the bills,
you have to sell it off
although the prospect doesn't thrill.

So the money drains away
to fuel some other bugger’s train -
the only thing you’re left with is a gap
once occupied by ancient bits of scrap.

[Adolescent09]

As a big fan of your 'Kamikaze' poem I could not help but give this a thorough reading three times over. IMO some of the rhymes seem forced but I like the theme. I personally like the last stanza the best. Simple and to the point.

[Bar22do]

I'd love it better not rhymed and more compact, but it reflects nicely the N's drilling worry re finances... perhaps you could encourage N to get outside anyway? People on vacation (as well as TOURISTS) are often distracted and don't necessarily look down, seeing that their treasure is the summer sun (so rare in your region - that is if N lives in your region)!

[Buh4Bee]

I enjoyed the sequence and unraveling of the poem's story. And a great theme- money worries.

[Hawkman]

A9, thanks for reading though I'm sorry it doesn't float your boat. You were right about one of the lines which I've altered as I wasn't really happy with it. As for liking the last stanza best because it was simple and to the point, I'm afraid you may have missed it with regard to the rest of the poem. What you need to do is appreciate the rhythm. Think of it as a lyric by Alan Jay Learner being spoken on pitch by Rex Harrison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYUuspQ6BY

Get the inflexion and performance right and it's a humerous description of the metal detectorists's dilemma. Find something interesting and valuable and you can enjoy looking at it, but if you want your hoard to change your life you have to sell it. You can't have your cake and eat it too. :D The best time to comb a beach is after a storm and fields full of crops aren't conducive to detectoring and the land-owner won't want you trampling his harvest anyway. ;) Never actually done any detectoring myself, except for looking for my own ring which fell off my finger on a river bank. I'm happy to say I found it again.

Sweet Bar,

The sun has been rather reluctant to show it's face all over UK for quite a while, but we have had a nice day today. So far, the first and only day of summer. Sorry you don't like the rhyme and rhythm, but without them there isn't much left!

Hope you enjoy the clip :D

Live an be well - H

[Hawkman]

Oh, Hello B4B, Glad you enjoyed it, but as stated above, the problem is really do you keep the pretty thing you find or do you sell it and end up spending the money which leaves you with nothing! Saw a programme on the telly the other day about a hoard of gold some chap found in a field. Wouldn't it be nice to do that? :D

Live and be well - H

PS Seeing that I gave a link in my last reply I'll put one here too :devil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqnun_dSZJk&feature=related

LLAP - H

[MystyrMystyry]

The theme is great Hawk. It took me back to my classroom daydreams. Along with most people I don't usually find treasure, but twice in different parks I've stumbled on wads of cash just laying about. Fairly recently I was riding along the river when a fiver caught my eye. I can't speak for anyone else, but my instinct was to keep scouring in case there were more - and there was! Not far off a tenner, and in very real danger of being swept away by the current a twenty. Must've spent half an hour ensuring there wasn't a fifty laying about somewhere, but alas...

[Adolescent09]

A9, thanks for reading though I'm sorry it doesn't float your boat. You were right about one of the lines which I've altered as I wasn't really happy with it. As for liking the last stanza best because it was simple and to the point, I'm afraid you may have missed it with regard to the rest of the poem. What you need to do is appreciate the rhythm. Think of it as a lyric by Alan Jay Learner being spoken on pitch by Rex Harrison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYUuspQ6BY

Get the inflexion and performance right and it's a humerous description of the metal detectorists's dilemma. Find something interesting and valuable and you can enjoy looking at it, but if you want your hoard to change your life you have to sell it. You can't have your cake and eat it too. :D The best time to comb a beach is after a storm and fields full of crops aren't conducive to detectoring and the land-owner won't want you trampling his harvest anyway. ;) Never actually done any detectoring myself, except for looking for my own ring which fell off my finger on a river bank. I'm happy to say I found it again.

Sweet Bar,

The sun has been rather reluctant to show it's face all over UK for quite a while, but we have had a nice day today. So far, the first and only day of summer. Sorry you don't like the rhyme and rhythm, but without them there isn't much left!

Hope you enjoy the clip :D

Live an be well - H

Oh no Hawk! I do enjoy it! It does float my boat for sure. It's just I thought your original version had just a few forced rhymes that's all. I really do like the theme. I enjoyed the clip btw. :angel:

[Hawkman]

MM: I think you were probably lucky that your windfalls were not attached to a long length of fishing line conrolled by someone in a hide with a camera :D Actually your little tale reminds me of a comedy sketch I once saw. A man was walking down the street and came upon a fiver caught under the wheel of a parked VW Beatle. Unable to retrieve it he went into a cafe over the road and watched the car through the window until the dirver arrived and drove off, at which point everyone in the cafe made a mad rush for the door. I'm fairly certain it was in "Not the Nine o'clock News".

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the poem.

A9: No worries ;)

Live and be well - H

[Bar22do]

Sorry you don't like the rhyme and rhythm, but without them there isn't much left!



but i did like the rhythm! plus there is still a lot left once you give up the rhyme.

[Delta40]

I enjoyed it in a couple of ways. Blending historical finds with tourists and the impending olympics (on hallowed ground?). I thought the last four lines particularly had a double meaning to the stadium and also to the lone detector but I suspect the other lines do too.

[Hawkman]

True, Sweet Bar, but it wouldn't be half so much fun! ;)

Hi Delta: Well of course, I'm glad you enjoyed it, but you've lost me with the Olympics thing. Still, if you can find it, it must be there, right? :D

Live and be well - H

[Delta40]

Hi Delta: Well of course, I'm glad you enjoyed it, but you've lost me with the Olympics thing. Still, if you can find it, it must be there, right? :D

Live and be well - H

lol perhaps you should tell that to the tourists Hawk who arrive in droves for the games :D

[Hawkman]

Not too many of those this far from London - lol.

PS. I wonder if I shouldn't take out the S from that last word. I only put it in because I lost my bottle :D

[AuntShecky]

Pong 2.0 keeps freezing up, so I hope this posts okay--

A lifelong fan of light verse, I like this one, naturally. As is said of Major League hitters, it doesn't try to "do too much, " but it does manage "to come through in the clutch." Archeology is a big tent, covering both the academics searching for historical artifacts and the beachcombers on the lookout for saleable items as well as, your verse indicates, sentimental keepsakes.

The piece of grit in the oyster shell is the somewhat raggedy rhythm. The rhyme scheme (de rigueur in humourous verse) works well, but I'm afraid that those of us who lack the articulation skills of the late Rex Harrison might tie up our tongues reciting this aloud.

Also -- in one of your replies, I have a "bone" to pick with you -- there's no "e" in "humorous" (or Brit. "humourous.")

PS-- At the risk of revealing that I watch way, way too much TV, I saw a special on cable about folks treading out into the mud of the Thames in order to dig for treasure. They only have a limited amount of time to scrape up something before the tide comes in. Most of the the diggers had only mucky boots (and pant legs) to show for it; occasionally the mud yielded a coin or a gold button, but if I remember the show correctly, somebody found a toy
horse --from the 17th century!

[Hawkman]

Hello Auntie,

Thanks for reading. Delighted that you liked the lightness, but commiserations on being unequal to the task of being able to read it aloud :D I think I'll have to record myself reciting it and post it on youtube, then you'll be able to appreciate it in all its glory lol.

Yes. There is a spelling mistake in my response post above. Well if you look at when it was posted you'll see it was well past my bedtime. Typos etc, are probably inevitable when I'm keeping my eyelids open with matchsticks :D You are not the only person to have pointed it out to me.... But quite frankly, as the entire post, complete with typo had been quoted, I really didn't see the point of editing out the error, it would still be wrong in the quoted version. I am unable to spell check my answer posts on lit net so they are probably littered with errors. When I'm so inclined, and have the time, I sometimes draft them in word and spell-check them there before copying and pasting into the reply. Needless to say, I didn't on this occasion. Mea Culpa.

All sorts of goodies have come out of old father Thames - Notably some fabulous bronze age artefacts like decorative shields and "killed" weapons.

I did once find a Roman coin from the 1st Century in my garden when digging over the raspberry patch. It's on permanant loan to my local museum.

Live and be well - H

[miyako73]

"Treasure in the sand" and "lost gold", which are cliches, stick out oddly in my reading even though they are negligible in the poem. Maybe it is due to our treatment of cliches as literary no-nos.