Indeed you haven't! That's 639 replies to 195 poems - or roughly 3.27 replies per poem!Quote:
Originally Posted by Delta40
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Indeed you haven't! That's 639 replies to 195 poems - or roughly 3.27 replies per poem!Quote:
Originally Posted by Delta40
I blame the format Prince. Its hard to find the original verse on ongoing threads. I think if each had been individually posted the total would have been much, much higher and more people would have read and enjoyed your work. I know the arguments against, but as a reader I much prefer to be able to find the poem at the start.
best wishes
Jerry
I don't think we need take a vote on that!! Jerry is *gasp* right.
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=32797Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerrybaldy
Prince, My fellow Jerry I see :)Quote:
Originally Posted by PrinceMyshkin
I wish I didnt connect quite so well with this poem. But I did and thought it was a brilliant and sparing study into the sadness that goes along with the warmth of a long held love.
I loved it
Jerry B
Obviously the couple in this snapshot caught and held my attention - and started me along what I had not originally planned as this long, long thread. Thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerrybaldy
A handsome young father goes by
with the younger of his two sons.
A few minutes later, alone, he returns,
walking more slowly,
as if lost in thought.
I get that "first day at school" feeling. I can still remember it. Beautifully crafted, Prince. I love your snapshots.
Wonderful, Prince - brought Hemingway's famous 'Baby shoes' piece to mind. Excellently observed (as always) but this just has a little bit more.
As a weekend dad for many years, I found this very touching Prince.
Awful lot said in few words.
cheers
Jerry
Hadn't thought of that, Jerry. Stupid me - same situation, although I haven't seen them in over 10 years. Suddenly, I don't feel quite so clever!
Thank you, Blank|Verse and Jerry, and may I take this opportunity to say how much pleasure I get from observing people and deducing or intuiting what I can about them, but
Dafy, you may be even MORE clever than you credit yourself because your first post was most likely the correct one, as it was a Thursday when I observed that man and his child, and school has just resumed here. I originally had a line about them being on the way to the child's kindergarten, but omitted it.Quote:
Originally Posted by dafydd manton
Either way, Prince, it is a beautifully succint poem, as ever. Your standards never cease to amaze me.
Long may you continue to people-watch, Prince. Like yourself, we can only surmise at what you were witnessing and it's kind of you to allow us to fill in our own blanks.
I too got the school time reference, but I wanted to venture into a Dickensian past when parents in dire straights would sell their children...
Very moving and as always intimately observed Prince. Live and be well, H
Many thanks, Dafy, Hlllwalker & Hawkman.
Extremely philosophical and thought-provoking!
How sad the knot is!
But without tying the knot, it might be sadder!
An aged woman,
with apologetic eyes,
shuffles toward the next exit.
this is outrageously moving to me, personally. Almost too strong an image for me to handle...Quote:
Originally Posted by PrinceMyshkin
Prince! I haven't visited this thread in a while. A long time actually. And just reading through, i'm so glad i came back. I feel as though i have observed the same things you have just by reading these poems. You seem to take a scene and describe it perfectly in so little words. It leaves me wondering what you would write about me if you saw me in the street! Maybe i would know more about myself just by reading what you wrote. haha.
I love to people watch too, it's surprising how much emotion you can feel. Thank you for sharing these.
Thanks Angliholic and Jackie, and Breathtest:
This is one of the most flattering responses I've had to these Snapshots. Perhaps if you sent me your Google Earth coordinates and I could figure out how to use it, I could zoom in and make a snapshot of you?:icon_bs: Or maybe you could find me at my Cafe, Fairmount St corner Esplanade in Montreal?Quote:
Originally Posted by breathtest
Prince, i regret that i live so far away from Montreal, or you could be sure i would stop by that cafe.
I don't follow you: you live no further away from Montreal than I do from London!Quote:
Originally Posted by breathtest
well i guess distance is subjective
How do you do it? I mean write so well.
Glad I got the chance to read your write.
Kittypaws
Thanks, Kittypaws.
Thank you, JackieGinger and Breathtest, my fellow people watcher> I would be nervous trying to capture you in the 5 or 6 lines to which I try to limit myself... Here's a challenge you might want to take up:
Imagine yourself as you might be in my eyes (or iin your own) if you caught sight of yourself walking by!
Quote:
Originally Posted by breathtest
Black folk will almost always
respond graciously when you smile at them
although they may know
it’s your way of asking forgiveness.
A guy goes by
with a sour face
and a big white dog.
The dog is on a leash.
The sour face, alas, is not.
I say he should be leashed and told to stay. Guys can get into so much trouble...
Of course, it could have been the dog taking the human for walkies in which case.....
lol. but does the owner look like his dog?Quote:
Originally Posted by PrinceMyshkin
Thanks Haunted, Hillwalker and Delta40
A yellow schoolbus stops
and tiny khassidic kids
race across the street
to board it
while their turbanned mothers
wave and wave
until the bus is almost out of sight.
A heavy-set black woman,
swathed in winter clothes,
takes each step
as if it were measured
to the millimetre,
then turns in
to her place of paid servitude.
A long-awaited Snapshot!! This one and the previous one stir up one's ethnic awareness. The "millimetre" not only vividly takes our eyes downward to the difficult steps the black woman is having when she walks because of her weight, it's also a fitting commentary of how little progress some black people still have in "walking" out of servitude.
Delta, pleaaaaase. Ha! You are hard to please on truly ideal statements.Quote:
Originally Posted by Delta40
It's a nicely observed piece, Prince, but isn't it interesting how by including the words, "black" and "servitude" it immediately raises social and racial concerns. If the woman had been white the reader would simply have interpreted servitude as ordinary work. All those lucky enough to have jobs serve their masters in order to earn a living, as wage... no, I'm not going say it, I'm not going to use the S word!
This reader didn't know this thread existed. It's all the Prince you could ever want!
J
Yes, nicely observed and good to read as always, and I agree with Hawk's comments about racial connotations.
In the first, I was a little unsure of the line 'to board it'; the poem would lose something without it, but I wonder if that can be expressed a little less prosaically?
Forgive me if unlike you I do use the "S" word. I assume you're referring to the contemporary phrase "wage slavery," to express a criticism of the capitalist system. In fact, however, I want to apologize for this poem because of what I now see more clearly as a glib analogy I made between the outright slavery and the bonded variant suffered by that woman's ancestors, and the "wage slavery" that she and other middle-class people - black and white - are subject to. If she was indeed the descendants of slaves, then she might well regard her current situation as infinitely superior.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawkman
I well remember an exchange I had with a black man in Toronto. He and I were walking toward each other. We'd have collided if one of us did not deviate, and I veered to one side and said, "Excuse me," to which he responded in a heartfelt way, "Sorry. Sorry," as if he'd committed a dangerous gaffe by obliging a white man to step aside for him!
To me and maybe only to me the lines were perfect and all that followed was over analysis but I guess thats a part of what we post for. One of your fans. J #2