written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 30 December 2017

Lower The Safety Curtain

Lower the safety curtain down on '2017 - The Year'.  For good or bad, that play is done - and whether you're sad to see it end or are still sitting there stunned, it's time to get up and edge towards the exit (making sure you take all your personal effects), so as to give the theatre staff a chance to clear our discarded debris, reset the stage and get ready for next year. The show must go on...


Traditionally (based on four years of dead good blogging!) this last Saturday post of the old year has indulged in a mixture of reflection and plaudits. Circumstances dictate there's no time for that right now, so I'm keeping it short.

I love the ambience of an empty theatre, the hush, the plush, the rows of chairs facing expectantly forward. Anything is possible and the magic is yet to begin. Roll on 2018...

Today's poem is in affectionate tribute to Pete Tong and the stalwarts of Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, overseas students all, facing an uncertain future in our green and pleasant:

The P:0em That Goes Wrong
The year declines as this blank
versifier declaims anew [with much ado]
across the set of its
page to denizens
of old Britannia how
all that was good
all that was true
shall be..... [promptly]
debunked, deracinated and
demoted to a footnote,
tipped [as it were]
over the limelights into
that orchestra pit
of shattered dreamworks.....
.....cymbal and timpani of
discordant times Square rends
this mordant air, redolent
of Brussels' Sproutings &
Whitehall's
poutings from major
players who fluff
key lines by misarticulation,
[strutting ruffed and fretting]
   {time out of joint}
in a power nap of
incidental judgement, casual
laughter spilling chillingly
till the last recorded syllable of the last
blasted
            deportation
                                 order. [Exeunt - CURTAINS]

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year everyone, S ;-)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure I understand what the poem is about. Maybe I miss something?

Steve Rowland said...

Apologies if the poem is a bit obtuse - not one of my better efforts and I was pushed for time. It's a spoof with a serious intent: it uses the concept of The Play That Goes Wrong (and its off-shoots Peter Pan Goes Wrong... and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong)to suggest that Brexit is a farce and any plans to deport EU citizens from the UK in the wake of Brexit would be a disaster and a case of a second wrong compounding a first - and certainly not making a right. I hope that helps :-)

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Steve. Let's hope it's a good one (as Johnny Lennon once sang). I didn't think your poem was unduly obscure. A bit weird perhaps :-D

Anonymous said...

When you've worked in the theatre as long as I have, you'd say... exactly the same thing. It's a place where magic happens. Happy New Year. Keep the blogs coming.

Matt West said...

Just back from ski-ing hols. We are European. Agree with you buddy that Brexit is bad news. BTW, the poem is great.

Anonymous said...

Interesting experiment with typography and colour :-)