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a Highland crofter's 'but and ben' |
written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society
Saturday, 5 July 2025
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
But
I Got Rhythm
Bidin’ my Time
Billie Holiday (1958, from All Or Nothing At All) swinging version with great line-up of musicians.
Ella Fitzgerald (1959, from Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook) This later version won the 1960 Grammy for Best Vocal Performance.
Sarah Vaughan (1958, from Lullaby of Birdland) here with beautiful orchestral accompaniment including a lovely section with harp and flutes.
Elaine Stritch (2002, from Elaine Stritch at Liberty) Stritch’s voice would never be described as beautiful, but I’m not sure anyone has gotten more of the drama out of this song.
But Not for Me
(Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin)
They're writing songs of love, but not for me,
A lucky star's above, but not for me,
With love to lead the way,
I found more clouds of grey,
Than any Russian play could guarantee.
I was a fool to fall, and get that way,
Hi ho! Alas! And also Lack a day!
Although I can't dismiss,
The memory of her kiss,
I guess she's not for me.
It all began so well, but what an end,
This is the time a fella needs a friend,
When every happy plot,
Ends in a marriage knot,
And there's no knot for me.
Saturday, 28 June 2025
Palmistry
It will be principally about the history of palmistry, not its secrets or techniques. If there are any chiromancers reading this, you should probably stop now, because frankly, I don't believe in you.
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palmistry (aka chiromancy) |
However, humankind being prone to superstition by nature, an interest in palmistry soon resurfaced in the west, starting with Captain Casimir Stanislas D'Arpentigny's publication 'La Chirognomie' in 1839 and the founding of the Chirological Society of Great Britain in London by Katharine St. Hill in 1889 with the stated aim of "advancing and systematising the art of palmistry to prevent charlatans from abusing the art."
A pivotal figure in this modern palmistry movement was the Irishman William John Warner, known by his sobriquet, Cheiro. After studying under gurus in India, he set up a palmistry practice in London and enjoyed a wide following of famous clients from around the world, including the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, the Prince of Wales, General Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, and Joseph Chamberlain. So popular was Cheiro as a society palmist that even those who were not believers in the occult had their hands read by him. A sceptical Mark Twain wrote in Cheiro's visitor's book that he had "exposed my character to me with humiliating accuracy"
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Anita Harris circa 1965 |
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a coal tit |
Thursday, 26 June 2025
Lancashire Dead Good Poets' July Open Mic Night
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Palm
The elegant ambience is complemented by a musical ensemble from our resident pianist – the final ingredient to ensure your Afternoon Tea at The Ritz is, quite simply, unforgettable.
The Ritz's most widely known facility is the Palm Court, an opulently decorated cream-coloured Louis XVI setting. It is decorated with lavish furnishings, including gilded Louis XVI armchairs with oval backs, which the architects had designed based on research into French neo-classical furniture design of the 1760s and 1770s, which were made by Waring and Gillow. The room, with its, ‘panelled mirrors of bevelled glass in gilt bronze frames’ and ‘high coving ornamented with gilded trellis-work’, according to Montgomery-Massingberd and Watkin ‘epitomizes the elegantly frivolous comfort of Edwardian high life’.
“Bring the Earl Grey Tea Bag,
I want to put it in myself.”
Well, you wouldn’t get that
at the Palm Court Ritz
and definitely not in Preston, Lancs.
So I glanced,
easily distracted
from lines of Magna Carta
I couldn’t understand.
He wasn’t hard to find,
a pompous git in Barbours,
older than his voice,
pointing at a menu,
trying to impress
a woman in a green dress,
and much to my surprise,
succeeding.
Perhaps it’s the place,
a High church and hollow castle,
the eyes looking down
a Roman nose of a road,
its smile silted
behind trinkets of shops,
anxious to please,
knowing it’s better,
proving it
when the waitress
showed me
the workings
of a modern teapot.
First published in Poetic Hours, August 2005.
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Palm - A Shiny Shilling
“Cross my palm with silver and I’ll tell your fortune. Cross my palm with gold and it will certainly come to be. Cross my palm with iron and you won’t live to see daybreak.”
Mara Amberly – Her Gypsy Promise
Blackpool is well-known for fortune tellers. For as many years as the Golden Mile has stretched between the piers, clairvoyants have worked from inside curtained cabins advertising their gift of seeing into the future. A visit to the promenade or piers would include a palm reading or a studied gaze into a crystal ball for anyone eager to find out if something important is about to happen to them. It’s part of traditional Blackpool fun.
Crossing the palm of a new baby with silver was seen as a way of wishing them wealth, good health and the best possible start it life. I watched as my baby sister had a shiny shilling put into her tiny hand by a well-meaning person, a stranger to me. I was seven and a half. Anne could keep the shilling, but I really coveted the lovely plush bunny she was given by the same person. Nothing for me. I expect she received gifts from lots of people who didn’t acknowledge me, but that’s the one I remember. I could probably go to the exact spot where it happened, in the lounge bar of the Boar’s Head on Preston Old Road, Blackpool. I was a proud big sister. I still am. This was one of those moments that stays in the memory forever, so I’ve always given something to an older sibling, not just the baby.
The Psychic’s Dilemma
I’m a psychic, true, with visions grand,
But rent’s due, and I need a hand.
Cross my palm with silver, yes, it’s true,
I’ll conjure love for you, and a new shoe!
No gold for romance, no, that’s not the deal,
Just enough for groceries, a more practical appeal.
So if your heart yearns for a love connection,
Bring silver, and I’ll give you a pre-packaged affection!
Anon.
Thanks for reading, Pam x
Saturday, 21 June 2025
Perfect Pitch
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slouching towards ecotastrophe |
That one's for the MAGA dunderheads who have voted the reprehensible Trump in not once but twice. 😡
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"Drill, baby, drill" (Donald Trump) |
Paint the future black and grey
No more sunny upland days
This darkness in our souls won’t ever lift
Fossil fuel kills
Scorches trees and animals
No more breeze to cool our ills
We’re cancers on this once so pleasant gift
Now I understand
What they were trying to say to me
As they campaigned for our sanity
And how they tried to set us right
We would not listen, did we not know how?
Too late to listen now
Tarry, tarry night
Portraits done in heavy oils
Shameless heads on corporate walls
With greedy eyes for all that they could get
Dangerous and yet
Voted for by all of those
Without the courage to oppose
The lies that in the end have brought us low
Now I think I know
What they were trying to say to me
As they campaigned for our sanity
And why they said to let oil go
We would not listen, didn’t want to know
Too late to listen now
For we could not love the earth
Although its love for us was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that tarry, tarry night
By the likes of me and you
Thanks for reading, S ;-)
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
Perfect Pitch
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Ronnie Radford's famous FA Cup goal for Hereford |
Synonymous with the F. A. Cup
And all that it stands for
The patron saint of underdogs
Your name resonates hope and belief
That on any given Saturday it can be eleven vee eleven
And dreams do come true
It wasn’t even the winning goal
But it was the one we all remember in the mud and the rain
All Woodstock hair and rock and roll sideburns
The goal we’d all love to score
The shot from outside the area that flies and flies
Into the corner sending fans and commentators crazy
Ronnie Radford, Hereford Town, nineteen seventy two
We remember you, we salute you
We thank you and celebrate your moment
That moment when the man in the street became legend
Saint Ronnie Radford
Patron saint of underdogs
For those of us of a certain age ….
Paul Cookson
Saturday, 14 June 2025
Fern Fever
As fern fever proliferated, some botanists began to express concerns that the rarer populations of British ferns might be in jeopardy from zealous collectors. As early as 1865, Nona Bellairs in her botanical guidebook 'Hardy Ferns' was calling for legislation: