Poetry Please

Remembering a conversation with Laura from last weekend suddenly got me worrying, its been 3 months since my last post! Not only does this mean that I'm not crossing anymore challenges off the list having effectively stalled on this whole enterprise - but I'm actually in danger of going backwards! One of the challenges that I was busy patting myself on the back for at the end of last year was writing this blog about my progress, but technically it's only completed when everything is done if I don't keep it up then I'm back down to 6 rather than 7 challenges sorted.

To be fair I have been making some progress - just not blogging about it. I've been busy on the learning a craft challenge and hope to have some pictures of my finished handiwork to post here in the next month. I've also done the horse riding challenge but never got around to writing the post, my practising with the uke is still not hitting the high notes but I feel I have made some progress.

However, it's twenty past eleven on a school night, I've just got in from the cinema and I'm not quite up to writing about any of the above - but I need to get something down. A flash of inspiration on the number one bus on the way home made me think about writing a short poem - alas no further inspiration was forthcoming about what the poem should be about. I did read an article on the bbc website about a poem with no words (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27680904) but that would be cheating - this did get me on to thinking about a poem I was introduced to by an old friend and fellow blogger a few years back that sums my situation up quite well................

The Old Sailorby A.A. Milne

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn't because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks,
And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks;
And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he'd look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he'd begun
He decided he couldn't because of the sun.
So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, "I'm as hot as a body can be,
And I've nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I'll look for a spring, and I'll look for it first."
Then he thought as he started, "Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I'll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!"
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
"I must first find some chickens" and "No, I mean goats."

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, "But I must have boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I'd better sit down and make needles instead."

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he'd have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut ... and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) ...
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but bask until he was saved!

smart bloke that Alan Milne - time to get a bit more organised and getting some more of these challenges :-)

p.s. if you want to listen tto more authoritative ramblings about poetry then I can highly recommend poetry please on Radio 4 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp7q - it's been the source of most of my research thus far.

p.p.s. if you want to read some of the blog by the friend that introduced me to the above poem check out the entry from March 7th 2006 at this link - http://drjosadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2006_03_01_archive.html