RUE SAINT DENIS IN PURSUIT OF JOY

Hello Paris ... London calling.... This the first of three surreal poems evoking the spirit of Friedrich Schiller. To amuse Mr.Rakotolahy.

Don't let it be said...

Pen in hand

Steel nib

Eye studies tip

Sharp tip

Studies hand

Hard hand

 

DON'T! let it be said...

Hand, hard hand, drives nib into own eye

Right in

Through pain

All the way

Into the ink

Draws ink into chamber

 

That noise is?

The sound of a loveless man in a neighbouring room

Breathing

A-counting out his euros

That new noise?

The sound of Mistress Mistral a-blowing away

Amplified a thousandfold

 

And that?

The sound of children at play in a neighbouring room

Doctors-n-lawyers

PMs-n-Presidents

Killers-n-rapists

Field-tripping palaeontologists

A-ring-a-ring of roses

 

 

No point Fritz mate, no point...

Can't hear us...

No point shouting for quiet

More now alive than all who have ever lived before

You see why I can't sleep Friedrich

What else would you like to know?

The Internet, let me tell you about...

 

That noise is?

The sound of the very last woman dying in a neighbouring room

But who?

Who is she?

Stop it! O stop it!

Don't let me hear this!

O stop this!

 

Don't let it be said...

This mishap made us miss our poem back

Back to London St.Pancras Reality 

So tell me Fredrick

Your thoughts on what you've seen...

Of our early twenty-first century poetarium

An iPod Friedrich, an iPod...Ode to Joy...Ludwig van...

Reviews

[Choosing Life]

The Cyber hotel at play in an ipod...hmmm...
I don't wince at this.. *smiles*

I think it captures different levels of life and time, relationship and non relationship..

The nib in eye doesn't scare me, it makes sense. It makes sense as to why he is hearing vs seeing.
It also hurts to see sometimes..

Hmm... I shall read again now that I have learned a wee bit of of how intricately clever you are. I must find the true intent...lol

[Rambling Prose]

This is an amazing write! I'm being completely honest when I say, I had to read and reread several times before the fullness of the height, depth and breadth sank deep into this (somewhat) slow cranium of mine!

A magnificent piece of writing, INDEED! BRAVO!

[Ken Simm.]

Surrealism of the 21st Century, not just Schiller but Andre Breton would be spinning in their graves if they were not already.

[Keith]

One of the most original and fabulous pieces I have read in ages. Stole me right from the moment the metaphors were drawn from the eye of the beholder. The best image within any recoupable memory.

Nice voice.

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

Orlando your poems are so much fun to read.. love the way you turn a pharse.. this one is great thoughout but i love the 'Ode to Joy... Ludwig van.
Nice work ..
Chloe
xoxo

[J. Marc]

Oh! Oh!! Oh!!!
For many people who have lived or live in Paris, Rue Saint Denis is a place of human misery. All those people coerced to stay there from East Europe and Africa. So the title itself is already an oxymoron. That is for normal people.
I see that slumming is still a very favourite pastime for British men. The poem is not void of any interest, but I guess the title settled me into the wrong mode. Borderline.

Why drag Friedrich and Ludwig in there?

[Daisy]

Ohhhhh! This is very frenchified. I read a book by Michell Houellebecq that sounds like this although he was a bit rude, very rude. You might be as well talking of a trip in a train into the channel tunnel. Were u thinking of a frenchman and woman getting it on.

[Bubo]

I can see mass confusion, history, looking back and it's a bleak time,

And that?

The sound of children at play in a neighbouring room

Doctors-n-lawyers

PMs-n-Presidents

Killers-n-rapists

Field-tripping palaeontologists

A-ring-a-ring of roses

rolling through history, almost rambling in conversation, I know nothing about Saint Denis, but it paints a drastic picture someone driving something through their eye!
Talking with ghosts of the past. What would they make of our very modern world?

[E. M. Murren]

Wow what a fine work. The pictures you paint are vivid and bold. It is one that makes me think. Really wonderful piece.