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@oss wrote:
Things aren’t to bad Bat, Just a few more grey hairs :D
Hope all is well with you :wink:
hope all is well with you too oss nice to see you again xx
i’ve always had a love of the written word, be it books, poems or letters, i used to love writing letters but as with a lot of things now letter writing has fallen by the wayside. I dont remember my teachers name but i do remember some of the literature she introduced us too, I think clearly I must be a total romantic both child and woman , i remember the story of Lorna Doone from schooldays too, another tragic heroine , the music and story from a film called a ‘dream of olwyn ‘ haunts me to this day, another tragic heroine lol
however back to the poetry this one very much lighter and another one I have posted before but a favourite. again the teacher bought this too life with the urgency of finding the cat and i have found myself reading other poems in the light of her style in my time and indeed hopefully passed this on to my own children when i was introducing them to poetry, and although i havent discussed the poems or the written word with them as a subject i have to say when my eldest came in from school one day when she was about 12 and declared ‘i love shakespeare’ i was taken aback lol.
Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat
There’s a whisper down the line at 11.39
When the Night Mail’s ready to depart,
Saying ‘Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
We must find him orthe train can’t start.’
All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster’s daughters
They are searching high and low,
Saying ‘Skimble where is Skimble for unless he’s very nimble
Then the Night Mail just can’t go.’
At 11.42 then the signal’s nearly due
And the passengers are frantic to a man—
Then Skimble will appear and he’ll saunter to the rear:
He’s been busy in the luggage van!
He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes
And the signal goes ‘All Clear!’
And we’re off at last for the northern part
Of the Northern Hemisphere!You may say that by and large it is Skimble who’s in charge
Of the Sleeping Car Express.
From the driver and the guards to the bagmen playing cards
He will supervise them all, more or less.
Down the corridor he paces and examines all the faces
Of the travellers in the First and in the Third;
He establishes control by a regular patrol
And he’d know at once if anything occurred.
He will watch you without winking and he sees what you are thinking
And it’s certain that he doesn’t approve
Of hilarity and riot, so the folk are very quiet
When Skimble is about and on them ove.
You can play no pranks with Skimbleshanks!
He’s a Cat that cannot be ignored;
So nothing goes wrong on the Northern Mail
When Skimbleshanks is aboard.Oh it’s very pleasant when you have found your little den
With your name written up on the door.
And the berth is very neat with a newly folded sheet
And there’s not a speck of dust on the floor.
There is every sort of light—you can make it dark or bright;
There’s a button that you turn to make a breeze.
There’s a funny little basin you’re supposed to wash your face in
And a crank to shut the window if you sneeye.
Then the guard looks in politely and will ask you very brightly
‘do you like your morning tea weak or strong?’
But Skimble’s just behind him andwas ready to remind him,
For Skimble won’t let anything go wrong.
And when you creep into your cosy berth
And pull up the counterpane,
You are bound to admit that it’s very nice
To know that your won’t be bothered by mice—
You can leave all that to the Railway Cat,
The Cat of the Railway Train!In the middle of the night he is always fresh and bright;
Every now and then he has a cup of tea
With perhaps a drop of Scotch while he’s keeping on the watch,
Only stopping here and there to catch a flea.
You were fast asleep at Crewe and so you never knew
That he was walking up and down the station;
You were sleeping all the while he was busy at Carlisle,
Where he greets the stationmaster with elation.
But you saw him at Dumfries, where he summons the police
If there’s anything they ought to know about:
when you get to Gallowgate there you do not have to wait—
For Skimbleshanks will help you to get out!
He gives you a wave of his long brown tail
Which says: ‘I’ll see you again!
You’ll meet without fail on the Midnight Mail
The Cat of the Railway Train.’(T S Eliot)
i dont condone bullying either, however, i found that where i worked younger ones were coming in and to be honest i felt intimidated as if my ideas were no longer valid etc, now inspite of being older than most of them i considered i did move wiht the times etc but, i think that the younger ones felt they had something to prove and were not shy about getting it any way they could, that said , i dont for a minute think all young workers are the same, im only quoting my experience .
@jen_jen wrote:
For me it wasn’t just the poem that touched my life but also the person reading it. I was 10 years old and up until then all the poetrry we’d encountered at school had been dry, dusty, uninspiring, Then one day our teacher started to read us The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I won’t copy and paste it because it’s so long, but it can be read here.
He read it over 7 days, one part at a time, and like your teacher Cath, he put feeling and emotion into the words and really brought it to life.
He was a truly inspirational teacher, the first to give me confidence in my own abilities and to help me find my voice and ability to express myself.
wow jen a complex poem for a 10 year old and hard going too however, your teacher sounds brilliant, thing is those teachers are worth their weight in gold for young ones and yet when some children first encounter poetry are not so lucky and never learn to appreciate it i guess , each to their own tho ay.
I too have strong spirtual beleifs, I do beleive too that our lives are to a certain extent ‘mapped out’ however , our ‘free will’ does take us off the course from time to time but we are, i beleive in the ‘place’ we should be for the most part.
Like you Jen my beleifs are deep rooted and you are right when you say a forum is probably not the place to air or discuss them.
perhaps she found a real life outside somewhere ………..
yuk hates hot choclate cheers rubes got a proap drink lol xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
lmao lol
ruby ruby ruby rubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy la la la a good freind is in dire straits :( from wot i hear gawd knows rubes wot to do ay xxx
do u know what, never judge till u walk a mile in their shoes comes to mind after wading through this thread
I wonder how much is bravado , how much is lets get by and sla g off anyone who thinks different cos we too afraid to do it in ‘real life’ , how much of this faceless way of communication allows us to cajole, bully, take out our own frustrations on faceless people we will probably never ever meet, how dare we/you judge others, but we do, always.
thing is and it sounds a bit of a cliche as im typing, we/you have no idea what the faceless cyber person life is truly like, oh , dont get me wrong, i have made judgements on others, some of which im not proud of, and yet, at the end of the day most are like me, but not willing too admit, they need these sort of places for one reason or another.
I wont name names, its not my style, but,for most , i quite like them , sure there are some i am closer too than others, but, even this liberally minded soul, learns lessons sometimes, this is, for sure, not a place for ‘spilling ur guts’ but merely for banter, banter which of course humanly spills over into lets rip the heart out of the cyber no face person, but lets take out of them , what we dare not do in real life for fear of the ‘what will they think of me’ syndrome, again, something i beleive we do all fear from time to time, but, hey ho, who am i to tell folk what they think or beleive, all i think im asking is, jst take the time to think from time to time, willstfu now lol
i thank u lol
