This is inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan and also written to celebrate Spring which is on the doorstep of my northern hemisphere blog friends. It is amazing how the memory holds so many songs ( some never heard since chilhood).This took a while to write. There are more than forty songs, a lengthy poem but I enjoyed all the flash backs connected to them. Have been unwell and feverish this week.. however very conducive state for writing surreality.
RWP 117 prompt: Write a surreal poem with a VOLTA (a hinge which changes the mood of the poem towards the end.)
Three little maids from school are we
folderol diddley and nanki pea
Tying yellow ribbons round the old oak tree
Three little maids are we
Spring is coming
It's cherry pink and apple blossom white
We're flowers that bloom in the Spring tra la
as we merrily dance and we sing tra la
of roses and violets and flings ha ha
Sing willow tit willow tit willow
Ring ring
Hello is it me you're looking for?
Who's that girl?
Peggy Sue
My bonny lass she smileth
lhude sing cuccu
You've got a cute way of talking
What's new Pussycat?
sumer is icumen in
So I love to go a-wandering
along a mountain track
You'll never walk alone
Yes I can , yes I can , yes I can
with Val de ri and Val de ra
Ricky don't lose that number
Don't let me down
Meet me half way at the Sad Cafe
When Flora smiles
Don't tell her
On the third day of Christmas my true love came to me
Have you seen but a whyte lily grow
before rude hands hath touched it?
No!
Never mind, Here comes the sun
De-fer De-fer
to the Lord High Ex-e-cutioner
John Tra la VOLTA
is stayin alive stayin alive
cos he's workin for the man
What is this thing called love?
The very thought of you makes my heart sing
You go to my head like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew
I can't stop loving you
You must remember this
a kiss is but a kiss
So this is love?
A fine romance with no kisses
Alas my love you do me wrong
to cast me off discourteously
It's too late baby
I will survive
So go now go, walk out the door
and take your tan shoes and pink shoe laces
You drive me crazy ooh ooh
This is your Haitian divorce
Got the message?
Yep, in a bottle
No point in writing love letters in the sand
You're moving out today
How can I miss you if you won't go away?
I did it my way and by the way, Desperado
Who IS Sylvia?
After reading this musical delight, I've come to the conclusion cuckoos aren't the only birds who can ' lhude sing cuccu'...But I can let you into a secret. Sylivia is a friend of mine; lovely girl, but unsure of who or what she is...perhaps a shrink would help? LOL :)
ReplyDeleteI heard that you knew Sylvia.She speaks very highly of you too Jinxette and sends her regards :)
ReplyDeleteThere is no freakin way I could have pulled that out of this slug of a brain. And feverish, cannot even find my iTunes list to give me clues. I bow, I bow.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the turn on Volta, toots.
Toots had to have a brain scan last Friday.I think they put the zapper on too high and she
ReplyDeletehas been on super boost all week!
My head's reeling with all that music and all those lyrics fighting each other for supremacy! Outstanding, rallentanda!
ReplyDeleteI hope you're fully recovered quickly!
PS: I too used to grind my teeth and grimace at Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. But what can compare with that crown jewel The Mikado? Such fun!
Now that is distressing. Hope whatever they discovered was nothing more than some three-decade-old indiscretion mugging for the camera.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul.The Mikado is a winner but Sumer is icumen in isn't too bad either.
ReplyDeleteHi Rall,
ReplyDeleteRiotous FUN! Don't know how you do it - which is why I don't have anything this week. My brain could do with a zap!
P.S. WV is 'Billooli', which is what you have created for us!
Good word Derrick. Every one needs a good
ReplyDeletebillooling occasionally. Thanks.
This is just too much FUN!
ReplyDeleteHope you are better now...but please attempt to retain whatever it was that created this wonderful romp!
Were you my age or of my generation, I would suggest that you stop taking non prescriptive drugs but, being a woman of good taste (you not me)then I can only guess the fever was high. Mind you the poetry is stunning so whatever it was, take some more.
ReplyDeleteWhat a blast to read! I just want to memorize it so I can play it in my head over and over again like the song that it is.
ReplyDeleteDescartes had a fever when he came up with cogito ergo sum. So next time the dreaded
ReplyDeletelurgy hits CJ,make sure you have pen and paper at hand.
Not recommended Kristen...If you do that you'll
ReplyDeleteturn into a fruitcake.
Rall,
ReplyDeleteLove what you did with prompt! Excellent! I hear those songs in my head now. I hope you are feeling better. Thanks for sharing.
Pamela
Thanks Pamela.
ReplyDeleteVery fun poem!
ReplyDeleteI am glad I managed to hold on through the whole trip...wonderful...
ReplyDeleteOh my God. Your poems reminds me of how jumbled my brain is some days with music. And I thought that Beethoven's 5th, "Shiny Happy People", and "The End" by the Doors was a bad collision. Yikes. You've got me beat. Clever take on the prompt -- I really enjoy reading this piece.
ReplyDelete-Nicole
Absolute hoot. I was warbling along as I read it. Nearly confused my poor addled brain.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone.In the words of a never heard of band called Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks
ReplyDelete'I scare myself'
What a fun ride this is! I marvel at the song lyrics stuck in the crevices of my brain! Sometimes, I feel like the needle's stuck and I replay and replay over and over again. Obviously, I'm not the only one! (Oh, wait...isn't that a song lyric, too?)
ReplyDeleteRall . . I just read your comment on my poetry blog! Lovely to hear that your father was a musician. What was his instrument? Surely not the tuba? The father of an old friend of mine was leader of one of the "Philharmonics" - but I can never remember whether it was the London Philharmonic or the (defunct) Philharmonia
ReplyDeleteSir Thomas Beecham was from Lancashire, UK, same as meself, and YES he was of the "Beecham's Pills" family.
A fan once asked him why the tuba player - who sits doing nothing but the occasional OOMPAH - got the same salary as the fiddle players who go at it hammer-and-tongs all night. The Bart - never stuck for an answer, replied - "Madam, the tuba player has to clean it as well as play it!"
Now I hope the fever's flown
ReplyDelete(without too many switches blown)
so Rallentand's back on form -
or Blogland would be quite forlorn
without your touch of manic wit
to liven up the day a bit.
Why thankyou Jinxette.Got my results today..my brain is evidently in excellent shape for a poet in my surreal condition.I have been advised to have a rest from surrealism and to
ReplyDeletewrite only undemanding verse for two weeks.
Something like this
I wandered lonely as a cloud
only it wasn't me
I think it was that mad Sylvia
Why would our swains commend her?
she doesn't even know what she is
someone saw her selling fine knacks for ladies
on Ilkley moor ba t'at
she'll end up sitting in Gin Row
singing what shall we do with a drunken sailor
Are you QUITE SURE the fever's abated? LOL
ReplyDeleteNo brass in this family Footesque..figuratively or literally!
ReplyDeleteNever thought I'd run across anybody who knew of Dan Hicks. Might have known, though.
ReplyDeleteYep Babs..was a very cool chick once!
ReplyDeleteLove your dancin' mind stayin alive!
ReplyDeleteA clever take on the prompt, a hoot for the read and a sob because I recognized every single song and immediately attached an insignificant other to each. I've noticed that your mind stirs up wild stuff even when you're not suffering the vapors. And I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling that there were a lot of insignificant others rolling around in those tumbleweeds!Glad my wild mind makes you happy
ReplyDeleteblossombuds!
from Therese Broderick -- I love poems that make me laugh out loud. John Tra la VOLTA -- hilarious! Can I go skipping outside in the spring air while singing this song? I hope to see one like this for every season from now on. Glad you're feeling better ... but ... were you feverish when you wrote such nice compliments about my poem? Maybe the praise waas product of a hallucination? Just kidding. This is very imaginative.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly enough I had a fairly in depth conversation with someone about the subject of you poem earlier this evening.So it was very fresh in my mind.I think guilt is an admirable quality and is discouraged and unknown to most nowadays.I am pleased to note that some still understand the concept of conscience.
ReplyDelete