tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72621697136261951292024-02-02T07:10:13.239-08:00The Lonely Road......and Other Occupations - poetry and prose concerning literary rejection
by Craig GuthrieCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-73904004895413226362015-07-20T15:51:00.002-07:002015-07-20T15:51:56.646-07:00Cleaning Down<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">And so it is here, two of my lives cross-over.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">My literary life, and my culinary life.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXurgBGi3pjis40Ik9okcpiU0heh3su7OJLzEWBUR3uNNhwyvOHwbTQHkZWog3F2OhboJmPfT-nftbAXS9uo3WqCqfVKUC5SoCZH7ZTQkzUUWFnjRrJjnN50CA4GiJQBwtCUQRg3b8CAU/s1600/crossing_paths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXurgBGi3pjis40Ik9okcpiU0heh3su7OJLzEWBUR3uNNhwyvOHwbTQHkZWog3F2OhboJmPfT-nftbAXS9uo3WqCqfVKUC5SoCZH7ZTQkzUUWFnjRrJjnN50CA4GiJQBwtCUQRg3b8CAU/s400/crossing_paths.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">And therefore, I shall do something I never normally do and publish the same piece twice, as I feel it is pertinent to both collections. Both <i>The Lonely Road</i>, which is concerned with literary rejection, and <i>Cleaning Down</i>, which is concerned with philosophical allegory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b>A/ </b>There was a menu change today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b>B/</b> Recently, I have been communicating with Alan Corkish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Alan:</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><i>...<span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I personally got my ‘education’ via the CP; they used to take over the LSE each summer and organise The Communist University; all free of course and London Comrades provided food and shelter. There I met Ralph Milliband, Tariq Ali, Maurice Klugman, Bertrand Russel, Arthur Scargill, Darcus Howe, Mick McGahey, Jimmy Reid, Valentina Tereshkova, Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner... and on and on (I could name-drop for the UK) ...and when I say ‘met’; they became friends, comrades, I introduced them to my family and met theirs. As for</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><strong style="background-color: white;">your</strong><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">kids; well I’d venture to suggest that with you around; they WILL get a proper education,</span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">We’d honestly love to publish some of your stuff; we work as a cooperative however and are just about to splash out...</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">which was an extract replying to an e-mail from me, beginning,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Craig:</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><i>I thought about a really funny reply, starting, "Go fuck yourself..." but then I thought all this overzealous profane hyperbole might be getting a bit old now. Still, it is funny isn't it, "Go fuck yourself" I think it's just such a great turn of phrase.</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">I'll be honest with you Alan, some things in life outrage me, I mean really outrage me, but the fact that I am not a published author doesn't really rank up there with man's inhumanity to man.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"> Nor man's self-sacrifice.</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHc82_uk_n7r2I5aA3TJBzxvYkC8QZVY8uSlLfz2WMdkv3rMp-rqoDZhNZw2TLNNSAif5KCAaKZWnisiCBkAX1s2XxP86HBPThpfY3QS9QSIyDyzBXvOqU1Ocg4yqjWacRj0M6dgh_go/s1600/tibet+monks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHc82_uk_n7r2I5aA3TJBzxvYkC8QZVY8uSlLfz2WMdkv3rMp-rqoDZhNZw2TLNNSAif5KCAaKZWnisiCBkAX1s2XxP86HBPThpfY3QS9QSIyDyzBXvOqU1Ocg4yqjWacRj0M6dgh_go/s640/tibet+monks.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">which was sent in reply to this e-mail:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Alan:</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><i>We’ll use some of your work in a future edition if it’s sent in the correct format and follows guidelines. I appreciate the frustration of an artist however all the submissions we get are treated equally. How could we do anything else? If we changed the rules for you we’d be letting the others down. And to be fair; no one has simpler guidelines than erbacce... no one. Did you know Ho Chi Min worked in kitchens as you do? Now there’s a role model.</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9A1wtZUyearei7RkbiowmsPInSMOhKR2yr9hhral6ac8Uu5wnDNdMuuj2f4P3YuZJZfUuuebLZOX5p4_1El6SOM6YB9i9svhz7nApbcfJ_Nrp8AvbdSkWrC15soCdv6iNR_49nbRR18/s1600/22-HO-CHI-MINH-AFP-Getty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9A1wtZUyearei7RkbiowmsPInSMOhKR2yr9hhral6ac8Uu5wnDNdMuuj2f4P3YuZJZfUuuebLZOX5p4_1El6SOM6YB9i9svhz7nApbcfJ_Nrp8AvbdSkWrC15soCdv6iNR_49nbRR18/s640/22-HO-CHI-MINH-AFP-Getty.jpg" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">which was sent in reply to this,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the original e-mail,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Craig:</span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm still in Heswall Alan, but listen, why can't you champion my work for me, you guys went and published a whole load of shallow shite just because some guy had been in a band and had a hit (nick power) and you say the submission process is blind. Some of my stuff is shit Alan but some of it is brilliant, I have even made up my own word for Christ's sake - please google WYOCHUNG - I'm working in the busiest fucking kitchen on the Wirral for minimum fucking wage and I've got three kids and no fucking rich benefactors - I don't want money - all I want is a few pages in black and white and all I get told is submission guidelines, submission guidelines, well what if I'm not good with submission fucking guidelines, does that mean that my work has no place in print - for fuck's sake I've researched you man, that's why I came to you. Please Alan, get the panel to google wyochung, tell them who Keston is and how I just worked another 12-hour shift sweating my balls off to feed a bunch of overpaid civil servants, please Alan help me get something in black and white? You guys were meant to culture weeds, be radical, break the cycles, well I'm the biggest fucking weed around and all I'm getting is pseudo academic snobbery - do something Alan, help me, get them to google wyochung or something - tell them no-one else has their own fucking word except this little Scottish arsehole who's stuck in a kitchen...</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8L-vLRyWRMlJsuX5k2-5Kpn64SLXqqwW23NB__2eCNyftTs1ZjVvewONxPUfGwUAebD20b5nVRQMTBy1KFLMW0qwYWGad1GKJOOxuUcp8EVXsKDQUVkdFtPD_x7O9rkHc_JV_hWT-RsQ/s1600/desperation____by_ninchik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8L-vLRyWRMlJsuX5k2-5Kpn64SLXqqwW23NB__2eCNyftTs1ZjVvewONxPUfGwUAebD20b5nVRQMTBy1KFLMW0qwYWGad1GKJOOxuUcp8EVXsKDQUVkdFtPD_x7O9rkHc_JV_hWT-RsQ/s640/desperation____by_ninchik.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Oh, yes, there was a menu change today.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">But I can safely say, I was on top of my game for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Then I got another e-mail,</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Alan:</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><i>...When I was 14 I had my own flat; (I grew up quick) organised a party, beatniks, artists, street-fighters, poets, couple of Russians... a huge man known as ‘Dealer’ Corace stood on a chair and read this through his half ton beard with his mad Rasputin-eyes bulging. I changed that day. It was poem 14 and I was 14... seemed like an omen...</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Poem XX1V</b> by Stephen Spender<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>After they have tired of the brilliance of cities<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>And of striving for office where at last they may languish<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hung round with easy chains until<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Death and Jerusalem glorify also the crossing-sweeper;<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Then these streets the rich built and their easy love<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Fade like old cloths, and it is death stalks through life<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Grinning white through all faces<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Clean and equal like the shine from snow.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>In this time when grief pours freezing over us,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>When the hard light of pain gleams at every street corner,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>When those who were pillars of that day’s gold roof<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Shrink in their clothes; surely from hunger<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>We may strike fire, like fire from flint?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>And our strength is now the strength of our bones<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Clean and equal like the shine from snow<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>And the strength of famine and of our enforced idleness,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>And it is the strength of our love for each other.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Readers of this strange language,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>We have come at last to a country<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Where light equal, like the light from snow, strikes all faces,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Here you may wonder<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>How it was that works, money, interest, building, could ever hide<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>The palpable and obvious love of man for man.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Oh comrades, let not those who follow after<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>-The beautiful generation that shall spring from our sides-<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Let them not wonder how after the failure of banks,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>The failure of cathedrals and the declared insanity of our rulers,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>We lacked the Spring-like resources of the tiger<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Or of plants who strike out new roots to gushing waters,<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>But through torn-down portions of old fabric let their eyes<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Watch the admiring dawn explode like a shell<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Around us, dazing us with light like snow.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-15957008136927721152014-03-30T16:35:00.000-07:002014-04-01T02:13:29.624-07:00Threats, hyperbole and Hunter S Thompson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDGYEKCIvHlTxemqigBLCYQlbNIJrYifwVobppN-KGbvqX5XYReSXOcbLEo2mCakdOnr9BN9ep-sP9GCSq_scWlk4_hYaGL9ZUyv2dCtlKaf9WlN5ZjT9G__fTEvNHS3Zczg0rL1qKto/s1600/thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDGYEKCIvHlTxemqigBLCYQlbNIJrYifwVobppN-KGbvqX5XYReSXOcbLEo2mCakdOnr9BN9ep-sP9GCSq_scWlk4_hYaGL9ZUyv2dCtlKaf9WlN5ZjT9G__fTEvNHS3Zczg0rL1qKto/s1600/thompson.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I recently sent a drunken e-mail to Alan Corkish, in his capacity as a founder of Erbacce Press: </b></span><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;">"<b>Subject</b>: I typed it carefully to avoid errors</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-large;"><b>Message</b>: I don't get it - "innocent and quirky little girls and passionate but premature little boys - these are the lot being published" - (Craig Guthrie, The Mushroom Papers)</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: navy; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>"Not a Book, a Penny or a Promise."</b> I have written more and better, and still I have nothing in print, a handful of people reading my stuff, and a big fucking Chef's knife in my hand every day. </span></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="background-color: white; color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Arial Narrow'; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">http://guthrielinks.blogspot.co.uk/ "</span></a></i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I had forgotten about it as soon as I sent it and therefore, was surprised to receive this reply, the next day: </b></span></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">"What is it you are trying to say?...</span></i><span style="font-size: x-large;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I replied immediately, thus:</b></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Arial Narrow;">"</span><span style="font-family: arial;">I apologise Alan, I am working long and arduous hours at the moment and suddenly became very frustrated and drunk the other evening. Occasionally my attempts at hyperbole are, at best, misplaced and ill-thought-out.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Again, I apologise profusely.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Best regards, Craig."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>As soon as I read the return e-mail, I was worried. But as soon as I'd sent my reply, I was even more worried - <i>"a big fucking Chef's knife in my hand everyday"</i> - could this be taken as a threat - would the uniforms be knocking on my door soon enough... ...separating me from my real life?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Should I prepare for it?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Threats?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>No.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Facts.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Facts.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I do have a big knife in my hand 6 days out of seven and I might well be tired and irritable...</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>but I am still passive me...</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>...still trying to state some obscure facts for reasons which aren't quite clear to myself.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Come and see me face to face</span></i><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> I think - </b><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">because it comes off better - you know - </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;">face to face - at the back door of a busy kitchen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I think of Hunter S Thompson's only really good advice - "<i>Never apologize, Never explain</i>" and the differences between his work and mine.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Although Thompson too, used a ruthless style to illustrate the absurdity of life, frustration, astonishment and so on - and hyperbole to accentuate his own obscure truths - he was primarily a journalist. He used the <i>real</i> names of </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>real</i> people.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>He wrote what he was compelled to write - about who he wanted to write about.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>And then I thought of my clan motto not so far removed from the American: <i>"Sto Pro Veritatae</i> - <i>I stand for truth"</i> - might or shite, I'm still not sure.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Maybe I should start using real names.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Of real people.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>And tell it how it really is - until I'm sued or shot, or stabbed, or something equally as bad...</b></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-38190135941838237792014-03-14T03:30:00.000-07:002014-04-03T04:38:54.638-07:00Excerpt from an Interview and a new job at The Boathouse<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">An excerpt from my interview with Alan Corkish for the Erbacce journal and the first of the poems they published:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">As predicted in the interview, I am now "back at work," not sure, between cooking and poetry, which one is harder.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">There is a certain unhealthy kind of gratitude which the working classes are made to feel, which we have to be careful of, simply for the honour of being employed - <i>"Thank you, Sir, for giving me money in return for performing certain tasks and allowing me to be properly involved in the current fiscal tapering."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Equally there is a debt of shame and guilt which we feel if we employ ourselves in the business of Art - far from the rivets of the shipyard and looms of the factory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Yet I <i>am</i> grateful to be fiscally employed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">For the reasons that, my children can dine on fried chicken twice a week and the fact that my crippling shame and guilt might</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> be stifled both by hard labour in the kitchen and a growing awareness, by merit of the social contact that work requires, that pretty much everyone else, is crazier than I am.</span><br />
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<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-8612078151282250062014-02-05T02:57:00.001-08:002014-02-07T04:10:26.110-08:00when crustaceans are hungry<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>when crustaceans are hungry</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>they eat themsels</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>fae the inside oot</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>right up tae thir shells</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>uh uh uh</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an when am eh gettin ma money</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh dinnae like to be rude</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>sjist ehve been workin</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>sae hard fir sae lang</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>uh uh uh</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>ehm haein problems</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>piyin these bills</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>three bairns in tow</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>its no easy</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>when yer caught in the trap</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>stuck in the pigpen</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>wadin through crap</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>uh uh uh</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh ken you weeains</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>admired meh doagfuck</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh ken you ken</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>ehve nae rogue luck</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>but the thing is</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>you aa seem tae be able</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>tae piy yer bills</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh ken yir hauns are tied</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>but ehm strugglin here</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>strugglin</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>uh uh the boy doon the road</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>he hung hesel</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>when blockies went doon the tubes</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>christ whit a terrible shame</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh wish eh could o spoke tae him</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>tellt him no tae</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>grabbed him beh the shidders</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>Shook oot the gloom</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>fed him brakefast</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>gied him a room</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>he wiz young</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>hid nae dependants</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>ehm aulder</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an never hid a joab</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>in the first place</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an ehm startin tae worry</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>uh uh well eh say ehm startin</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>It Startit a lang time ago</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>when thir wiz this bird</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>shwiz lanky an ginger</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>wwir baith blind drunk</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an when wnecked in the flat</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>the taste an smell</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>o tomato soup</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>o it wiz unholy</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>eh grinned an bore it</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>that affy smell</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>deargoad</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>coz wi baith enjoyed oorsels</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>sae well</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>fair well</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>wbaith enjoyed wersels sae much</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>wbaith decided that</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>th th that </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>wid niver get in touch</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>thats when meh brain</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>evicted aw they crabs</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>till aw they bills</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>came again thiday</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>now whaurs meh money</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>that wiz up fir grabs</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>when crustaceans are hungry</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>they devoor themsels</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>is that no ringin any bells</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>what do ye think</b></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>meh brens like now honey</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>efter aw they bills</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an still nae money</b></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>meh joab wiz done</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>tellin ye aboot the fella</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>the auld broon pipe</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an the can o stella</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an that ginger lassie</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>smellin o heinz</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>but still fair sassie</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>now gie me whit ehm owed</b></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>an whit ehve bin due</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>if no tae finish</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b>at least </b></span></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">tae continue</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">wbaith enjoyed wersels</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"> sae much</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">sae well</b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">a watergaw </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">appeared in hell</b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-71469678086413495242014-01-16T04:26:00.001-08:002014-01-19T09:33:21.009-08:00The Prospect of Two Letters and a Certain String in My Pocket<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Signed copies available"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Signed copies available"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I can only laugh.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">These egos beat me in the poetry game by getting published first, selling a few copies and winning competitions - innocent and quirky little girls and passionate but premature little boys - perhaps making a few bob before I appear.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">They have a book, I have my kitchen application.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Why?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is it because their work is richer, deeper, more profound?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Because they have spent more time on it, endlessly redraughting it until something worthwhile appears?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Better educated, better people, better artists?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Because the issues they raise are more pertinent to modern existence?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Certainly not, "Signed copies available"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">But then I don't know why, certainly I don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is it because certain things are "safe" perhaps "risk-free" and...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">...oh, certainly sign a copy for me so that I, a stranger, can look appropriately grateful up to what might be <i>the next big thing</i>. But after you have scrawled your name with abundant ego but little thought, prepare to meet this stranger in the flesh, suddenly, and with a great noise breaking any serenity - from around any dark corner while walking at night, or bursting from any wheelie bin you might be innocently passing in the morning.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>signed copies available</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-4012198868439107582013-12-26T10:44:00.001-08:002013-12-26T10:45:56.809-08:00rejection consistent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nv6fY5_Y8zaYcG_EvDdWSSrXexJVFpwd2cmXLA8q7KqDrbNcT0cwe7M5JRLIZNFOsv3SuSO6KWO3kMTKW1hP-qLk3hko3WQ1XxEpkOybLyA2w7UQYKmZwOFPfjBDG_Kn5k-ApnEFEIti/s1600/dragons-den_chairs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nv6fY5_Y8zaYcG_EvDdWSSrXexJVFpwd2cmXLA8q7KqDrbNcT0cwe7M5JRLIZNFOsv3SuSO6KWO3kMTKW1hP-qLk3hko3WQ1XxEpkOybLyA2w7UQYKmZwOFPfjBDG_Kn5k-ApnEFEIti/s640/dragons-den_chairs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>thinking</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>of producing</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>monthly magazine</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>called Craig</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>aMoNgsT PoEtRy</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>it is proposed</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>to have</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>some ToPlEsS</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>photos of me</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>in candid poses</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>and a Recipe</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>no investors</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>yet</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>dragon's den</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>next week</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>fuck</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
</div>
Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-29444373916453038262013-12-19T02:36:00.002-08:002014-01-16T03:55:12.984-08:00Cultivator of Weeds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRm3IkPShzVbDcq9ddvVV4gimDwk4A_Kcmy70LOrZ_6Ve01TejyVXtZUmMkivaYPN2NpOsfkWZ6oxBpIs7EHLRceIi4XeXBdFaY_g13kW1H-8yjwoxZM4HYe1zl98e31GlDCKU0sVKtsE/s1600/ThankYou.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRm3IkPShzVbDcq9ddvVV4gimDwk4A_Kcmy70LOrZ_6Ve01TejyVXtZUmMkivaYPN2NpOsfkWZ6oxBpIs7EHLRceIi4XeXBdFaY_g13kW1H-8yjwoxZM4HYe1zl98e31GlDCKU0sVKtsE/s640/ThankYou.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Thank you for nothing,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">If you met my dad,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">You'd be utterly in awe,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">He's 82,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And worth a million of you,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Defined by his nation,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Born in a haystack,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Betrayed by his station.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">In life,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Never a more honest person,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Hard-working, humble,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Gentle and gentile,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Who always would stumble,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Into the heart of the matter,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Through verbal debate,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">A reading of books,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">A concept of fate,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Or simply,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Appreciating experience,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">More being less,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">But Holy God,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I digress,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Thank you for nothing,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">It's my bad,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I was writing to thank you,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">For the beautiful balloon ride,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">But was soon derided,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">For too many lines,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">starting with Capitals.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">well capital for you,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">i tip my cap to you,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">cap my enthusiasm,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">insert your cap,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And brace yourself,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">if you met my dad,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">you'd appreciate,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">my digression,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And sense of fate..</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">WhIsPeRs</span> <b>Thank you Father,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Everything,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cultivator of Weeds,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">For Nothing.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-48949581522225545942013-11-19T03:18:00.000-08:002013-12-23T11:22:31.021-08:00Furious Allegorical Wrath - Translation, Exegesis and Hermeneutics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EDk46FOXiXlSoa_YAKTrV-UbMpozqE_DabHQah89QP_LYbb-wgtQxDekZ0lpUaPBtIE7KkqBLenIsYFY03b9p1544w4BGL2kloYVCRjO5V1w1tTOi09-TnUQYPLsxUY4CkJ3O13Gq5Q/s1600/biblelight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EDk46FOXiXlSoa_YAKTrV-UbMpozqE_DabHQah89QP_LYbb-wgtQxDekZ0lpUaPBtIE7KkqBLenIsYFY03b9p1544w4BGL2kloYVCRjO5V1w1tTOi09-TnUQYPLsxUY4CkJ3O13Gq5Q/s1600/biblelight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3EDk46FOXiXlSoa_YAKTrV-UbMpozqE_DabHQah89QP_LYbb-wgtQxDekZ0lpUaPBtIE7KkqBLenIsYFY03b9p1544w4BGL2kloYVCRjO5V1w1tTOi09-TnUQYPLsxUY4CkJ3O13Gq5Q/s400/biblelight.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Strange things are afoot - and while they are, and have been, I have reached several more fleeting epiphanies.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Books are being published. Writers are being read. Contemporary literature which I shat out philosophical reviews of in my internal monologue of the McEwan's Export Mid-eighties are being quoted as influences.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">People are better-looking these days and this isn't a good thing.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">My last poem was not my last.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall never have my cafe</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I can only vaguely remember Steinbeck, Kafka, Camus, Bukowski, Thompson, Kerouac, Satre, Thoreau - nonetheless, they are still tattooed there, somewhere in my deeper psyche.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall build a fire.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall channel and dissipate the Furious Wrath.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall educate myself on the nature of true injustice and donate time to those less fortunate than myself.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall unleash my Unholy Show of Performance Art.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall charge for it - but there shall be different rates - some will pay more than others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Books are being published and writers being read.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Chef phoned me about doing some Christmas work, some unpredictable high-class seasonal banquet cooking and such like (Anthony Bourdain - <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/aug/13/foodanddrink1">http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/aug/13/foodanddrink1</a>) - or there is the three weeks night shift at the royal mail centre (Bukowski - <a href="http://quarterlyconversation.com/post-office-by-charles-bukowski">http://quarterlyconversation.com/post-office-by-charles-bukowski</a>)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">What should I do?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">But more important,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Above all,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And at any cost,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall write,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And keep on writing,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Until everything is lost.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">◄ Ezekiel 5:13 ►</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">New International Version:</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.</span></i></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">New Living Translation:</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the LORD, have spoken to them in my jealous anger.</span></i></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">English Standard Version:</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them.</span></i></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">New American Standard Bible:</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thus My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">King James Bible:</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.</span></i></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Holman Christian Standard Bible:</span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in My jealousy.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">International Standard Version:</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Only then will I stop being angry—my burning in anger. Then they'll know that I've spoken out in my arduous anger. Only then will my burning anger against them be exhausted. </span></i></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">NET Bible:</span></b></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy when I have fully vented my rage against them.</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">But above all,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Translation, Exegesis, Hermeneutics... a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">bove all and at any cost, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">I shall write and keep on writing, t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">he existential solipsist, u</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">ntil everything is lost. - <i>CG</i></span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"><i>, 2013, "The Mushroom Papers"</i></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-35194693057949953302013-10-09T04:41:00.000-07:002013-10-10T03:19:20.499-07:00Some Basic Notes on Thoreau<div class="WordSection1">
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>I am
a Parcel of Vain Strivings Tied </u><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I am a parcel of vain strivings tied<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By a chance bond together,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Dangling this way and that, their links<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Were made so loose and wide,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Methinks,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">For milder weather.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A bunch of violets without their roots,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And sorrel intermixed,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Encircled by a wisp of straw<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Once coiled about their shoots,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The law<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">By which I'm fixed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A nosegay which Time clutched from out<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Those fair Elysian fields,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With weeds and broken stems, in haste,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Doth make the rabble rout<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That waste<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The day he yields.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And here I bloom for a short hour
unseen,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Drinking my juices up,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With no root in the land<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To keep my branches green,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But stand<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In a bare cup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Some tender buds were left upon my stem<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">In mimicry of life,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But ah! the children will not know,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Till time has withered them,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The woe<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With which they're rife.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But now I see I was not plucked for
naught,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And after in life's vase<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Of glass set while I might survive,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">But by a kind hand brought<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Alive<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">To a strange place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">That stock thus thinned will soon
redeem its hours,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And by another year,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Such as God knows, with freer air,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">More fruits and fairer flowers<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Will bear,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">While I droop here. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">- Henry David Thoreau.</span></i></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Mohandas
Gandhi on Thoreau:</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCLM9ipSJsIKuihmdP4LE9rhi8Ifd_H3QdRdQLdP3P4o_Mg8AmFeslx-E8joWtw5K4jVGHFMhGC1cVxPuAReUQ50aCzDNftDGD2F3yQ_tS1UqTGPFeKsvRM4Kjw8pmvsa0K4tp3lVu6E/s1600/Henry_David_Thoreau.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCLM9ipSJsIKuihmdP4LE9rhi8Ifd_H3QdRdQLdP3P4o_Mg8AmFeslx-E8joWtw5K4jVGHFMhGC1cVxPuAReUQ50aCzDNftDGD2F3yQ_tS1UqTGPFeKsvRM4Kjw8pmvsa0K4tp3lVu6E/s400/Henry_David_Thoreau.jpg" width="323" /></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Credited Thoreau's essay with being “the
chief cause of the abolition of slavery in America” and wrote, “Thoreau was a great
writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he taught
nothing he was not prepared to practice in himself. He was one of the greatest
and most moral men America has produced. At the time of the abolition of
slavery movement, he wrote his famous essay "On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience". He went to gaol for the sake of his principles and
suffering humanity. His essay has, therefore, been sanctified by suffering.
Moreover, it is written for all time. Its incisive logic is unanswerable.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">—<i>For
Passive Resisters</i> (1907)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Dr
Martin Luther King Jr. on Thoreau:</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">“During my student days I read Henry
David Thoreau's essay On Civil Disobedience for the first time. Here, in this
courageous New Englander's refusal to pay his taxes and his choice of jail
rather than support a war that would spread slavery's territory into Mexico, I
made my first contact with the theory of nonviolent resistance. Fascinated by
the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system, I was so deeply moved
that I reread the work several times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I became convinced that noncooperation
with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other
person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than
Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are
the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. The teachings of Thoreau came alive
in our civil rights movement; indeed, they are more alive than ever before.
Whether expressed in a sit-in at lunch counters, a freedom ride into
Mississippi, a peaceful protest in Albany, Georgia, a bus boycott in
Montgomery, Alabama, these are outgrowths of Thoreau's insistence that evil
must be resisted and that no moral man can patiently adjust to injustice. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">-</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Thoreau
on society and State:</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">“What old people say you cannot do you
try and find that you can.” – <i>Economy.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">“The mass of men serve the state thus,
not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing
army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &c. In most
cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense:
but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden
men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Such command no more respect than men
of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and
dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens.” </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">– </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Civil Disobedience.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“How does it become a man to behave
toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without
disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that
political organisation as <i>my </i>government
which is the <i>slave’s </i>government also.”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
– </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Civil Disobedience.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Thus the State never intentionally
confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses.
It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical
strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let
us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me
who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not
hear of <i>men </i>being <i>forced </i>to live this way or that by
masses of me. What sort of life were that to live?" </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">– Civil Disobedience</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The
Transcendentalists:</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">“The Transcendentalists were eclectic
rather than systematic, any brief description of their views tends to be
reductive… …As James Freeman Clarke observed about himself and his
contemporaries, the Transcendentalists were ‘a club of likeminded, I suppose because
no two of us thought alike.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">The unity within this diversity was a
feeling that American literature, philosopy, and religion, as well as
government, society, and individuals, were not fulfilling the potential that
they believed was possible. Although Thoreau refused to be a member of any
collective movement, he did occasionally refer to himself as a
Transcendendalist (partially because this self-description could be counted on
to confuse and dismay people)…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">…Indeed their primary activities were
forms of self-expression rather than the kinds of social, economic, or
political actions that the bustling 19<sup>th</sup> century would have been
likely to comprehend.”</span> <i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">– Introduction to
Walden and Civil Disobedience.</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Thoreau
on the human condition:<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the
desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself
with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair
is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> –
</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Economy.</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-28459195083576120372013-10-09T03:57:00.002-07:002013-10-10T03:26:01.664-07:00Thompson's debt letter<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Thompson had crafted a
lunatic form letter designed to get creditors off his back; it worked about half the time.</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">(</span><span style="font-size: large;">from one of Thompson’s letters to Sally, <i>The Proud Highway</i></span><span style="font-size: large;">) </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i>April
2, 1958</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">562
West 113</span><sup>th</sup><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">New
York City.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Sally,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Mail
this when you get a chance, will you? If
this one doesn’t scare the bastards off, then nothing will. I think I should
send a copy of this letter to the AMA (American Medical Association) as a
sample of a schizophrenic mind at work: it’s a real whopper. Anyone who would
try to collect any money from the author of this letter would have to be an
out-and-out fool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> If
they come looking for me with nets, tell them I left several weeks ago to go
over to Gainesville, Florida to apply for a job as a religion editor on a paper
there. Just as long as they never discover that I’m in New York, I’m all right.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Thanks,
Hunter.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">“Debt Letter”<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Say man, what is all this? I just
got back from New Orleans and the first thing I find is a threat from you
people – some wild yap about jail and court and lawyers and such: what do you
think I am – some kind of moneybag? Here I am trying to sell my short story
trilogy, and you people hound me at every turn – howling and moaning about some
idiotic debts! Who are you anyway? I never bought a damn thing from you people.
What kind of rotten business are you in – that you have to hound people all
over the country? I get a bunch of mail about every two or three months, and
every damn time I get some, I find a threat from you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> What
the hell are you trying to do, anyway? Don’t you realize that I can’t work with
all this war coming on us? This atomic fallout is God’s WRATH! With the end of
the world right on top of us, I can’t afford to work. If I don’t get my work
published now, I may never get it published! Haven’t you heard of serving God
and Mammon? With all this sex going on a people forgetting about Godf, how can
you hound me like this? We’re taking the whiskey into our bodies all the time
and drink God’s BLOOD! I can’t hold a job – I get worried all the time and feel
half crazy… what are you doing with all this money… we all have a home in
Heaven… what’s all this trouble?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> You
don’t understand the strain I’m under: I’m not the same man I was a year ago.
Worrying about my work and money and jobs all the time is driving me crazy! I
have to get my work published! Why don’t you talk to some of these publishers
you know and get me an advance so I can write a novel? Then I’ll have some
money… then you’ll have it… I won’t get these threats! I got a disease of some
kind over in New Orleans and I can’t even go to a doctor! Everybody thinks it’s
funny, but I have to get a job. I might be the assistant religion editor of the
Gainesville Sun pretty soon… I’m going over there next week to see about a job.
I had a car but somebody took it in St Louis. Oh God, what’s happening all the
time? Everybody wants to steal and drink and sex and take everybody’s money
away from people who don’t even sell anything and there’s atomic fallout
everywhere and war coming on. The whole world is going crazy and I don’t even
have a job. You’ve got to stop threatening me! I’m not well – I have a blister
on my leg and that damn disease all over my stomach. I can’t even think what I
want to say anymore… this worry is driving me crazy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> I
tried to work in New Orleans and they made me quit. If I get this thing in
Gainesville I’ll be a religion editor and publish my own book in the paper.
After that I’ll have a job and get well.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Sincerely,
Hunter S. Thompson.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-80289292824667917892013-10-09T03:52:00.000-07:002013-10-29T03:41:38.600-07:00Extracts from an Open Letter to Erbacce<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Mr Guthrie would like to point out in his open letter that <i>Erbacce Press</i> are the only publishing company to have supported his work throughout "<i>a) my deep depression b) my alcohol, marijuana, mushroom, tobacco, LSD and sex addiction, and c) my chronic paranoia and uncontrollable fits of hysteria related to multiple personality syndrome.</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">"<i>If</i>," he says, "<i>in the following pages, a certain derisory or sarcastic tone is adopted in reference to the company, I would like it to be known, that <b>this is only in line with the confusion deliberately set forth in the work, which it is hoped would force the reader into a decision-making process which filters dramatic fiction, from the actual beliefs and day-to-day reality of the author.</b></i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">In the original manuscript it is said that Mr Guthrie "<i>would like to thank Erbacce Press and those affiliated with such - particularly Alan Corkish, a local street-fighter, both for the selfless, unending work they do to make writers' lives marginally bearable, and also for putting up with egotistical arseholes such as myself.</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">In "<i>terms of fact and fiction</i>" Mr Guthrie states in his letter, "<i>...the simple and unarguable fact is, that Erbacce deserve a great deal of money to come their way - the fiction is, that it is actually going to come...</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> - from the handbook preface to "<i>The Lonely Road - Additional Notes on the Open Letter to Erbacce</i>" by Prof E.E. Esposito.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-23637242742314471112013-09-26T02:47:00.004-07:002013-10-05T03:52:28.139-07:00The Outsider.<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Well,</span></i></b></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Here it is,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">My epitaph,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">And here I stand,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Alone.</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Thrown out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Or walked out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Of every job</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">I ever had,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Every ground</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">I've ever known.</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Thrown out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Or walked out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Of every</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Institution,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Society</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Or company...</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Thrown out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Or walked out,</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Of every</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Club</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">I</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Ever</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Had</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">The misfortune</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">To be</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">A part of.</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-5363433877151015632013-09-23T04:45:00.000-07:002013-10-02T02:28:56.566-07:00The Final Post: The Second to Last Epiphany: "these three words"<span style="font-size: x-large;">The Lonely Road?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Concerning Literary Rejection?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Don't make me laugh.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Please remember that this is political allegory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">No, not political, social allegory, and...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">...I was coming home from LLandudno on Sunday when it happened. I had a bad argument with Mr B in the car - I'm not sure what about, probably the drugs - but I was driving too fast, I could feel my neck-muscles were locked and apparently a vein was throbbing in my head.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The petrol was into the reserve tank and I abdicated responsibility over the vehicle in view of the high risks of fatality.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I got out of the car at the petrol station to walk home the final couple of miles. Cool off. Wind down. But I didn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I decided to cut through Whitfield Common.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">There were three teenage girls exiting the gate as I made my way to cut through; two were giving the other one directions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">As I passed the play park I scoped three teenage boys with a girl standing about 15 feet from them. As I walked past and the boys left my field of vision, I heard what sounded like a small stone being thrown toward my feet and I stopped immediately, to weigh up the situation and what the consequences should be.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">After about three seconds I turned and asked, "Did one of you just throw something?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">They looked a little startled, each one. Two had hoods up and looked thin and weak, the other was probably clinically obese for his age and propped himself up against the children's climbing wall.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Did one of you ****ing throw something," I asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Maybe," said the fat one.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"You want to ****ing throw things, don't ****ing throw them at me. I'm a ****ing psychopath, you're messing with the wrong ****ing person," I spat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The fat one laughed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Is it funny? Is something ****ing funny?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is it funny?" I demanded.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Everything's funny," he said, sniggering, half-way between shock and mockery.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"Is a broken ****ing nose funny?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is that funny you ****ing ****?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Is a broken ****ing nose funny?" I could feel myself winding, like an old, but powerful precision-tooled clock spring.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"I've had a broken nose, it's not even sore," Fatscum replied.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I looked at them and weighed up the odds of physical success, which were good, and then subsequent court actions, which were bad. I turned away.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"****ing little ****s," I spat again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">When I was well around the corner, out of sight and around 200-feet away, I heard them shout something, my heart thumped and I stopped dead in my tracks. I looked around for a big stick and quickly started to imagine how much pace I could get up after the corner or whether I could get home for Big Bat and back again before they left.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I thought of the prosecution case again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I walked home, palpitating all the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Poetrty Scotland</i> <a href="http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk/">http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk/</a> agreed to publish "Existential Sollipsism from the Scheme" <a href="http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/existential-solipsism-from-scheme.html">http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/existential-solipsism-from-scheme.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Sam Smith <a href="http://thesamsmith.webs.com/">http://thesamsmith.webs.com/</a> had taken a piece called "The Pitchur Above" <a href="http://virgilshandbag.blogspot.co.uk/">http://virgilshandbag.blogspot.co.uk/</a> for <i>The Journal.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">And <i>Erbacce</i> <a href="http://www.erbacce.com/">http://www.erbacce.com/</a> had chosen me as the featured writer in issue 36 - dedicating half the magazine and an interview to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I could no longer call this <i>"The Lonely Road"</i> - even although it had paid me no money.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The two things that stuck in my head were the Fat Kid, and the fact that I'd never intentionally misled anyone about <i>"Diary of an Obnoxious Sociophobe" <a href="http://obnoxioussociophobe.blogspot.co.uk/">http://obnoxioussociophobe.blogspot.co.uk/</a></i>. And, that if it was infantile, then it was intended to be. It was written by a fifteen-year-old girl. In the preview, Emily comes of age in the fourth installment - the timeline skips from 1986 - to 2013. But in the full text, it becomes apparent that Emily has only imagined the future and that she reverts to a <i>true</i> dateline of 1986 to resume and conclude the story.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">That Fat Kid is still bothering me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">To forgive, or seek retribution?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I could have humiliated him. Bitch-slapped him, taken his phone, bent him over, and no-one would have found out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">But then I wished to allow him no head-space and therefore must admit that to <i>forgive</i> <i><b>is</b></i> to <i>forget</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">A Man of Principles? No.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Pure selfishness motivates my acquittal of the crimes committed against me and mine.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I shall not be finding the gravitationally-challenged youth and I shall not be executing swift and brutal punishment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Maybe I should - maybe it would stop Keiran's grandma from taking an unnecessary fall brought on by these over-confident youths. Maybe they would get brutal as time went on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Either way, I have chosen, like childish things, to lay it aside. When I was a boy, I played with childish things. Now that I am a man, I lay childish things aside.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I forgive, because I am busy - </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Creating,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">experiencing, s</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">haring?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"<i>Come into my arms Fat Kid, and I shall set thee free,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The Lonely Road is built for two, and one of them is me.</i>" - Craig Guthrie.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"<i>Create, experience, share</i>" - I never for one moment imagined that these words would be integral to my ethos, that they might become my budget advertisement or that I was even worthy to have them carved into my headstone.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Yes, carve them into my headstone, <i>these three words</i>, but make sure that you grant me, underneath, in a larger lettering<b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> "<b>Damyata, Datta, Dayadhvam</b>"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">and be sure to never visit there, due to my profound hypocrisy.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">- END -</span></div>
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<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-38973442069519082092013-06-24T04:07:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.734-07:00The Mental Health Act<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Some of the major UK newspapers recently became interested in the current literary work of Mr Guthrie and attempted to contact him for comment. When he was found to be missing for three days, and therefore unavailable for comment, they started contacting Government Departments implicated in his disappearance. Shortly after, these letters went out:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Letter from the DPS to The Guardian, The Mail, The Independent and The Financial Times etc.</i></span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(dated 21/05/13)</span> :<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"Let it be declared here, that Mr Guthrie is currently being detained under The Mental Health Act 1982, Section III, Subsection 12.03, "that parties may be detained, whose communication with members of the public at large may be deemed to pose a reasonable risk to the fabric of modern society."</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The Department of Public Security proposed the sectioning of Mr Guthrie through evidence obtained from websites operating under the modus operandi of "Literary Genius" as the words contained therein were deemed to be a threat to public media departments operating for the general good of the "populous proletariat."</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Mr Guthrie's various forms of poetry and prose were seen to undermine the current economic state and contribute enough to the cause of economic revolution for action to be taken and would like to take this opportunity to state that the DPS along with the DPH have considerably reduced the threat of a catastrophic economic meltdown in the civilised West by their actions."</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Letter from Mr Guthrie to The Guardian etc</b>.</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span>(dated 01/06/13) :<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"The DPS recently stated that I was being detained under some fictitious Mental Health Act and declared that my work posed a threat to the western economy in general, due to its revolutionary nature and qualities.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Let it be stated here, that I was not and have never been, detained under any Mental Health Act, that I am alive, well and free to make comment on their spurious claims and clear up the whole sordid matter.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">On the 20th of last month, I was approached by two burly men, anonymously and soberly dressed, but with tattoos showing above the collar on their neck.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The first man reached into his inside left pocket and produced a large "delete button" mounted on shiny, glossed mdf. Before he could press it, I flew out at him, spun him quickly and uppercut him in the kidneys. I punched rapidly about forty or fifty times in a matter of seconds before he fell in agony and I turned to the second man who quickly sped off.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">I believed at the time that these men were from a particular Scottish Yakuza crime dynasty I had dealings with in 1999. I was wrong.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The men in question were from the publisher "R*** H****" and were on direct orders from their CEO to remove a threat, namely me, from any literary platform in the effort to maintain the current status quo in the publishing world and continue the current fashion of literary predictability. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">They were unsuccessful.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">I wouldn't go.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">I won't go.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">I won't go away.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">They know it now.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The best thing I ever did was to start that first letter... to that first publisher, "Dear Motherfuckers," and let the wind absorb me. This is not sentimental, this is not armchair philosophy, this is intended only to be the beginning of the end for an army of substandard scribes.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">I would like to thank The Guardian etc for publishing this letter."</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i><br /></i>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The letter from Mr Guthrie was never published by <i>The Guardian</i>, <i>The Financial Times</i>, or any other such publication.</b></span><br />
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<i><br /></i>Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-4959792223429301462013-06-18T03:08:00.001-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.751-07:00Mon Trou(rejected by <i>The Paris Bohemian - </i>Paris)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bnlenWs3AW7C9tug0a3cULWtSUDjBxIPwTSTPB0IGBRIwNirgEj5G-LrgAAwxwb0DugdUapiHhTRGqTj1Fa37QESRsODdLi5dabaWarbknjBHvMDRIe45KfBog6YCTmwlHAod4GXpZM/s1600/hole+in+ground2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bnlenWs3AW7C9tug0a3cULWtSUDjBxIPwTSTPB0IGBRIwNirgEj5G-LrgAAwxwb0DugdUapiHhTRGqTj1Fa37QESRsODdLi5dabaWarbknjBHvMDRIe45KfBog6YCTmwlHAod4GXpZM/s640/hole+in+ground2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Je vais ramper dans un trou,<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Et ne
jamais sortir,<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Je serai
heureux,<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Dans mon
trou,<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Si je me
retrouve seul,</i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i><span lang="DE-LU">Je vais
travailler</span><span lang="DE-LU"> </span>là<span lang="DE-LU">,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div>
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<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Sans cesse,<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="DE-LU"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><i>Et être
heureux,</i></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Dans mon
trou.</i></span></b></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-86907998673930711282013-06-05T09:24:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.775-07:00Angora, plagiarism and another big joke<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Well, that is it. Finally, it has all become one big joke.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">After Erbacce (<i>"established to give a voice to new and radical poets"</i>) informed me that it could not click on an unsolicited site to view my chapbook proposal, I drew up another one, within their submission guidelines.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">On their site they say "<i>try something different</i>" and so I redrafted the opening five pages of "<i>Diary of an Obnoxious Sociophobe</i>" <a href="http://obnoxioussociophobe.blogspot.co.uk/">http://obnoxioussociophobe.blogspot.co.uk/</a> and combined it with extracts of my poetry <a href="http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/">http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/</a> They require five pages and nothing else, which I duly sent them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Since then, I have been informed that they are not satisfied that the work is my own, as I put the name Emily Ellis Parker on it, and Emily Parker is a name currently being bandied around some current affairs story.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">I promptly pointed out that I was not aware of the name, having picked it out of thin air for having a slightly "posh" quality, and changed the name on the site to my own - in big black letters - I then changed the name Emily to Rebecca and even offered to delete the site.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> I also tagged these words on to the top:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> <b><i>{NB - all the work on this site was written by and is the property of Craig Guthrie. I originally chose the name of Emily Ellis Parker, but was advised that, due to current affairs, I should change it and put my own name on the site. To me, this has taken some of the magic from it, as I originally presented it as the work of the protagonist and was happy to work under this illusion. I have nonetheless complied in the hope that no more questions should be raised as to the author of this work.}</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Erbacce </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">still refused to consider the proposal: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: x-large;">"You are not accused of plagiarism; you send us work and it is work published under another name on a website which you say is yours. Fine... but I’m afraid we are not prepared to accept it as such; our decision."</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I have continued to stare, for hours now, at the first words which welcome me to their site - </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Weeds grow where they want to; not where they're told to grow... </b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">- while wearing an Angora sweater and pencil skirt, scratching my head, and sobbing and laughing intermittently.</span><br />
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-26781233874139729922013-06-04T04:12:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.727-07:00Artifice<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlgSz0jEZvIG_79s0HmVx83rpZmv9lBaz623o0LMhPtLlNf6Ii0tL_Dbywb3OsFyi2jXyk3cWALaFDRG-n3G1Wkq606fWHvOj5t-o63zTVeOl64xkG_qhyPLtc9AYTxNpaUWksiXZ3EXQ/s1600/handmade-ballpoint-pen-afzelia-burl-black-titanium-gold-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlgSz0jEZvIG_79s0HmVx83rpZmv9lBaz623o0LMhPtLlNf6Ii0tL_Dbywb3OsFyi2jXyk3cWALaFDRG-n3G1Wkq606fWHvOj5t-o63zTVeOl64xkG_qhyPLtc9AYTxNpaUWksiXZ3EXQ/s640/handmade-ballpoint-pen-afzelia-burl-black-titanium-gold-a.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The sordid in your soul so rare,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>That only you can see,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The sordid in my soul so rare,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But naebody writes like me.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But naebody can write like me,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Naw,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Naebody can write like me,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Come ane,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Come aw,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Come an see,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Cos naebody can write like me.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Ye high-class plume,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>You must assume,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Eh'm whaur Eh waant tae be,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But Eh've only just stepped in the room,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>An there's naebody here but me.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Come wi yer femily,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Stop an stare,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>View the freak that spells out free,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Catch what it's like,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Tae hae nae fears,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>When naebody writes like me.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>The sordid in your soul so rare...</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Nae manners an nae artifice -</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But naebody writes like me,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Naw,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Naebody writes like me.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpvqsj4mMvLmfwza1WDd5YBxZ1tyc6Sa1RvqpERgPdroNLAJOonff5uEkIdQDFcN_y_zap8x8E6wFdXXbjUoZIuPzWasbRaLZoOqVOYXnEFZCleRlIYrhybIiO7B0BeNXyZZNz5zb8GAI/s1600/over_used_pencil_by_calypsokid95-d3hmrm8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpvqsj4mMvLmfwza1WDd5YBxZ1tyc6Sa1RvqpERgPdroNLAJOonff5uEkIdQDFcN_y_zap8x8E6wFdXXbjUoZIuPzWasbRaLZoOqVOYXnEFZCleRlIYrhybIiO7B0BeNXyZZNz5zb8GAI/s200/over_used_pencil_by_calypsokid95-d3hmrm8.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-81550395468810523562013-06-03T15:36:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.772-07:00It Startit<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC6UfmdgfCVzN0Q8rayvAv7YSUsFEoKNd8B0ZVoXXIL8sWZcuNPYOR7xgIv0AUDPi86aTSbB4gpxPxa0LL-8hwFu3l7rsFPBnNl5HMzw7kW96XsG_LCRgqE9li3TsRtihWT0rH-svDGMM/s1600/1987+Boston+Marathon+DeCastella+goes+down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC6UfmdgfCVzN0Q8rayvAv7YSUsFEoKNd8B0ZVoXXIL8sWZcuNPYOR7xgIv0AUDPi86aTSbB4gpxPxa0LL-8hwFu3l7rsFPBnNl5HMzw7kW96XsG_LCRgqE9li3TsRtihWT0rH-svDGMM/s400/1987+Boston+Marathon+DeCastella+goes+down.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;">This was how it startit,</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b>This moment burst wie bliss,</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b>And this was how it endit,</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b>Framin’ shit and piss.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b>Framin’ ah the faecal matter m</b></span><b style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;">akin’ up the man,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><br /></b>
<span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b>Framin’ ah the shit an’ piss an’ life flushed doon the pan.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><span style="line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><b><br /></b></span>
</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18.18181800842285px;"><br /></span>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-6512439104762272532013-06-02T15:58:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.763-07:00Submission to Erbacce<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOreGqUJJCkL7sw8qwTiZlExTcXdE1Cmb3TACsMuKYbCneIQxGKGul-IgkIdW25US3sEBBSnOO_MSUYVxaAJHZTtJRrYyVwuiQnP0ByfrzKASsnMRFabMF1YXmVo58iWpZJjJGHHoVK8/s1600/1.Butterburn_Court_-_2_April_1985.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOreGqUJJCkL7sw8qwTiZlExTcXdE1Cmb3TACsMuKYbCneIQxGKGul-IgkIdW25US3sEBBSnOO_MSUYVxaAJHZTtJRrYyVwuiQnP0ByfrzKASsnMRFabMF1YXmVo58iWpZJjJGHHoVK8/s640/1.Butterburn_Court_-_2_April_1985.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">Dear <i>Erbacce</i>,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I would like to respectfully submit to you my chapbook proposal.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Firstly, I would like to say that I am fully aware that you are in no way associated with the "<i>vanity press</i>" and would not be submitting to you otherwise, as my disdain for "<i>them</i>" manifests itself in sudden and unpredictable violent behaviour which is deemed unacceptable by polite society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Secondly, that if I happen to be flouting the "<i>submission guidelines</i>", that it is due to my </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>"learning difficulties"</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> and the several </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>"psychiatric conditions" </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">which I suffer from. Regarding these, I strongly believe that if you refuse to consider my work on "<i>submission guidelines</i>" alone, that you are, in fact, <b><i>discriminating</i></b> against my specific medical conditions, and I should promptly seek <b><i>legal advice</i></b> on this matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> My submission is this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> A chapbook of at least double the length of what you usually publish - or at least, a chapbook as long as you are willing to publish. You have to understand that I am a desperate Artist with three children and no money. Therefore, the chapbook should be titled, "<i>A Desperate Artist with Three Children and No Money.</i>" Though, I am flexible on this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> As I do not expect you to sift through my work, brilliant though it is, I provide this link to one of my short pieces, confident that you will be able to see enough quality in it to commence at least, some form of correspondence: <a href="http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tartan-scarf.html">http://hithimagainjackhescrazy2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tartan-scarf.html</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Yesterday, I received £400 in cash sterling from my dying mother, accompanied by the words, "this is between you and me, don't spend it on drugs."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> By my reckoning, with this money, I would be able to hire a reasonable hall for around £120. I could easily create a compelling theatrical reading of my work over 90 minutes with tea and coffee included, and if I give free entry to 200 people, of which, at least 100 are willing to buy my chapbook at £5 a pop - then we shall more than break even.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> I have dreamt that my accountant has informed me, in spreadsheet form, that which I cannot understand:</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7U-xxZ7XCDGcqVWs1N8v8vxMMweaEnBZUj9lc3WtTf_SlPR5uNLMUe_hKU57_2btL-nuKcybpShT4_SlT65IQIk98QU8iIvPEpBF8wkvIQf93RPBVDt-_3FHWi51mjOMKvupJshIiSTk/s1600/money.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7U-xxZ7XCDGcqVWs1N8v8vxMMweaEnBZUj9lc3WtTf_SlPR5uNLMUe_hKU57_2btL-nuKcybpShT4_SlT65IQIk98QU8iIvPEpBF8wkvIQf93RPBVDt-_3FHWi51mjOMKvupJshIiSTk/s320/money.jpeg" width="320" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"> Hall - £120</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"> Donation to Erbacce - £200</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"> Outgoings - £320</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"> Takings - £500</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"> Net Profit - £180</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If I can make this net profit from this "chapbook evening", then I suggest that there should be 3 obvious benefits:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><i><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1</span> </b></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- I will donate every penny of the profit to a registered charity of my choice.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>2</i></b> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">- It shall have the effect on me, that my work is, indeed, worthwhile, and therefore, I should not feel so suicidal all the time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>3</b></i> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">- <i>Erbacce Press</i> can re-iterate what <i><b>I </b></i>believe to be its mission: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i> - that it perceives beauty and fluidity where others may perceive ugliness and the incongruity of "Literary Spacicity"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i> - that it promotes individuality rather than stale imitation</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><i> - that it gives subversive literary Art which has no way of finding an audience, the chance to find an audience.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Lastly, on a site of mine, primarily concerned with the frustration of the unpublished writer, I mention "Erbacce Press" and some submissions I may have made: <a href="http://thelifeofwrite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/frustration.html">http://thelifeofwrite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/frustration.html</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> - if you would like <i>Erbacce's</i> name removed from the site, I shall gladly comply with your wishes with good grace but little admiration. If, however, you should view these mentions as some sort of <i>badge of honour</i>, then I shall gladly continue to write about our one-way "relationship", its up-side and its pitfalls.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Yours sincerely,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"> Craig Guthrie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-55314967809299650502013-05-20T05:28:00.006-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.759-07:00Beyond It All<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><b><div style="text-align: left;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">That’s what she said to me</span></b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Giving me a gentle sleepy kiss.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Just believe,” and she smiled.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUU8dPAgJnYSHU8ghMtL7Um8I1xc6lO6i90RwSJTkEP8PybLhLa_kd5yVDjuueMorRX7_Kjout4xSbwF7SRsjfLw-SGYcHoJi7lQUB9qhep61Bk7_OuZiJ12EKgZNIeuQhUP3AFB7CexE/s1600/391_1stars_above_haleakala__haleakala_national_park__maui__hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUU8dPAgJnYSHU8ghMtL7Um8I1xc6lO6i90RwSJTkEP8PybLhLa_kd5yVDjuueMorRX7_Kjout4xSbwF7SRsjfLw-SGYcHoJi7lQUB9qhep61Bk7_OuZiJ12EKgZNIeuQhUP3AFB7CexE/s640/391_1stars_above_haleakala__haleakala_national_park__maui__hi.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Believe in what?”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Just believe.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Go to bed now, I believe.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But wait, “Believe in what?”</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Oh, you know.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Something. Anything.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Something greater than yourself.”</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“Oh, yes, I was seven once,</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>And I remember believing.”</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“What was it you believed in?”</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“I can’t remember,</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>But I believe in you.”</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>“That’s a nice thing to say.</b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>I believe in you, too.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-19265848454679004592013-05-17T04:41:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.691-07:00Voyeur Me.<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(rejected by <i>Happy Voyeur Monthly</i> - Bangor)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVUiym35x-l6fyMzhsOEzlRiFMeXWoLFSqWXjeNTCpNiDb4WEcziPWuU-P4k-CaA-2S3HCWYE2B4nK3cZjr5PK_qPypP9EQi3iDNeMrx4evK1Tq9Sheog0PgD12BaDGJkb0jTwchxpRI/s1600/17456992-eye-looking-through-an-old-dark-metal-keyhole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVUiym35x-l6fyMzhsOEzlRiFMeXWoLFSqWXjeNTCpNiDb4WEcziPWuU-P4k-CaA-2S3HCWYE2B4nK3cZjr5PK_qPypP9EQi3iDNeMrx4evK1Tq9Sheog0PgD12BaDGJkb0jTwchxpRI/s320/17456992-eye-looking-through-an-old-dark-metal-keyhole.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Voyeur Me.</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Porno Jim is an amiable man,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>An average Jock who does what he can,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He bides in a flat, deep in the estate,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He never did marry, he never was late.</b></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He goes for a pint on a Saturday night,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Standing alone by the bar out of sight,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He gets up on Mondays and goes to his job,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Where he waits to go home to feel like a slob.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But Porno Jim is comfortable most,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Alone, where only he can play host,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Assisted by image pretending to care,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>To imagine a passionate love affair.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>So it may well be for the mother Lesley,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Who only likes to watch the telly,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And all the dying babies,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>She cries for,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And all the poor animals,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Her heart throbs for,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The feeling of the pain of sympathy,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>For these poor souls,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Her neurons spark off,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The electrical impulse,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Which squeezes her soul.</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Princess Lesley is so attractive,</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>With faultless manners and interactive,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And she, too, likes to be alone,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But her largely unheard escstatic moan,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Is only found in the pain she perceives,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And the tortured face it's believed she receives.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Or it just may at last be JT Gow,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Who keeps it together, all together now,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The hero for holding back crisis meltdown.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But when he is alone...</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>...he tortures the cat,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And congratulates himself,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>For not using the bat.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He likes to watch,</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">People getting hurt.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But nevertheless there’s still today,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And Para Gav has joined AA,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>After pissing half his life away,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>After pissing half his life away,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Which came to a head just yesterday.</b></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">He used to be happy and then he had strife,</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But now AA will sort out his life.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Porno Jim is an amiable man,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>An average Joe, who does what he can,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>But Para Gav has changed his ways,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>And paid his dues in latter days.</b></span><br />
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-46082532389264236182013-05-17T04:30:00.001-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.743-07:00Remember Bukowski<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCobcaOsOj0aD_vIO1hW93jTqISwp5I6PGMKckghRp2lnye7rtgAp4n_JfaCvtbK49OxtSjwWt9n5_9_3bujVEpqQKtDJcB5KNAdmzghFnLUSo8gUAhJUzVOYAvFeAkHnOH3O69R46X4/s1600/helnpen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCobcaOsOj0aD_vIO1hW93jTqISwp5I6PGMKckghRp2lnye7rtgAp4n_JfaCvtbK49OxtSjwWt9n5_9_3bujVEpqQKtDJcB5KNAdmzghFnLUSo8gUAhJUzVOYAvFeAkHnOH3O69R46X4/s1600/helnpen.jpg" /></a><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is." </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>— Charles Bukowski</i></span></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-91732337413198289712013-05-07T04:11:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.780-07:00Setting the Tone<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">I recently received an e-mail in reply to an offer of first-class cut-price writing. I have chosen not to identify the company in respect to them being good and decent people who are fighting the good fight (an opinion which I offered them in my original correspondence), but replicate the e-mail <i>verbatim</i> due to its interesting language and train of thought:</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“</span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Craig,<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's some friendly advice.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmhSVkhLUW-jeKTAuFAhOYRGpZDo9FVlyCl78wnHIh9x_5dIgJxBeJP2fzjgWRT_wmf1Q4wNOVqfNfnoaOzGKRwRM4TEGH60pK0tkuCXWqdqNHSyTuv8su-wWCmoDRiBcDkh8Jov_Qck/s1600/crazyjack.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmhSVkhLUW-jeKTAuFAhOYRGpZDo9FVlyCl78wnHIh9x_5dIgJxBeJP2fzjgWRT_wmf1Q4wNOVqfNfnoaOzGKRwRM4TEGH60pK0tkuCXWqdqNHSyTuv8su-wWCmoDRiBcDkh8Jov_Qck/s320/crazyjack.png" width="320" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) Do not call prospective publishers 'motherfuckers'. It sets the wrong kind of tone for your email.<br />2) Follow the rules and guidelines, they are there for a reason.<br />3) Don't make us trawl through your stuff, select appropriate material, we don't have time to piss about.<br />4) Acting like a prat gets you nowhere.<br /><br />Better luck next time.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">--<br /><i>Kind regards</i>,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The line “<i>Better luck next time</i>” cut like a rusty razorblade and I decided the only way to deal with this was to in fact sharpen the pain by a process akin to neurobiological sensory lateral inhibition. I replaced my everyday clothing with the Eastern Tunic and began to light copious amounts of incense before proceeding to meditate, standing with feet at shoulder-width.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Dulling out all externals I focused on the pain until, gradually it turned into a deafening yet life-affirming sonorous hum swimming through my existence. I tuned in to the overpowering reverb, opened a can of Fosters and switched to the Coronation Street omnibus where several people were really in deep, troubling times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">“Better luck next time,” Gail sobbed to Martin, who had just made a failed attempt on her life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">My gold-embroidered tunic suddenly swept out behind me, lifted by an inexplicable sudden gust of wind indoors.</span></span><br />
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-92206710695044280582013-05-06T04:11:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.785-07:00Frustration<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Over the past few weeks, Mr Guthrie commenced a correspondence with several people. The circumstances were such:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJ3HWBxbQdCn9oMdySgY7aGjzzBhpIQU5I_2Nd352T38ASioBttKlJNFiTkCPved1XKe4ZjcO0fV8h6yPE8xU-f5b1MKdGrDlnIugykKGU-tapZzb5jfpK_sgTQ6m6NoKs25_lun3yqM/s1600/aaaimagedundee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJ3HWBxbQdCn9oMdySgY7aGjzzBhpIQU5I_2Nd352T38ASioBttKlJNFiTkCPved1XKe4ZjcO0fV8h6yPE8xU-f5b1MKdGrDlnIugykKGU-tapZzb5jfpK_sgTQ6m6NoKs25_lun3yqM/s400/aaaimagedundee.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Mr Guthrie first contacted the University of Liverpool's student magazine "Ellipsis" and submitted four poems which he believed to be outstanding works (and perhaps some of his best) loosely based on the theme of "Home". He was rejected outright by the editors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Mr Guthrie submitted five pages of poetry to "Erbacce Poetry Prize"and five different pages of poetry to "Erbacce Poetry Magazine" and was told that the second submission did not adhere to the submission guidelines (an oversight which he believes that he rectified soon after).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Mr Guthrie then submitted the poem "Broadchurch Revealed" to Poetry24 (a reputable news and current affairs-related poetry site which has published previous work of Mr Guthrie) under appropriate guidelines. His original e-mail was such:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Dear Poetry24 team,</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thank you for your time perusing this piece. If I could just say quickly, I think your first reaction may be to reject the piece as it can be first seen as random, uncohesive and perhaps even too personal to justify the "news story" badge. However, I would like to say in its defence that I have paid great attention to detail on this work (as I like to think I always do) - and although this has a very, modernist, free-verse style, I also write within the strict structures of forms such as heroic couplet, villanelle and sonnet and I believe my free verse pieces are all, to some degree, influenced by this.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I guess, what I'm trying to say is, the more you look at it, the more it should morph into the opposite of what it first appears to be: as opposed to "uncohesive" I would argue that it is actually hyper-cohesive, as opposed to random and quickly penned, I argue that the words are in fact chosen meticulously for their relationship to one another and that "current affairs" are reflected greatly in the piece. The main idea is to reveal the juxtaposition between modern disposable entertainment and our own private thoughts which are consistently more complex and unique and often of a sublime or biblical magnitude.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Unfortunately, I feel I may have put you off even more now, but am just trying to stand by my work and highlight merits which may not at first be apparent.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Either way, thank you and all the best.</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Attached is my own photo which I have the rights to which I would leave to your discretion whether to use or not.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> The next day, Mr Guthrie partook of libations within his family home and sent the following e-mail to the Poetry24 editors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Dear Poetry24 Team,</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have a pretty good idea that you have a mind to reject my poem, "Broadchurch Revealed".</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>I just want to say one last thing, whether it is accepted or not. Read out, aloud, at your computer, the last six published poems on your site - to yourself, of course - have a fag, or a glass of wine, or whatever it is you do, then read out loud my poem - confidently. Please do me this favour of reading my poem aloud.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Bearing in mind that no-one has ever recognised my work, I am poor and have a terrible haircut and three children to support, tell me which is the most powerful piece, personally and honestly.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>And then tell me if you will not answer to a Higher Power and burn in Hell for the neglect you are guilty of if you refuse to acknowledge my work.</i></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38BkBrOpEvfCQ7BhNwXzbQ4l3P3jTrHZvqfVNj2VZxg0lR7rxyetGkRlVD_1mAu2tCrU4Acdjx1fBPhmB6cew3wjPLJeuDcOSdU6z6yYg1CIqqtY5H7cwvM41d2tnv-Fa_VZ2dtg2BfM/s1600/scotchgoth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38BkBrOpEvfCQ7BhNwXzbQ4l3P3jTrHZvqfVNj2VZxg0lR7rxyetGkRlVD_1mAu2tCrU4Acdjx1fBPhmB6cew3wjPLJeuDcOSdU6z6yYg1CIqqtY5H7cwvM41d2tnv-Fa_VZ2dtg2BfM/s1600/scotchgoth.jpg" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Best regards and fingers crossed,</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Craig.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>(PS - I hope we all find hyperbole amusing)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> His submission was rejected on the grounds that "it wasn't suited to us".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> The next day Mr Guthrie wrote to the Birkenhead Press imprint "Appin Press" declaring that they should "keep their finger on the pulse" by being aware of the "very best" current literature being written in their local area at this time. He sent the link to "Diary of an Obnoxious Sociophobe" and challenged the company not to finish what had already been written - to which, Mr Guthrie has, to date, received no reply.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Mr Guthrie then posted a humble entry on a local poetry group's Facebook page "The Dead Good Poets Society" regarding his site "Satan is Biting My Ankle" and was promptly insulted by what appeared to be a very child-like brain, which managed to post some infantile rhyme regarding self-promotion and declare that the page was for "poems only". The sight of this reply caused Mr Guthrie to immediately leave the group in the knowledge that he was unqualified to deal with people with such severe psychological and social difficulties. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> We acknowledge that the case against Mr Guthrie by the family of Ms Parker in no way relates to the case pending against Mr Guthrie by the Crown.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Mr Guthrie would like to re-iterate that he has no affiliation with any group, does not subscribe to any pre-ordained philosophical theory and will be glad to be held accountable for his actions should any body of men prove themselves worthy of judging them. He maintains that "all my work is shit" and goes on record as saying "it is all utter nonsense, however, I rarely repeat myself and it's all hugely entertaining." - Literary Underworld, 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Mr Guthrie is now under the protection of a local psychiatric unit and will be unavailable to comment until further notice.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>Glaffort &amp; Gladstone, Solicitors at Law.</i></span><br />
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<br />Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262169713626195129.post-74588481781428911692013-05-05T05:00:00.000-07:002013-09-26T02:41:18.768-07:00Broadchurch Revealed<br />
(rejected by Poetry24)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Revealed the killer on Broadchurch,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Twenty two four, U K world,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Nine-something time,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Pfft, ah, shit,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Deafdumb blind kid,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mastic tax super glue,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tiny twenty-four-hour hearty steeple,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Scratch my balls,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sweat in my crack,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Pfft, grasp,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Reach for…</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Love is a Dead Dog from Hell,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Don’t ease faith's pain...</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>...The pain of Broadchurch,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Missing the rain,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The reign of Big Lurch,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Missing Miss Assisted Suicide,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mastic beeswax goo,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>I will go outside,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Go outside, me,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Go outside me,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>I speak with no-one</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>While GRACE kneels waiting bloody in the rain,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Aside the Carcass of God.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Goodbye Broadchurch,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sink into the ether,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Of another lonely day,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fade rapid in the smoke,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fade rapid in the grey,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Behind the Sun,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sinking,</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>And drinking,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>All my thoughts away,</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>From broad what?</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>God's Church.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoG8tT3BCPBLi6Cyz5UhJ-GFRo472UARMsW2FRLs2MwlGO_wIHkTVtfTPuu-Q_5uO3-L6GYjfoB4fWMVxqeSw6uiAFGDuD966fVPDDB_fJoJnm3TnLSuG_FpZqwfJpyK9mxZVd4_Wf730/s1600/dead_sheep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoG8tT3BCPBLi6Cyz5UhJ-GFRo472UARMsW2FRLs2MwlGO_wIHkTVtfTPuu-Q_5uO3-L6GYjfoB4fWMVxqeSw6uiAFGDuD966fVPDDB_fJoJnm3TnLSuG_FpZqwfJpyK9mxZVd4_Wf730/s320/dead_sheep.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06500204907808347062noreply@blogger.com0