Tranquility

This morning on my pensive walk
I saw a fisher on a rock,
Who watched his ruby float careen
In waters bluely crystalline,
While silver fishes nosed his bait,
Yet hesitated ere they ate.
Nearby I saw a mother mild
Who knitted by her naked child,
And watched him as he romped with glee,
In golden sand, in singing sea,
Her eyes so blissfully love-lit
She [...]

The Jarrow Crusade Harmonica Band

When I was looking around for photos of industrial action this morning for my previous post I came across the photo below. The comment from Fleet of Worlds about the current parallels with the 30’s made me think. It couldn’t be as bad as the conditions which made hundreds of desperate men march from Jarrow [...]

My Dentist

After an excruciating extraction a couple of weeks ago, it’s back to the dentist this morning for more painful gob maintenance. I haven’t featured a Robert Service poem for a while and this one seems apposite.
Sitting in the dentist’s chair,
Wishing that I wasn’t there,
To forget and pass the time
I have made this bit of rhyme.

I [...]

Moderation – Robert Service

Moderation
When pious people label vice
I reckon mainly pleasure;
I dream that women, wine and dice
Are good in modest measure;
Though sanctity and truth receive
[...]

Robert Service- The Shooting of Dan McGrew

Here is the first verse of the original poem which provided the inspiration for Matt McGinn’s “Two Heided Man”
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck [...]

Robert Service

I haven’t done anything about Robert Service since moving to WordPress. Let’s put that right here. This is one of Service’s best known poems and is one of those poems that I feel is definitely better heard than read. There is a great version on Youtube by an older man with a superb [...]