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AN EVENING AT THE RITZ BALLROOM BRIGHOUSE WITH THE JOE LOSS ORCHESTRA

We arrived early by coach

instruments were ferreted into shabby backstage rooms

yesterday's polystyrene cups unwashed

lay near their current newspaper

gutted somewhere near page three

 

another ballroom another town

      Brighouse

      the jewel in the crown

abdicating from the future

locked in a blistered past.

     

      our presence with music was part of that,

      a ritual

      a rite of passage

but the Ritz could wait.

 

We explored the canal, three of us

swapped stories

honed in offstage moments

of seasoned suffering, cynical cadences

refined by grimness.

 

The warehouses hunched blind

and straight - backed,

gritted their tenement teeth

looked down as we posed by a lock,

the tired old day reflecting,

being carried away.

 

Another evening another town

heat and noise

primal surges of pre - destined dancing ensued

and         as we had done our duty

once more joined the motorway

at its most wretched.

 

 

music and travel

◄ MONOPOLY BLUES

GOLF: THE REAL STORY ►

Comments

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raypool

Tue 17th Nov 2015 12:04

Thanks Stu. Poetry gives a certain freedom to condemn life in the raw, but one has to earn a living. Music is not always about groupies and adulation, although that obviously would help!!
A good larruping is I guess a slang word, but one of the threatened species which I think should be drawn out on its creaking plinth as a reminder that the world is more than only what our "protectors" want us to hear.
Mr Grumpy.

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Stu Buck

Mon 16th Nov 2015 17:45

yes, agreed. this is a corker. and you have used the word larruped in a comment. brilliant. i can smell and taste this its so descriptive. its clearly from memory and not a fictional piece. larruped though! ha! i never thought id see anyone using larrup, let alone larruped as a past participle!

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raypool

Thu 12th Nov 2015 16:38

Well thanks so much Greg. I know you like the gritty stuff with plenty of detail larruped on ! No romanticism but then again why would there be ! Bless you. I feel like I've hit the bullseye with your encouragement.

ps It really was that grim!

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Greg Freeman

Thu 12th Nov 2015 16:09

A magnificent poem, Ray. You should be mighty proud of it.

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