Old Exercise Books and the Need to Listen
“So now I tell you not do to what I used to do,
And I think you always knew
That I used to do it too:
Writing the names of girls
(Where art thou, Pamela?)
And football players,
(But why Ken Skeen?)
And all the words to Yellow Submarine,
And names like The Small Faces and The Who
On my 4th form Latin vocab book,
Just as we’d all steal a look,
Watching the 5th form girls play tennis,
As we’d all sit, hot and listless,
(I suppose the case was accusative,
It certainly wasn’t live and let live),
So much better than Virgil and the ablative absolute,
With a teacher helpless like King Canute,
Before long waves of chalk
And all the hands of a slow moving clock,
While we wished the time away
Until Saturday
Came.”
But just to emphasise the need to listen in class rather than doodle – what if you missed the piece below? Then your education would be incomplete.
First they came for the gypsies
Then they came for the Jews
I stood and watched in ignorance
Cos I was free to choose
They rounded up the handicapped
And then turned on the gays
The smell of rotting corpses
Was in the air for days
I looked along our village street
Not a soul was out
We all ignored the carnage
We knew of it no doubt
I am not a Nazi
But I may as well have been
As human beings we have failed
And that is just obscene
These things will never leave us
We all turned a blind eye
We never lifted a finger to help
We all knew they would die
I’m ashamed to be a German
That’s easy now to say
But I can say with honesty
I think of them every day
Why did we do nothing?
I don’t know what we feared
Some of us objected
They just disappeared
I wish I’d died along with them
I then would have some peace
To have stood there and done nothing
It beggars all belief
I have to live in sorrow
With what and could have been
But I never lifted a finger to help
So I’m not a human being!!!
peace.
Notes:
This is obviously not a football poem. But on Saturday April the 9th the Romany people celebrate Roma Day. It will also be the very first time that they have been able to get attention of more than a few passing lines in the press about the number of Gypsies murdered in the death camps by the Nazi’s. We all think, and quite rightly so of the devastation to the Jewish, disabled and homosexual communities being almost destroyed, but few people care or dare to mention the fate of the Romany community. So there will be a commemeration fof Roma victims who died in the death camps in London tomorrow, Saturday at St James’s Church 197 Piccadilly at noon.
I’ve put this up cos you did a 60th Holocaust day poetry posting on the site and this is a belated poem related to that, the poem is seen through the eyes of a German villager who stood, watched and did nothing!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
peace.
kev
(Just cleared out all me old exercise books from me mum’s – just kept two. Easy to knock school knowledge – but the above from Kevin shows how important education is.)
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joe morris
3rd September 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
3rd September 2024
joe morris
26th August 2024
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26th August 2024
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22nd August 2024
Mike Bartram
20th August 2024
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Latest Comments
26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder .
Best
Crispin
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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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23rd April 2024 at 3:59 pm
Hi Crispin,
Yes sorry mate. Villa are still in Europe. Mistake rectified.
Cheers
Joe
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