{"id":1877,"date":"2018-02-16T20:52:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T20:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2018-04-09T10:49:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T09:49:12","slug":"songs-as-poems-poems-as-songs-substitute-already-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/?p=1877","title":{"rendered":"Songs as Poems &#8211; Poems as Songs &#8211; Substitute already written?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"250\" height=\"370\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 250px; height: 370px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/track=3218853924\/album=1023320574\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<p>Poem or Song or poetry by other means&#8230;.????<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Un-American Way&#8217; 1999&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>UN-AMERICAN WAY<\/strong><br \/>\nDid you hear the guns a rattling out on the Kentucky hills<br \/>\nAs mud spattered up from your prison truck&#8217;s wheels<br \/>\nDid you smile every day as you washed the days away<br \/>\nImprisoned for having nothing to say?*<\/p>\n<p>Did you dream in an Un-American way?<br \/>\nOf diamonds and furs and long limousines in the rain<br \/>\nIs that the un-American way?<\/p>\n<p>Now the Campsfield wire fences are rattling in the wind<br \/>\nAnd there are stranger&#8217;s faces pressed against the panes<br \/>\nWhat did they dream they&#8217;d find beyond the ghost of empire Were they dreaming of a world of American stars and bars<\/p>\n<p>Did they dream in an Un-American way<\/p>\n<p>Now the holy walls are dripping with the blood of men<br \/>\nAs guns crackle like whips above their heads<br \/>\nAnd that prison truck is busy carrying away those who<br \/>\nDream in\u00c2\u00a0an Un-American way<\/p>\n<p>Of diamonds and furs and long limousines in the rain<\/p>\n<p>*Dashiell Hammett<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Following on the revelation of the Middle Class &#8216;Proper Poetry&#8217; v Working Class &#8216;Performance Poetry&#8217; stigmatisation.<\/p>\n<p>I have looked at what I actually written over the past 40 years and an awful lot of my &#8216;poetry&#8217; was sublimated or &#8216;hidden&#8217; from my potential middle-class audience in &#8216;songwriting&#8217; &#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>So how appropriate that a book of &#8216;songs&#8217; could be published with title &#8216;Substitute&#8217;&#8230;..perfect&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here some potential &#8216;Pongs&#8217; or &#8216;Songems&#8217; or as I recently heard it called SOETRY (Song Poetry) \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This a song from last year&#8217;s posthumous Trailer Star lost masterpiece Chalk Pit Rattle&#8230;&#8230;<br \/>\nBuying Time&#8230;which appropriate in context of\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kit.dewaal?fref=mentions\" data-hovercard=\"\/ajax\/hovercard\/user.php?id=100004401670583&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D\" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show=\"1\">Kit de Waal<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0s recent piece in The Guardian which prompted me to start writing again.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I will include songs in Substitute volume\u00c2\u00a0;-)\u00c2\u00a0Songwriting is just poetry by other means for me\u00c2\u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p><strong>BUYING TIME<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IVE BEEN BUYING TIME SINCE I WAS BORN<br \/>\nITS WHAT THE WORKING CLASS ARE BUILT FOR<br \/>\nNO TRUST FUND, NO FOREIGN HOLIDAY<br \/>\nNO GAP YEAR, NO AUNT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DOWRY COMING MY WAY<\/p>\n<p>MY DAD TAUGHT ME TO BUY TIME<br \/>\nANY CHANCE I HAD<br \/>\nHE SAID SON DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BE DISHONEST, KEEP YOUR PRIDE<br \/>\nBUT BABY BUY TIME, KEEP BUYING TIME<\/p>\n<p>TIME\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE ONE THING THEY CANT TAKE OFF YOU<br \/>\nONCE YOU GOT IT THEY CANT GET IT BACK THAT&#8217;S TRUE<br \/>\nMY PARENTS WORKED EVERYDAY GOD SENT<br \/>\nSO I COULD BUY TIME NOW AND NOT GIVE IT BACK TO THEM<\/p>\n<p>THE BOSS MAN TEACHES YOU TO GIVE HIM YOUR TIME<br \/>\nTHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHAT MAKES THE WORLD TURN &#8230;HE LIES<br \/>\nMY PARENTS NEVER HAD ENOUGH<br \/>\nNOW THEYRE DEAD IN THE GROUND.<br \/>\nTIMES UP&#8230;.GO OUT THERE SON AND KEEP BUYING TIME&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>BUY BUY BUY TIME.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Poem or Song? maybe I never really knew after all? Floor of Wood &#8230;..about the farm I grew up on.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe these were performance poems all along just hiding in plain view\u00c2\u00a0\ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>If they are then I have several thousand poems waiting to be added to the collection:-)<\/p>\n<p><strong>FLOOR OF WOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This house was built of planks ten years after the war<br \/>\nI spent my childhood days watching the wind blowing the straw<br \/>\nAs the sixties twisted away and the motorways came<br \/>\nI would stand at the window playing with toy cars in the rain<\/p>\n<p>This time I&#8217;m really leaving these green fields for good<br \/>\nBut I&#8217;ll leave my heart under this floor of wood<\/p>\n<p>Slate roof is full of holes, the walls are covered in rambling rose<br \/>\nNothing lives here now but the ghosts<br \/>\nI push a broken door against broken plaster and ash<br \/>\nAnd watch the wind blow through windows all smashed<\/p>\n<p>This time I&#8217;m leaving these green fields for good<br \/>\nBut I&#8217;ll leave my heart underneath this floor of wood<\/p>\n<p>Since I was a boy England has drifted from fields to city<br \/>\nAll these cornfields been turned to golf courses or light industry<br \/>\nPlaster crumbles and dusts my shoes just like chalk<br \/>\nI walk away, scratches on my arm, I try to close the door.<\/p>\n<p>This time I&#8217;m leaving these green fields for good<br \/>\nBut I&#8217;ll leave my heart buried under this floor of wood<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a9 shaun belcher &#8211; horseshoe songs 1999<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poem or Song or poetry by other means&#8230;.???? &#8216;Un-American Way&#8217; 1999&#8230; UN-AMERICAN WAY Did you hear the guns a rattling out on the Kentucky hills As mud spattered up from your prison truck&#8217;s wheels Did you smile every day as you washed the days away Imprisoned for having nothing to say?* Did you dream in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[92,33,59,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-performance-poetry","category-poetry","category-politics","category-working-class-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6nhh-uh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1893,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shaunbelcher.com\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}