Today's poem and My Life, such as it is...
Today's poem is one of my very favourites, and I knew yesterday that it'd be a hard slog getting it down because my only contact with the poem is the audio version I have on my 'Neil Gaiman reads...' CD. So you know it's Neil Gaiman, and you know I love it, you'll still probably not have heard it, it's fairly obscure, and obviously the book version is illustrated by Dave McKean, although I've never seen it in the shops or anything... I'm drifing. Sorry.
Today's poem (epic sized) is Crazy Hair, and I hope you read it all the way through.
I have two little things for you at the end, under the cut. A youtube link to a live reading of Crazy Hair and a sendspace link to my recorded reading of Crazy Hair so you can download it.
Anyhow, with no futher fuss, and very little ado I give you:
Crazy Hair
This is Bonnie,
This is Me.
I'm eleven,
Bonnie's three.
She says,
"I don't mean to stare.
Mister, you've got crazy hair."
Crazy hair!
Oh me, oh my!
Crazy hair!
I thought I'd die.
I said
"Miss, how do you dare
talk about my crazy hair?
"This hair you know
is all my own,
since I was two
my hair has grown.
Birds fly down from everywhere
nesting in my crazy hair.
"Butterflies and Cockatoos,
reds and yellows,
greens and blues,
make me look beyond compare
walking with my crazy hair.
"In my hair gorillas leap,
tigers stalk and ground-sloths sleep.
Prides of lions make their lair
somewhere in my crazy hair.
"Hunters send in expeditions,
radio back their positions.
Still, we've lost a dozen there.
Lost inside my crazy hair.
"You hear music?
Dancers too?
I can hear them,
well, can you?
They play tunes beyond compare
dancing through my crazy hair.
"Huge balloons come down to land.
People wave, it's very grand.
They take off from everywhere,
drift across my crazy hair.
"There are pools and waterslides,
carousels and pony-rides.
All the fun of any fair
waits inside my crazy hair.
"Twisting tangling,
trails and loops.
Treasure chests and pirate sloops.
These await the ones who dare
navigate my crazy hair."
"Here's my comb."
Young Bonnie said,
"Run it now across your head.
That's what I do, with great care,
when I have such crazy hair."
"Child, are you mad?!" I cried.
"Combs and brushes have been tried.
One was eaten by a bear
prowling through my crazy hair."
Bonnie said,
"You bend down here.
I will comb it.
Is that clear?"
I said
"Miss, just be aware,
this is really crazy hair."
I bent down and Bonnie swiped,
combed and curried,
rubbed and wiped.
"Now," she said, "you look-"
But there
came a rumbling from my hair.
One huge growling head peered out,
said, "what is this all about?"
One huge arm reached out of there,
pulled her in my crazy hair.
Bonnie has the finest time
teaching lions how to rhyme,
riding slides and great balloons,
finding hunters, losing moons,
playing with the pretty birds,
teaching parrots naughty words,
sewing up the pirates' vests,
digging buried treasure chests.
Hibernating with the bear.
Dancing with the dancers there.
Happy as a millionaire.
Safe inside my Crazy Hair.
---------------------------
...Please bear in mind that I have no idea of how it's supposed to be set out so I'm just guessing. If it looks weird it's probably my fault. This is what having poems in only audio format will do to you.
Neil's Live reading.
The Downloadable reading.
Also I promised you a recording of me reading out the poem from yesterday. Having updated my software (Oh gods, the saga, the drama, the dilemma!) I am now able to do this for you! But you have to download it, because I have no way of hosting a .wav file online available to stream, so :p to you. ...You can always delete it afterwards. I'm planning on using my newfound powers of recording to create a lot (I mean a lot) of Podfic, so look out for it in future.
So HERE's my reading of Education for Leisure, and have a good day.
plum x.
P.S. Yes, I do sound like that. No I'm not going to apologise.
Today's poem (epic sized) is Crazy Hair, and I hope you read it all the way through.
I have two little things for you at the end, under the cut. A youtube link to a live reading of Crazy Hair and a sendspace link to my recorded reading of Crazy Hair so you can download it.
Anyhow, with no futher fuss, and very little ado I give you:
Crazy Hair
This is Bonnie,
This is Me.
I'm eleven,
Bonnie's three.
She says,
"I don't mean to stare.
Mister, you've got crazy hair."
Crazy hair!
Oh me, oh my!
Crazy hair!
I thought I'd die.
I said
"Miss, how do you dare
talk about my crazy hair?
"This hair you know
is all my own,
since I was two
my hair has grown.
Birds fly down from everywhere
nesting in my crazy hair.
"Butterflies and Cockatoos,
reds and yellows,
greens and blues,
make me look beyond compare
walking with my crazy hair.
"In my hair gorillas leap,
tigers stalk and ground-sloths sleep.
Prides of lions make their lair
somewhere in my crazy hair.
"Hunters send in expeditions,
radio back their positions.
Still, we've lost a dozen there.
Lost inside my crazy hair.
"You hear music?
Dancers too?
I can hear them,
well, can you?
They play tunes beyond compare
dancing through my crazy hair.
"Huge balloons come down to land.
People wave, it's very grand.
They take off from everywhere,
drift across my crazy hair.
"There are pools and waterslides,
carousels and pony-rides.
All the fun of any fair
waits inside my crazy hair.
"Twisting tangling,
trails and loops.
Treasure chests and pirate sloops.
These await the ones who dare
navigate my crazy hair."
"Here's my comb."
Young Bonnie said,
"Run it now across your head.
That's what I do, with great care,
when I have such crazy hair."
"Child, are you mad?!" I cried.
"Combs and brushes have been tried.
One was eaten by a bear
prowling through my crazy hair."
Bonnie said,
"You bend down here.
I will comb it.
Is that clear?"
I said
"Miss, just be aware,
this is really crazy hair."
I bent down and Bonnie swiped,
combed and curried,
rubbed and wiped.
"Now," she said, "you look-"
But there
came a rumbling from my hair.
One huge growling head peered out,
said, "what is this all about?"
One huge arm reached out of there,
pulled her in my crazy hair.
Bonnie has the finest time
teaching lions how to rhyme,
riding slides and great balloons,
finding hunters, losing moons,
playing with the pretty birds,
teaching parrots naughty words,
sewing up the pirates' vests,
digging buried treasure chests.
Hibernating with the bear.
Dancing with the dancers there.
Happy as a millionaire.
Safe inside my Crazy Hair.
---------------------------
...Please bear in mind that I have no idea of how it's supposed to be set out so I'm just guessing. If it looks weird it's probably my fault. This is what having poems in only audio format will do to you.
Neil's Live reading.
The Downloadable reading.
Also I promised you a recording of me reading out the poem from yesterday. Having updated my software (Oh gods, the saga, the drama, the dilemma!) I am now able to do this for you! But you have to download it, because I have no way of hosting a .wav file online available to stream, so :p to you. ...You can always delete it afterwards. I'm planning on using my newfound powers of recording to create a lot (I mean a lot) of Podfic, so look out for it in future.
So HERE's my reading of Education for Leisure, and have a good day.
plum x.
P.S. Yes, I do sound like that. No I'm not going to apologise.