We also had a friend staying from Wednesday night until this morning. We don't have any spare rooms so quests have the sofa bed in our through lounge. However, I refused to cook that first night so we went out to our local Wetherspoons where there is not much chewing to do on a three bean chilli! I was starving by then, not having eaten much in 24 hours and I indulged in apple crumble and custard to make up for it. That night when I rinsed I had water coming out of my nose. So Thursday I had to go back to the dentist which meant cancelling my meet up with a friend. Everything was okay, a quick saline wash through and a dressing and I was out of there. I've been on painkillers since Tuesday and I'm not really back to my usual self yet.
Also my laptop is threatening to crash on me due to the cooling fan not working properly. I've got my techie son researching a replacement, which will mean an upgrade finally to Windows 10. I'm hoping he can find me a good Black Friday Deal. I have every confidence in him because he knows just what I need.
Yesterday I missed posting. By the time I thought about it I decided to leave it - I'd had enough of this week one way and another.
So, poetry......the friend who stayed brought some poetry he's written in the 1970's. He wasn't seeking to publish it, just wanted to show me. It reminded me of what I wrote (probably back in the 70's) when I first started writing. It all rhymed. I could see that he might have potential if he continued and did some workshops etc., but I know he doesn't write it now and he admitted he doesn't read poetry and struggles to finish a novel. However, he is creative in other ways. He draws and hand colours individual personalised birthday cards and creates a new Christmas card every year. We always look forward to these because they are also humorous.
I showed him the Ian McMillan poetry book I have which was quite an eye opener for him. He did enjoy the humour and took note of the title and might buy it. We always have interesting discussions about writing, though he's very old school and thinks there should be proper punctuation in poetry and stories should be Once upon a time and happy every after. He once entered a 50 word story competition and was very disappointed he didn't win because he felt he'd written an excellent proper story. He couldn't understand why the judge picked the one he did as the winner. Well, sometimes I still feel that way!
One of the things this friend asked was what is the difference between song lyrics and a poem. I said, not much. Song lyrics have a chorus, but poetry can have repeating lines or a refrain. A song, though, will often have a bridge, but verses usually rhyme and meter matters (well, mostly, because sometimes when signing a song you have to cram a lot of words in on some verses where others have fewer!). And that got me to thinking about poems that had been turned into songs. The obvious one for me (because I love it) is William Blake's Jerusalem. A lot of music is certainly influenced by poetry and then I found this about heavy metal and poetry https://www.loudersound.com/features/top-ten-metal-songs-based-on-poems There are other things you can find too if you search. I did once set a very early poem of my to music by adding a chorus. I should say now that I started out writing song lyrics and composing my own songs on guitar. I am not a great guitarist - songs have to fit the eight or ten chords I can play! I also don't really read music. I learn everything by ear. Anyway, to me lyric writing and poetry writing go hand in hand.
And to end here a cringe-worthy moment. I used to sometimes write songs with penpals. One pal and I were huge Beach Boys fans. My pal lived in South Africa. She sent me some lyrics and I set the them to music. I did have to jiggle (edit) some lyrics to fit as her scansion was out at times but here you can even see the chords to the song we wrote in 1981 entitled Down at Malibu (first page). Not quite Lennon and McCartney but it was fun to do.
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