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Unread 12-12-2014, 01:13 PM
Jayne Osborn's Avatar
Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Default The Oldie Running for the Bus competition results

Congratulations to our Annie (who shoulda won, I reckon!) and to Jerome. And Bazza got a mensh as G M Davis. Well done all of you.

I think it’s a pity the winning poem isn’t punctuated properly. And fined/find as a rhyme? Hmmm...

The next comp is for prose (see new thread)

Jayne

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThe Oldie Competition
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxby Tessa Castro

For Competition no 182 we had a huge response to the invitation to write a poem called ‘Running for the Bus’. Eileen Gladstone spoke for many by saying that now she’s old and cannot run, she does not give a hoot, because the bloody company has axed her local route. Michael Birt shared a widespread resentment against drivers who accelerate away from runners: ‘I wonder if he’s genuine / Or just an incubus.’
David McCullough made his poetic narrative describe a sponsored run to buy a school minibus. Bevis Hillier rued the disappearance of open-platform buses: ‘The po-faced ’Ealth and Safety sealers / Were fun and joie-de-vivre stealers.’ The Rev Robin Harger began with an Eliot/Andrewes parody: ‘A raw running I had of it.’ G M Davis noted that running for the bus is illegal in North Korea.
Commiserations to them and congratulations to those printed below, each of whom wins £25, with the bonus prize of a Chambers Biographical Dictionary going to front-runner Jim Bartholomew.

Why does it feel as if I’m always running for the bus?
Why can’t I lead a simpler life devoid of all this fuss?
Another meeting looms at work for which I’m unprepared
I should display my confidence, instead I’m slightly scared
My tax return is overdue, I’m certain to be fined
But it depends on documents that sadly I can’t find
The weeds control my flower beds, the grass is inches deep
Around the house the jobs pile up and all I want is sleep
Each night in bed I fret about the things I haven’t done
As deadline after deadline sucks my life of any fun
I mean to be more organised, and practise self-control
But good intentions by themselves won’t dig me out this hole
A leopard cannot change its spots, the course is set for us
Somehow I’m destined to be always running for the bus.
Jim Bartholomew

Bus-pass in hand, O lord, I humbly wait
for one to come which may be gone or late.
I wait in faith, because I am unable
to understand the vandalised timetable.
Hunched in the doorway of the betting shop,
I wait for bus to come or rain to stop.
Between two possibilities I stand,
ready to dash for either on command.
I watch the top of Church Street where one’s due
but on the High Street one’s expected too.
My eyes flick, tennis-wise, torn between these
points of my notional isosceles.
Lord, when the moment comes that I must choose,
add Thy bright wings to orthopaedic shoes,
shrinking the distances that stretch between
Thy servant and E3 or X15.
Ann Drysdale

Great, hulking, number fourteen bus,
To chase would be ridiculous
On ageing feet.
Best let you pull away from us
Down Gower Street
– Then stand outside the UCL
Where students, gathered there as well,
Like us, contrive
To wait, not rush at life pell mell,
But let it arrive.
Their unconcern would seem to say,
‘What comes can either go or stay.’
We, though, insist
That lives, themselves, can get away
Like buses missed.
John Robinson

I’ve had a life that some would call a bore,
And not been places people all discuss.
Now years feel shorter than they did before
Should I at last start running for the bus?
I wonder if they really liked the ride?
Perhaps the others are half-envious
Of those who calmly watched and stood aside
As they were busy running for the bus?
The bus? Where to? Which one is right or wrong?
Sex, drugs and what you will? Too dangerous!
I’d hardly stay the course for very long,
These days, if I tried running for the bus.
One scheduled service nobody will miss,
Delays en route no minus but a plus.
When it arrives, we are assured of this,
There will be no more running for the bus.
Jerome Betts
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  #2  
Unread 12-12-2014, 02:02 PM
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Nicholas Stone Nicholas Stone is offline
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Hearty well done Ann and Jerome!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be intrigued to see that G.M. Davis poem...
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Unread 12-12-2014, 06:16 PM
Terese Coe Terese Coe is offline
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Congratulations, Annie and Jerome! Fun entries!
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Unread 12-13-2014, 09:55 AM
Jerome Betts Jerome Betts is offline
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Thanks Terese and Nicholas. Only four winners a comp, even scrunched up to allow the Sudoku, and only 12 Oldie comps a year, not all of them verse, so gratifying to have caught T.C.'s eye again.

I wonder if the title In The Dark will have prompted as big a response as Running For The Bus? It did nothing at all for me whereas the other did.
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Unread 12-13-2014, 10:47 AM
Jeanne G Jeanne G is offline
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Not sure how anything topped Ann's poem in anyone's eyes. I get a chuckle every time I read it. (Oh, and Neil lol'd when I read it to him). Congrats.

Jeanne

Last edited by Jeanne G; 12-13-2014 at 10:59 AM.
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Unread 12-17-2014, 12:22 PM
Brian Allgar Brian Allgar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayne Osborn View Post
Congratulations to our Annie (who shoulda won, I reckon!) and to Jerome. And Bazza got a mensh as G M Davis. Well done all of you.

I think it’s a pity the winning poem isn’t punctuated properly. And fined/find as a rhyme? Hmmm...
Agreed, Jayne, both for the congratulations and the winner's defective punctuation. There's also the small question of grammar:

But good intentions by themselves won’t dig me out this hole

Though I suppose we should be grateful that the author didn't write "outa this hole".

As I told you in Paris, I fear increasingly that Tessa won't dig herself out "her" hole. If that's the kind of stuff "she" likes, I've got better things to do.
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Unread 12-17-2014, 07:17 PM
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Douglas G. Brown Douglas G. Brown is offline
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My eyes flick, tennis-wise, torn between these
points of my notional isosceles.


Ann, these lines are positively Miltonic. They will be running thru my head all day.

Last edited by Douglas G. Brown; 12-18-2014 at 08:57 AM.
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Unread 12-18-2014, 06:31 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is offline
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Thank you, Douglas.
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Unread 12-21-2014, 06:02 PM
Charlotte Innes Charlotte Innes is offline
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Huge congrats to Annie and Jerome!

Jerome's made me laugh out loud--thanks, Jerome! I can always count on you--and Annie's I've loved since it was first posted. Actually, it's brilliant, every line of it.

Charlotte
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Unread 12-21-2014, 06:31 PM
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Eileen Cleary Eileen Cleary is offline
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My eyes flick, tennis-wise, torn between these
points of my notional isosceles.


and everything after really tickled me in Ann's poem.

Congrats to all!
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