SHIPSHAPE by HUW PARSONS AND FRIENDS

YOU COULD HAVE:
There are some rather obscure references in this poem regarding tigers; for instance a 'Darmah' is the Italian word for tiger, and many years ago the Italian firm 'Ducati' make a fabulous tarmac burning motorbike called a 'Darmah.' Also included in the poem are thinly disguised lines from William Blake's poem, 'Tyger, Tyger.' And by the way, I'm often asked what a 'Dino' is, well, it's an awesome Ferrari sports car made back in the seventies. They came in two colours, red, as is proper and God given, or yellow. Either would do me!

NOTES:
A defiant poem in praise of doing business face to face with people, rather than trying your luck on the internet.

THIS GIRL'S KITCHEN:
Sometimes people tell me things which I know straight away could be used to make a good poem - and this is an example. The story was told to me by a friend, who'd met up with an old flame of his, after many years of not seeing her. Some of the lines in this are just as he told them!

BROWN AND GREEN (UP-TEMPO VERSION):

BROWN AND GREEN: (SLOW VERSION):
This track and the previous one were written about Sinead O'Conner when she was suffering very badly with mental illness. Although this isn't mentioned in the song, news of Sinead's problems prompted me to write a tribute to a girl with such an incredibly beautiful voice it can send shivers up my spine.

DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE:
They say that the devil has all the good tunes - and so do the Irish, I reckon! Here's one of their many fine songs which, not so long ago, was taught to all Irish schoolchildren, though, being a republican song, its seldom heard in Britain.

NIGHTS:
Sometimes verse comes to me from nowhere or so it seems, and this was the case with this poem. Quite why I should write about a woman who spends nights alone during the four seasons of the year is a mystery to me, but as a flight of fancy this, I suppose, reflected my feelings at the time.

SHIPSHAPE:
Bristol is a city very dear to my heart and whenever I go there I always think about its heyday, when sailing ships from all over the world would tie-up on the quayside in the centre of the city.

JOHN PARSONS'S TESTIMONY:
Many years ago I was told by a distant relative that we, the Parsons's, had ancestors who had fought in the Battle of Sedgemoor, way back in 1685. More recently I visited the battle-site and found in nearby Westonzoyland church a list of men who'd been imprisoned there immediately after the battle. Amongst these names were two Parsons's, a William and a John, and, although I can't prove that either were ancestors of mine, I'd like to think they were.

'ARK AT 'EE:
A poem about the Gloucestershire writer Laurie Lee, one of my all-time literary heroes. He had good tales to tell and told them in a very readable way. He also described himself as being amongst the first English peasants who'd been educated well enough to write books – and so he was!

A TWENTY SECOND POEM:
This only works as a joke if you see the poem written down and the word 'pander' spelt as 'panda.' Be that as it may here's a recording of it anyway.

HELLO THERE MR DAVIES:
Here's a poem in praise of W.H. Davies, the Newport poet, whose most famous work, 'Leisure,' begins with the lines 'What is this life if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?' The form of my poem, using the sequence of months, was inspired by a song by Dave Goulder called 'January Man.'

Huw Parsons was born in 1954, grew up in Llyswen, near Hay on Wye, and educated at Brecon Boys’ Grammar School and Chelsea College of Art.

He feels neither wholly English nor particularly Welsh, with his life’s diversity a social impostor and a cultural chameleon.

His influences: the poems of John Betjeman & Phillip Larkin, the novels of Leslie Thomas, the song lyrics of Sting & Jake Thackray.

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