A rant on behalf of all those - human or animal - who are betrayed by stupidity, ignorance, incompetence, and sheer foolishness.
Specifically, http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=508594
and http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/rspca-man-jailed-drowning-horse-at-appleby-horse-fair-$1212551.htm
From what I hear, the man was not a gipsy and the travelling community punished him, as well as the courts.
Pied and skewbalds, roans and greys, horses bay or brown or dun,
four white legs, a star or blaze; they drowse on verges in the sun.
Flicking tails at teasing flies, the knee deep grass long eaten bare,
tether chains and patient eyes, beside the road to Appleby Fair.
Traffic stares in passing by old vardoes with new canvas tops,
shirts and towels draped to dry on shafts parked up on wooden props;
but gipsies camp in metal homes where four-wheel-drives replace the mare;
caravans here flash with chrome, beside the road to Appleby Fair.
Dark-haired girls with sidelong eyes will sell you shiny brass as gold.
Canny women offer lies in fortunes patched from what you've told;
peddlers drag out coloured clothes and wheedle you to buy their ware.
Rough-haired lurchers pant and doze, beside the road to Appleby Fair.
Lads swim horses, play like fools; fat cob or swiftest equine prince,
they must dare the Eden's pools to wash and scrub and soap and rinse.
Trotting bareback up the hill, with dung-dust rising in the air,
mind yer backs, giddout the way! along the road to Appleby Fair.
Brass and nickel buckles clink on harness dumped astride a fence.
Tattooed men sit out and drink till alcohol has drowned their sense.
Road-horse bets are won and lost;
we'll dodge police, I'll race you there!
Caution to the wind is tossed, along the road to Appleby Fair.
Racing in a lightweight frame to flash the horses at their best;
opposites in crowded lanes can slam the shafts in neck or breast.
Crashing steel on tarmac roads, horse-eyes are wild and nostrils flare
at racing speeds with yelling loads, along the road to Appleby Fair.
After racing,
cool her down, so swim her in the Eden deep.
The metal sulky pulls her down to where the coldest currents creep.
No plunge for freedom breaks the straps, no heaving struggle brings her air.
The mare drowns in the sinking trap; no road home from Appleby Fair.
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Written by Brett (1008 comments posted) 3rd May 2008 |
I began reading this thinking 'yes, I know what you mean, where you are going.' I do know what you mean, and you have wonderful lines to illustrate:
'...offer lies in fortunes patched from what you've told.'
But I did not know where you were going; that last stanza is almost haunting, for an animal lover, but should be for any human being.
A terrific poem, Sue.
Cheers |
Written by Veronica_Milvus (769 comments posted) 3rd May 2008 |
What a picture! Hard to pick out any good lines because as always they are all really packed with description. The pace of it seemed like a brisk trot!
Sad ending though. Just stupid carelessness I suppose. |
Written by Fledermaus (3506 comments posted) 3rd May 2008 |
Indeed a wonderful description of a dreadful event. |
Disappointed
Written by meadowcroft1964 (112 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
Hello Fellpony
I don't know you and wouldn't dream to judge you
so please give others who may have different life styles a chance. There is another side to Appleby and I In the process of writing my own poem showing the other view. I am well aware of the problems some travellers cause but please believe me we are not all the same has your people are different, some good, some bad God made us the same. On the subject of fortune telling I would not insult your intelligence with claims to their truth but people go to them voluntary . My mother who was a fortune teller provided and kept herself and elderly mother as well as myself and five cousins without ever having any help from the state or anyone. She did with even being able to write her own name, please think could you have been able to do the same. She helped a lot of those whose fortune she told through just listening and giving advise learned through her own experience. That's what today's counselors do don't they and they get paid and I SAY AGAIN ITS A MATTER OF CHOICE. I really don't what to cause offence
but words as I know from personal experience can be the cruelest of weapons please use with care. P.S. you referred to the horse that was drown just to set the facts right the owner was one of your people . The gypsies and travellers I know are excellent horseman and wouldn't do anything so stupid we are all informed from a early age that there's a strong under current that runs at a certain point in the river at Appleby and to avoid area at all costs. SORRY IF I CAUSE OFFENSIVE BUT PLEASE DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER |
your people
Written by Phil (7012 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I've read another piece on the same subject as this before. I thought this very effective as a way of giving the reader a series of lively and vivid images of Appleby Fair. In that way - successful. Also in stirring emotion - clearly successful.
While I can't speak for Fellpony, I would like to answer, at least in part, the comments above.
I didn't read the piece as an attack or a one sided view of travellers or gypsies. In fact the introduction (let alone the text) makes it clear that it isn't. If what was there to describe, was there to describe, there's no case to answer. Because certain thing are practised by a minority (fortune telling) doesn't mean they can not be documented or challenged. Personally, I think fortune telling is a dishonest rip-off. The point that seems to have been made about old fashioned counselling perhaps has a little mileage.
The point made about words is spot on. However, th most inflamatory language sed was in the review - |
bugger - wrong button
Written by Phil (7012 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
The point made about words is spot on. However, the most inflammatory language used was in the review - your people This phrase serves to separate and define two opposing - not a purpose I detected in the piece.
Minorities are, I suppose, sometimes more sensitive than those of us who are considered to be in the majority. That doesn't mean minorities should be treated with kid gloves - just with honesty.
Many non-travelling folk have limited experience of travellers and that experience is often negative. That isn't a sweeping statement judging all travellers, it's an honest statement based on my experience. From my own experiences, I do not extrapolate that all my encounters with travellers will be negative, far from it.
I saw no malice, intended or accidental in this piece.
Having stuck my head above the parapet (again) I'd better say this: I have no issue with gypsies or travellers - they're human beings like me. What I do reserve the right to do is be critical of individuals from any ethnic or lifestyle-choice group as they would of me. I don't think the above was any stronger than that.
Long live diversity - and tolerance too.
Phil |
phil
Written by meadowcroft1964 (112 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I respect your opinion and never wish to be treated with kid gloves, just to be treated as a equal. I spent forty years trying to be excepted this never quite happened even through I tried extra hard to live as society demanded. You may well have a point about my phrase (my people). I beg your forgiveness as a Christian I feel we are all God people, In my defence I can only say perhaps If as the saying goes you walked a mile in my shoes you'd have a better understanding of my strong feeling on this issue.
I have no issue with justifiable criticism as long as it's balanced. In this poem all the negative of the fair is shown non of the positives e.g the money it brings to the community. Personal I think anyone going to fortune tellers at best sad people. I believe only the Lord God knows the road we will take. My mother had little option we had to be fed luckily I was given slightly more options.
Ihope this gives you a better understanding of where I'm coming from . |
Propaganda?
Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3590 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I do enjoy poems that tell a story, it gives the work a terrific narrative pull that poetry often lacks,to my untutored ear anyway. You painted the picture in short vivid bursts, almost like a literary montage of scenes. A well crafted piece.
I do think that in linking that awful event with the fair in general you have been a bit unfair. It borders on propaganda, in a way. I have seen that fair [admittedly many years ago] and my impression of it wasn't as negative as yours. In our increasingly drab, standardised, homogenised,CCTV-ised designer branded world we have become intolerant of those who choose a different life. And it is increasingly difficult for them to live that life without falling foul of all the repressive laws we have.Without people like that,bringing a bit of colour and free-living into our lives we would all be happily sleepwalking to a repressive police state.We'll all be safe in our gated communities and the countryside fenced off but we will have lost our souls. Perhaps it the gypsies and travellers who are the last vestiges of what this race once was
End of sermon, 
Still a good poem
jane |
Written by Phil (7012 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
Isn't life full of odd coincidences. Browsing and came across this:
Appleby horse fair, river Eden, horse and rider |
Written by Brett (1008 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I have to agree with Phil. I can see no malice towards a way of life or indeed the dreadful event that culminates the poem. The poem's descriptiveness is essential for the reader to get a sense of time and place, and to lead us to an ending (happy or not) if we were given four lines on a drowning horse it would take an awfully talented writer to move the reader.
I also think this poem describes gypsies as very able horsemen.
If we choose we can see prejudice everywhere we look!
If we become comfortable with who we are, we could not give a f**k.
But if prejudice be there, let us not be sparse
With the batons and the bricks - and kick 'em up the arse.
Cheers |
Written by fellpony (1752 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I have witnessed every single thing in this poem, apart from the last stanza where I heard about several incidents from those who saw them and brought them together into one (actually fictional) death. Men who know the gipsy people well all tell me that they are highly critical of the stupid behaviour of those who pretend to horsemanship and cause injury or death to the beasts they control - and, incidentally, bring undeserved criticism on the gipsy community. So, in my defence, I must say that Nothing here is intended in any way to be critical or even judgmental of the gipsy community itself. It's the hangers-on who come to the Fair who cause the problems.
And the poem is about the FAIR, not about the gipsy community.
|
Apology
Written by meadowcroft1964 (112 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I apologize to fell pony if my interpretation of her poem was wrong .Brett is right when he pointed out that I should be comfortable with who I am and sod the rest. Thought I'd worked through my Insecurities, guess there still a lot more work to do. In my defence I have received real prejudice most of my life here briefly I'll state just a few.
1 Extreme bullying all the way through school some of it from the teachers themselves.
2 Applying for my first job only for the job to suddenly disappear when they realised It was I who had come for the interview. The job reappeared the next day perhaps Paul Daniels got the job.
3 Shop keepers openly following me round the shop thinking that I would steal (I have never stolen in my life) I am not being paranoid.
there are lots of other examples all I can say is I hope you judge me by my work which nearly all give you a insight into my life. Again my apologies to Fell pony. |
Fair!
Written by Katanga (1552 comments posted) 4th May 2008 |
I have now read this piece, along with the reviews, several times.
Fellpony, I find no prejudice against, or malice towards, gipsies in this. More a criticism of the awful 'construct' of the Fair . . .
The last stanza, albeit fictional, is so strong - I think your whole piece deserves more rational appreciation than ill-considered emotional attack.
But maybe that's just me?
Cheers!
John X |
meadowcroft, thank you
Written by fellpony (1752 comments posted) 5th May 2008 |
It's understandable that you will be sensitive on some subjects - we all are. Our sensitive areas differ, that's all. It's good of you to say this publicly. So many people just go on grumbling when another member upsets them.
Thank you!
BTW - John - I think what I mean to be the underlying current of the poem is not that the Fair itself is a bad construct but that human nature is such that we can't run something so large w/o bad elements being there. Think football and hooligan and you'll get my drift. |
Ah yes, Fellpony!
Written by Katanga (1552 comments posted) 5th May 2008 |
Now I get it, Sue - guess I was being a bit hasty with my comment . . .
Thinking of 'football' and 'hooligans' gets me terribly revved up.
I suppose 'human nature' is a dodgy construct?
Oh dear, I feel a poetical treatise on 'Life' coming on . . .
Preserve us!
Cheers! John
PS Where's 'David V' then? Ho! X |
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