A rant on behalf of all those - human or animal - who are betrayed by stupidity.
Specifically, http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=508594
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 Phil (6730 comments posted) 10th June 2007 |
This makes the whole affair sound tackier than Blackpool. It also reminded me of a drive through Lourdes a few years ago.
It sounds like it ought to be a fun and atmospheric day - but whenever humans gather together....especially young men.
Thought the form this took suited the material well.
Phil |
Appleby Fair
Written by Josie (2785 comments posted) 10th June 2007 |
| I thought it was Appleby Fair time again. They usually park up on the grass verge alongside our River Wharfe, and leave the place in such a mess that the council have tried to stop it. They were there a month ago, opposite the bluebell woods. I have been to this fair, and it is indeed a wonderful sight. I have a photograph of the horses down in the river at Appleby being washed clean. To your poem. I felt the rhythm was a little bit out on the first to second line, verse 2. It jarred a little. Perhaps I'm the only one to notice it, so it's not too bad. The lines were long, but to cut them in half (4 beats to the line), would make the poem much too long. This is a really well written, descriptive poem. Congratulations on a subject well worth writing about, and seeing also. |
thanks
Written by fellpony (1616 comments posted) 10th June 2007 |
Phil and Josie - in some ways, the Fair Hill week (not just one day) is riveting. Horsemen from all over the world make a point of visiting and meeting up there to see the best in gipsy horses. Sadly there is always a down side when thousands of people gather together, despite a common interest.
Yes Josie, the lines are long, but the original line length, (the short one you considered) was too comic, although the internal rhymes show where the breaks would have been. The basic metre is an 8-major-stresses line - which probably has a Sunday name but I can't think of it right now - and is more based on spoken rhythms than on a syllable count, though that is generally 15 to the line.
Thanks again.
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What's in a Name ........??
Written by Bagheera (683 comments posted) 10th June 2007 |
Until the final stanza I was nodding along happily, remembering the Wakes Week they used to hold in Wigan & surrounding district - including a small village called Appley Bridge .... uncomfortably close coincidence (if there really IS such a thing, which recent events have combined to have me doubting the hypothesis!  |
Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3362 comments posted) 10th June 2007 |
I like this a lot, not just in the detail but in the overall picture it paints. You caught the feel and atmosphere of the action really well. I did visit it back in ’92 and it felt like going back to a different age. My memory of it is hazy now but this took me back.
I thought the long lines and loping rhythm worked well. It was an easy and pleasurable read. The sort of poetry I can relate to.
I thought the1st line of the 4th stanza didn’t read smoothly to me, though.[that’s as long as I dare spend on structure]
You conjure up a picture of something that has passed it’s best and become a bit tawdry which is sadly true of a lot of these old institutions [we have a goose fair here but there isn’t a goose in sight just serried ranks of fun fair rides]. The things you highlight are symptomatic of how these occasions get debased, as their true meaning gets lost.
But, Sue, as sad as your depiction is, it can only get worse as progress distances it from it’s original purpose
As I read I wondered, was this written in sadness or in anger?
Jane
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Attn: BBS ..........
Written by Bagheera (683 comments posted) 11th June 2007 |
 .... If you want the "Real McCoy", these traditional events still take place in Ireland - we went to 3 in the space of a fortnoght's holiday last summer ..... and they AREN'T just an excuse to sup the "Black Gold" ..... as if an excuse were needed  |
Written by maipenrai (783 comments posted) 11th June 2007 |
| Liked this a lot, a good write. |
Thanks all
Written by fellpony (1616 comments posted) 11th June 2007 |
Jane - in sadness, but anger too. Bagheera - yes, Irish fairs like Ballinasloe still concentrate on the horses.
Lots of the observation here came from a drive down roads leading to Appleby last Friday just before the Fair. The incident described in the last stanza is fictionalised from two such events, one last week and one 10 years or so ago.
I omitted the rape charges that were successfully defended from last year's fair, the litter, pollution, theft and disorderly behaviour ... and also I have not mentioned all the quality animals that have been bought there and gone on to successful "legit" careers. Or the rogue horses that were successfully cast-off there either!
Given that the poem shaped itself in just a few hours and has not yet been seriously polished I accept there may be slight roughnesses in the metre 
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Lovely Sue
Written by Talisker (1326 comments posted) 12th June 2007 |
Captured the good and the bad - that inevitable mix.
For the miscreants who drowned the horse - I prescribe the ducking stool - just to let them see how it feels. We all suffer for what's done to innocent animals.
Oli |
Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 25th June 2007 |
I read this with my mouth hanging open, quite honestly. I thought it was a beautifully done poem, and if there were rough bits, then they suited the style. And I've never heard of Appleby Fair, but now I feel like I've been there.
Shaped in just a few hours? I feel sick... |
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