When I get burned
by love
spurned
like an old glove
ghosted
I want to be
a pachyderm
an elephant
or hippo
thick-skinned
numb
but for an artist of any kind that’s
recklessly dumb.
Recklessly Dumb
61 thoughts on “Recklessly Dumb”
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John Malone
playful panda
John Malone 
Maybe not… 🤨
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ahhh but you gotta feel the pain, the frisson of being alive if you’re going to write about it — wasn’t there a song, Pink Floyd maybe, ‘Comfortably Numb’ ?
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Yes good memory!
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so it was Pink Floyd 🙂 my memory is good for trivia, especially music from the mid fifties to now 🙂 ask me anything, I’ll know it without looking it up 🙂
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I remember songs, I usually forget who sang them. Unless they were huge hits. I also love big band era, I have eclectic taste in music.
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you certainly do; I like big bands but I’m not into them like I am songs of the rock era 🙂
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Love that song. Well most of Pink Floyd is on my awesome list.
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‘ask me anything, I’ll know it without looking it up’
Who sang 1958 song ‘Rockin’ Robin’?
No cheating now,…
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I know this one; let me think; I loved it when it first came out; I won’t cheat, Don; I’m watching the News on tele; it might come to me then ; I’ll get back to you…
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I can see it going round in your head….
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I know, Don but It’s not landing: you’ve found one of the gaps in my musical knowledge; damn 🙂
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Don’t worry about it….we all know a drum goes boom boom boom so all’s well…..or is it bang bang….you’ve got me confused now….
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I know he was a one-hit wonder, Don — but I give up 😦 who was it ?
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Talk about 50’s
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thanks for the video, Don: exquisite: of course, Bobby Day: it still sounds great !!!
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But so 1950’s….
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It stings
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unless you’re a pachyderm 🙂
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According to the Wisdom of my
chosen life coach, Pink the Floyd,
best to just become comfortably
numb.
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I haven’t come across ‘P t F’ ? Is this why I have bombed out so badly.? Am I past help? Are his fees affordable?
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He only charged me two lost
souls swimming in a fish bowl🍚
But then, Floyd knew I wasn’t
exactly in the pink, or riding the
proverbial gravy train 🚂 😎
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🙂 ahh the fog is beginning to clear, David; do you know the answer to Don’s question: who sang ‘Rocking Robin’? don’t look it up 🙂
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I’d have to cheat 🎶 cheat 🎶 John?
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then desist, David, we can’t have that 🙂
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He who should never never
be mentioned
did a great cover version,
but I can no longer listen
to that Peter Pan of Perversion 😭
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I love that ‘Peter Pan of Perversion’; not Tiny Tim was it? or, god help us, Garry Glitter?
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A Vietnamese prison, where Gary
sings his greatest hit, is too good
for him. Late at night he can still
be heard … 🎶
“Do you want to touch me? No?” 🎶
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that Gary G has become one of the black sheep of the rock music flock —
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He was the support act at a
concert I attended, way back.
He certainly put the sham into
Glam Rock.
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You sound like a lost soul in need…I’m not that far gone…..
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not for us poets, David: you gotta feel !!!
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Hi John, I agree. We are human and pain is part of life.
If you don’t feel pain, you cannot know pleasure, at least not in the same way.
🙂
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I would prefer to feel pleasure only but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that 😦
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That’s true, the two are connected like opposite sides of a coin. I wish there wasn’t suffering. I’d be ok with that, but that’s not reality either. 😦
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just think: if there were only pleasure we’d soon become jaded with it ; we need the contrast: i’m sure Dylan had something to say about it but I can’t think of any lines where he does 😦
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And it is the poet’s task to express that pain in words….
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Yes. There’s a Gilbert and Sullivan Song about that. If everything were made of gold we’d long for simple pewter… something like that. I like your poem a lot and I think it’s true that artists can only represent life in their art if they feel all the texture of it. Maybe you can’t relish it at the time but later… have a good roll. 🙂
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thanks 🙂 I don’t know that G & S song but it nails the human situation very well 🙂
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I found it!
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what’s it called?
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“There lived a king”. It’s from The Gondoliers. Doesn’t the URL work?
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yes; thanks; will watch during my TV break 🙂
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love it; heard those lines about ‘pewter’; you did well remembering it — what gifted musicians they were: the Lennon-McCartney of their time 🙂
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Thicker skin would help. What do you mean, by the way, with the second-to-last line? Is it a way to say you’d rather not be an artist that’s recklessly dumb?
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yes, Chel, I am; I’ve felt some pain lately, some loss But I would not wish NOT to feel it; it is part of the human condition and for a writer, one needs to experience loss as well as gain, don’t you think?
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Reminds me of a poem by Spike Milligan I think…
You shoot the hippopotamus
With bullets made of platinum
Cos if you use the leaden ones
His hide is sure to flatten ’em!
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good old Spike; what a ripper of a poem !!! how does he do it, Hobbo???
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He was good, wasn’t he!
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I don’t know if there was anyone better, Hobbo 🙂 he was a little manic but that was part of his genius: you can’t have one without the other 🙂
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He was manic, but I guess that was part of what made him a genius!
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Kinda like the porcupine, but more of a barrier layer of emotional durability. Wanna play scrabble about instead? 🙂
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Maybe a tortoise, John? Tough shell but you can stick your head out and be vulnerable when necessary. Trying to be practical here… 😄
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that would do the trick, Matthew: good suggestion 🙂
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insight comes in many disguises!
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ahhb yes but it must come through the senses, through feeling 🙂
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keep them sharp!
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A good poem and a great thread of comments!
So… can you tell me who recorded “Whose Cadillac Is That?”
🙂
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I don’t even know the song, Ed 😦 you’ll have to tell me —
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Vintage War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjhvAb1Y_30
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just played it, thanks Ed; I see it’s from ’87; I don’t think the song even made the playlist of Aussie radio stations; our loss 😦
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