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I went to the garden centre
but all they had was plants
then I tried Marks and Spencers
and all they had was pants

The shops don't understand me
I feel I'm on my own
I saw a leather sofa
but couldn't get it home

The town is full of statues
with something in their hands -
John B has got a heavy gun
and Reg a book of plans

Josiah holds some kind of vase
of which he looks quite proud
but Stanley's ball is at his feet
since handball's not allowed

A moth may eat a candle
a cat may eat a queen
a horse may search for water
when all the world is green

Though soap was made for washing
and the dirt comes back too soon
there'll be a thousand pikelets flashing
by the rising of the moon

I went to the garden centre
where you left flowers on the floor
then I followed to Marks and Spencers
where you placed buttons by the door

This might sound strange Sue but your poems cause me to feel that I could be more comfortable and be a better person for it.

pikelets make me think of intelligent women and children at tea parties.

it also makes me think that if I should visit such a tea party that I will take off my hat

then I followed to Marks and Spencers
where you placed buttons by the door

I am thinking by this that you might mean the sort of button that lets a person in a wheelchair open the door - this would fit nicely with what I know of your experiences although I am probably wrong. On the other hand, what other association can a person have between buttons and doors? You will perhaps tell us. Had you heard of pikelets then, or did you have to look it up?

Sue wrote:

then I followed to Marks and Spencers
where you placed buttons by the door

I am thinking by this that you might mean the sort of button that lets a person in a wheelchair open the door - this would fit nicely with what I know of your experiences although I am probably wrong. On the other hand, what other association can a person have between buttons and doors? You will perhaps tell us. Had you heard of pikelets then, or did you have to look it up?

Now this is fun. I have just discovered the "foe" facility and now I can avoid anything written by Jack. But when he contributes a post I get a line saying "this post was made by Lazariuk who is currently on your ignore list" . So what I want to do is follow Sue's response to him and guess what he wrote.

Tell me if I am close but please don't copy his actual words as that would spoil the whole point of escaping his writing.

"Hi Sue, I had a dream once which I shared with a mystic woman who approached me in the street. She took me back to her place and when I explained to her all I had seen in my sleep she said I had the clearest vision of the World and Life that she had ever heard of. She offered me a pikelet for tea and more pikelets if I stayed overnight. For 3 months we made love and ate pikelets and never left the house except for walks in the moonlit night. She said I was the best pikelet eater she had ever met. I really pressed her buttons and all sorts of magic doors opened up and we explored places no 2 humans had ever been before. She said I was the best button-pusher and door-opener she had ever met. During our whole time together I didn't go to Marks and Spencers. I did not need any pants."

Lord Mickey of One

Member of the Poetry Forum Militant Wing

Sue wrote:

then I followed to Marks and Spencers
where you placed buttons by the door

I am thinking by this that you might mean the sort of button that lets a person in a wheelchair open the door - this would fit nicely with what I know of your experiences although I am probably wrong. On the other hand, what other association can a person have between buttons and doors? You will perhaps tell us. Had you heard of pikelets then, or did you have to look it up?

Hi Sue
I found pikelets using google.
I also thought that there was association of the word to the word piglets and the soap using had something to do with the world being a pigpen.

Buttons have been on my mind owning to a movie and book called "war of the buttons" and a line in a cohen poem about giving buttons for love. I used door because it rhymed with floor. My use of buttons in this context is that losing buttons has something to do with humilation and that placing or giving buttons is the opposite of that.

I used door because it rhymed with floor.

Yes, it's funny how even though we know these images have been created quite randomly - like verbal Rorschach blots - we are still tempted to look for meaning in them. As you may know, I was adapting a line from the Irish rebel song:

"..and a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon."

But it is curious that, of all things, the moon is what a pikelet resembles most. If Leonard had written:

She feeds you pieces of the moon
that come all the way from China

people could well conclude he was talking about pikelets, no?

Sue wrote:

I used door because it rhymed with floor.

Yes, it's funny how even though we know these images have been created quite randomly

I wrote that when i was in a bit of a rush but since i've had some time to think about it, I can't help but ask myself " who says I can't get heavenly aid?" Since then I have been thinking about the line "you met him at some temple where they take your clothes at the door"

- like verbal Rorschach blots - we are still tempted to look for meaning in them. As you may know, I was adapting a line from the Irish rebel song:

"..and a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon."

No I didn't know that. I have a niece who was involved in something called the World Tea Party and that gave me images of women sitting together and working together to try to solve problems and at the same time providing what was sweet for the children.

But it is curious that, of all things, the moon is what a pikelet resembles most. If Leonard had written:

She feeds you pieces of the moon
that come all the way from China

people could well conclude he was talking about pikelets, no?

Well for me it works well with tea and oranges with my idea of women having tea along with something sweet that is sweet too for others.

Mostly what I got from your poem Sue was a feeling that you were going from place to place and not getting what they advertised. Kind of a " i can't buy it anymore" feeling. Yet by doing so you were leaving the very thing that is being sold and you were leaving it for free.
Does that make sense?

Mostly what I got from your poem Sue was a feeling that you were going from place to place and not getting what they advertised. Kind of a " i can't buy it anymore" feeling. Yet by doing so you were leaving the very thing that is being sold and you were leaving it for free.
Does that make sense?

Sort of. I do really like:

I know I said I’d meet you
I’d meet you at the store,
But I can’t buy it, baby
I can’t buy it anymore

In fact I have been listening to the album again recently and I like this song more than I used to. Who do you imagine that last verse, and this one:

I don’t know why I come here
Knowing as I do
What you really think of me
What I really think of you

are addressed to? Do they need to be addressed to the same person/entity for the song to make sense?

Hi Sue

I don't know the answer to your questions but I haven't finished thinking about them. Two other songs that I have been listening to as I think is Storeroom and Blessed is the Memory.

What I do get from the feeling of

Don't know why I come here
Knowing as I do
What you really think of me etc.

is that the singer feels himself being influenced by something very impersonal that has nothing to do with what one person thinks of the other.

Were the questions you asked ones that you yourself have an answer for?

My thinking on the following is changing

I don’t know why I come here
Knowing as I do
What you really think of me
What I really think of you

I am now thinking it less like two who don't have friendly thoughts of each other and more like they do and wondering why they are meeting in a place or way where that seems like a problem.

when they change further I will keep you posted. Thinking seems to have this peculiar habit of changing thought.

Sue wrote:
Do they need to be addressed to the same person/entity for the song to make sense?

Currently I am thinking that they could be but they don't have to be. I think he could even be singing to himself and it would still make sense. My music playing device that has that CD is currently not working and my thoughts may change more when I am able to hear the song again.

Sometimes it happens that I will listen to a LC song and I won't like it. It will disturb me. I appreciate those songs because they point to the things that disturb me and those are the things that are usually worthwhile taking a look at. I wonder if others think that way.

I went to the garden centre
where you left flowers on the floor
then I followed to Marks and Spencers
where you placed veils by the door

Ha Ha still slowly thinking