I've Been Wrong Before

[undersizedshadow]

Leonard, why did you lie to us?

So sweet and serious
Your art was never reassessed

Puzzled together
Over painful hours
As you told us so

But really it came full-forced
In constant-marble
The dust only brushed off
By our itty-bitty pain


[http://theundersizedshadow.blogspot.com/]

[Geoffrey]

Leonard, why did you lie to us? . . .

i just read this while eating my chinese take-away supper, because i am one of those people who just HAVE to read something while eating a meal at home. anyone else the same? reading the back of the cornflakes box at breakfast time? you know it's funny, but you can eat chinese take-away until you're so satisfied that you can't manage to eat one more grain of rice, and then an hour later you're starving again. it's a bit like sex, in a way. i never get hungry again so soon when i eat indian curry, it's just chinese take-away.

[undersizedshadow]

A most valuable insight, Geoffrey. No, really. I'm going in for Chinese tonight.

[Cate]

Well that’s because it’s not substantial G … a lot does not mean better.
Curry is heavier, full bodied and full of wonderful spices and flavour. Perhaps you’ve had curry a hundred, two hundred times before and yet it still is quite wonderful … not at all something that you get bored of especially as there are so many subtle changes to the seasonings that means even though it’s still curry there’s something new to the experience.
Personally I don’t think that you should read while you eat though … you should focus on enjoying the flavours , textures and smells.
I’m making a stir fry right now with peppers (orange and red), red onions, broccoli and mushrooms … I wish I had some water chestnuts but I don’t. in a separate pan I have some beef in a minute I’ll add some of the veggies to that for my families and throw some cashews onto what remains for myself - very easy … I like Indian better though.



Welcome to the forum Undersizedshadow.
I'm looking forward to reading more of your poems.

cate

[Cheshire gal]

I had curry on my egg for breakfast this morning. A great flavour combination
Very good for you too.

[Geoffrey]

I’m making a stir fry right now with peppers (orange and red), red onions, broccoli and mushrooms … I wish I had some water chestnuts but I don’t. in a separate pan I have some beef in a minute I’ll add some of the veggies to that for my families and throw some cashews onto what remains for myself - very easy … I like Indian better though.

you sound like a curry connoisseur, hot and spicy like you, my darling. why is it that immediately after a chef throws a couple of cubes of pineapple into a meal it suddenly becomes 'hawaiian'? and why is there always one glove at every bus-stop?

[Cate]

ah Geoffrey, if I were a food item I'd be a whole wheat bun, which explains my attraction to spicy foods.
Very true about the pineapple thing - strange.

[Geoffrey]

ah Geoffrey, if I were a food item I'd be a whole wheat bun . . .

well, you can say what you like but it's actually thanks to me that nobody in this family has ever had any allergies; my three children have grown up strong and robust because they are used to a little bit of dust and a few cats' hairs accumulating here and there. i am not saying we live in squalor but i have never been fanatical about polishing, hoovering, dusting and emptying the cats' dirt-box every day. if i were our bodies would not have built up a good immunity which is essential for survival out there in the rat-race. i love listening to what a woman has on her mind, and all women are good at talking, much better than men, i'd say. that's why when a woman is quiet she, ironically enough, is telling you a whole lot, and it's usually connected with her being in one of her moods again, and that's why paul said women shouldn't speak in church [1 Corinthians 14:34], because he probably thought like me that females should be encouraged to use their advanced form for communication, that men should respect the divine gift possessed by the fairer sex and allow them to talk without opening that noisy slit just above their chins. and talking about talking; have you noticed something very special about leonard cohen when he's talking? probably not, because not everyone is quite as observant as me when it comes to identifying crucial details in a person's behaviour. well i will tell you, because i have watched hundreds of interviews and the same thing always strikes me; i see it because it's not there. the fact that it is missing is what makes it stick out. he never ever gesticulates, never uses his hands when he talks - have you heard the likes? he is not 'an illustrator', as body language experts call it. most people use their hands to help describe something, to emphasise a point or to subconsciously add theatrics to their chatter - but not him. he is not like president obama. and just as women say a lot when they do not speak, so can a man's hands say a lot when they do not move. if you want to know more about this, why leonard's arms are motionless, just ask me - because i have worked it all out in the back of my head.

"climb on your tears and be silent!" ['the window' by leonard cohen]

[lonndubh]

i love listening to what a woman has on her mind, and all women are good at talking, much better than men, i'd say. that's why when a woman is quiet she, ironically enough, is telling you a whole lot, and it's usually connected with her being in one of her moods again, and that's why paul said women shouldn't speak in church [1 Corinthians 14:34], because he probably thought like me that females should be encouraged to use their advanced form for communication, that men should respect the divine gift possessed by the fairer sex and allow them to talk without opening that noisy slit just above their chins. and talking about talking

Ah Geoffery I was begining to think that you had something to say and then you went and ruined it all by saying

that's why when a woman is quiet she, ironically enough, is telling you a whole lot, and it's usually connected with her being in one of her moods again

And what would that Paul fellow know anyway

[Cate]

Look what I found when I went to youtube to listen to The Window so that I could hear the line you mentioned in context.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUszJI_6WPA It’s Irving Layton! … sometimes I go to the National film board and watch old clips of Mr. Layton that I’ve seen before many times before. I like to hear his voice and see how he moves/moved - he had bit of a flare to him. Out of all the poets he would be my first choice to have a cup of coffee with and here he is smiling and so proud of a youngish Mr. Cohen.

The hand thing, yes your right either his hands are still or by his face. I wonder if it’s a comfort or control thing – because you can see, when he’s with somebody he loves he does move his hands a little bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZlaFcjLX_4

Okay now I shall be silent and take my loneliness to the garden. I shall whisper words of love to the little bits of green that are peeking through, loosen the soil made hard by the winter and wait for springs flowers to find me.

xx
cate

[nonnymonster]

At the risk of changing the subject, let us all note that Mr. Undersizedshadow here joined this rather catty sleepover party (I mean forum) for the first time to express the somewhat unflattering mental wrestling match he is having with someone that we have all, by the tacit agreement made by being here, agreed is our hero.
Mr. Undersizedshadow, I salute you.
You probably girded your loins to be here, and then went home with a box of leftover curry. I hope you are happy.

[Violet]

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[Violet]

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[undersizedshadow]

Very enlightening, guys. The poem was something of a joke.

The suggestion of Chinese is a welcome one, again..

His first Brisbane show was so finely tuned, so solid that I was sucking up to the visionary aspect of Cohen's persona.

All that 'itty-bitty pain' builds the tower in the first place. It was just flattery.

[Violet]

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