Bruin Fisher
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Posts posted by Bruin Fisher
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25 - A really great chapter so I can't wait to see what happens next!
Bruin the impatient
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Maybe, but in a world where criminals commonly carry around knives and guns themselves, I want to be at least on the same level to defend myself.
I hesitate to weigh into a debate that carries such strong feelings on both sides, but I think it's worth pointing out that in the countries where the carrying of such weapons is illegal, law-abiding citizens don't carry them, and while some criminals certainly do, far fewer of them carry weapons because it is difficult to obtain them and they don't perceive the need since they're not likely to meet similarly armed defence. Thus, combining the much reduced likelihood of being shot by a criminal with the negligible likelihood of being shot in a domestic accident, life in these countries is much safer.
Statistics uphold this assertion: UN Survey of gun crime 1998-2000
From Wikepedia article on Gun Violence: "The United States has the highest rates among developed countries, which some account to [sic] the loose firearm laws in the U.S. compared to other developed countries."
My twopenn'orth
Bruin
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Gee Bruin, between you posting your poem and me not knowing where I am, I think I need to use your newbie card if you have finished with it, please. Mine is all worn out.
Hold on.... let me just wipe the coffee stain off it with my shirt-tail... here - you're welcome to use it any time! Just be sure to let me have it back - I'm sure to need it again (and again, and again...)
Bruin
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Indeed, Camy, but a thread for your poem. I do think other poems breathe better when living on their own threads.
Let's not hijack one anothers' threads, particularly when there are ever fewer places to post them (with the closure of the Corner).
TR
Whoops - that's my fault - sorry. I was the one who hijacked the thread by posting my own versification there. Camy's since put it right by starting a new thread for it. Can I get away with playing my Newbie card? I won't do it again.
Bruin
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Okay - the muse insisted so here it is.
Her Majesty in regal style
Dressed in blue with wooly vest
Waves and nods her perma-smile
Doing again what she does best.
The carriage, gilt, with footmen, green
Moves slowly through St James' Park.
Roofless, so she can be seen
Unless of course it gets too dark.
With her, in state, her husband sits
His smile less sure, less warm, less real.
His place as consort is the pits,
See his pallid grin congeal.
The crowd, as ever, wave their flag
Delighted with their glimpse of glove
Held up, just so, to match the bag
She clutches in her lap with love.
At last the carriage slows and stops,
By Marks and Sparks and Safeway too.
He follows her around the shops.
Poor Ma'am, she's not like me or you!
Bruin Fisher
Okay, I know it lowers the tone considerably after Camy's masterpiece - blame the Muse - he made me do it.
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Blimey!
Much as I appreciate the sentiment, chaps, please desist.
It's a poem, not a plea to be lauded. I haven't shuffled off my mortal coil yet.
Camy
ps love ya both!
Pooh. Poems get lauded when they merit it and you'll just have to get used to that. How are you going to feel when you're appointed Poet Laureate?
I know you haven't popped your clogs yet, we're just getting in practice, ok?
Now the old muse has just poked me in the ribs, wants me to write a poem for a state occasion as though I was Poet Laureate. Race you to get one posted here in this thread!
Bruin
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Adieu
by Camy
If there is a point to all of this it's slipped me by
We're born, sleep a lot, make love, wither, die
Lessons we learn, trials we suffer through
Covered with sod or burnt, it is adieu
I strive to make a difference, yearn to carve my mark
Battle genetics daily to change apathy to spark
Yet if there is a point I'm afraid I don't see it now
Prithee tell me, I will be remembered how?
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Clever Emu! I echo Des' comments - you will be remembered as an expert wordsmith and a great guy and a brilliant musician and.. and... and... Your mark is well and truly carved - on hearts and minds.
Great poem, mate - your best yet, possibly.
Bruin
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Sorry. I'm ranting. ^^
Yeah, but it was a good rant, and you made some powerful points. Well done you!
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Hmm.. haven't heard it. Will look it up.
Do. It's really funny, but if you're looking up the lyrics you have to imagine it sung in an over-the-top clipped Oxford English accent. There's a line: Englishmen detest a siesta - which fits in well with your comment about the more sensible Spaniards!
Bruin
By the way - nice to run into you again here!
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Did I mention I am a hypochondriac on Fridays?
Hey - I'm a hypochondriac on Fridays, too! It means I'm always ill all weekend and get better just in time to start the working week again on Mondays. It really sucks.
Bruin
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Split Infinitives are frowned upon in the US, or they were when I was growing up.
Okay, thanks for that info. I guess Star Trek scriptwriters are exempt, though, for obvious reasons.
That being so, perhaps my comments apply both sides of the big pond, then.
Bruin
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Oh, and yes, UCLA students are called Bruins. It's their teams' mascot/symbol/whatever. Just like Ohio State students are called buckeyes and Cal students are known as Golden Bears.
C
Thanks. I'm an ignorant Brit who can't be expected to know stuff.
Bruin
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If I had only known vs. If only I had known...
I wonder if there's a transatlantic difference in usage here?
In the UK, splitting an infinitive carries the death sentence, but I believe in the US it is acceptable (to boldly go where no man has gone before...).
Here we're not considering an infinitive, but it's a verb clause.. 'I had known'.
I think in the UK it would be preferable not to split it by putting 'only' in the middle. Better to put it outside.
I agree with earlier posters that the word 'only' is used here idiomatically. The word 'just' could be used with similar effect - 'If I had just known' - but to my ear it doesn't work as 'If just I had known', that way it means that 'I' am the only person who had known. Like it would if 'only' were used literally rather than idiomatically. I'm getting myself tangled up in my own verbiage here. Get out while the going's good, Bruin.
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PS: Are you a UCLA bruin, or some other kind? [/size][/color]
Hmm. Don't even know what one of those is. Students at UCLA get called bruins?
No. I'm a very UK kind of Bruin, more like Pooh Bear than UCLA, I think.
Thanks, guys, for your welcome - I feel at home already.
Bruin
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Disclaimer: I don't 'do' poetry. I don't. Not at all.
So the following offerings 'just slipped out'.
Here's the first, called Radiance. I'm rather proud of it. It was written centuries ago when I was an impressionable teenager, about a girl who could always lift my spirits - and those of everyone else around her.
Puddled pavements and sodden clothes
Dry out under your smile
And showers of your words wash out
The gloom, and joy reigns awhile.
... and here's the second, untitled, (it doesn't really deserve one, as you'll see) written in a moment of inspiration, or possibly just mischief. With apologies to the songwriter Jimmy Kennedy.
If you go down in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today you'll find the place full of guys.
For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain because
The gays today go cottaging with a picnic!
... so now you know why I'm a non-poet.
Bruin
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Wonderful writing from Camy. Jennings rides again!
I'm a product (possibly waste product) of the school system that Camy writes about, and I have to say he writes with authority and sympathetically about a long tradition that lives on even now. Not everyone who gets put through that mangle comes out of it as well as the boys in the story do, so I'm very glad that Camy chose to write a happy, positive story. As such it's idealised, escapism. Just what I need.
This story establishes a group of friends who go on to have further adventures together - go look for them in Camy's other stories. They're all great and strongly recommended.
Bruin
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Was this the first story of Camy's that I ever read? Can't remember now. But I can remember the story, almost word for word. It made a BIG impression on me. Why? Partly because it's about the world I inhabit - run-down seaside tourism land UK. Partly because it's a story about people like me. But mostly because it's so brilliantly written. Infectious, involving, heart-rending and heart-warming, I just love this. If you haven't read it, go read. NOW.
Thanks for giving it away, Camy!
Bruin
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Read it, loved it.
Now this story was brilliant, like Duck Duck Goose (yes, I know, I read them in the wrong order). But unlike DDG this one started off surprising rather than becoming so gradually. What a great setting. Like others I loved the atmosphere that you gave it, I could feel the cool night air out on the stoop at sunset. And like others I felt these two very nice guys had only just begun. Plenty of scope for extending the story if you chose to do so. But you wanted to give them their privacy and I can respect that. And it gives me exercise for my imagination...!
Thanks for wonderful writing, Cole.
Bruin
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Hi guys,
I love the banter on this thread. And I love the story I just read - as far as chapter 20 and I lost most of a night's sleep so I could read it at one sitting.
This is my first post in the AD forums so I'm as newbie as they come. But I had to overcome my terminal shyness (!) to post here because Cole's story is just so good. It's great, brilliant, uplifting, life-affirming - and all that stuff.
Okay, here's my confession: I began it and thought 'oh no, not another angst-ridden teenager story, overcoming adversity and finding his true (gay) self through the experience'. How wrong I was. Okay the setting is a lot like the setting of a lot of other gay fiction, but Cole is so good at writing that the characters stopped being cardboard cliches and took on flesh and blood immediately and from then on I was hooked, involved in the story and aching to see Kevin come out of his shell, and all.
I really loved to read this story and while waiting for the next installment (how glad I was to read that chapter 20 isn't to be the last) now I'm off to lose more sleep over more of Cole's work.
Thanks so Much Cole for giving us such a great read.
Bruin
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new story by Grasshopper
in Roamin' Reader
Posted
I read up to chapter 5 in one sitting and can't wait for more. This is a story that deserves the adjective 'visceral'. It sears into my heart and makes me feel like baying at the moon, feeling Wes's pain. So is it a good story? Did I enjoy it?
Yes it's a very good story - it must be because it's made me feel so deeply. Did I enjoy it? Hmm, 'enjoy' is the wrong word to describe being put through an emotional mangle, but when you take a breather and remind yourself it's fiction and you don't have to hurt so much because Wes and his awful family are not real, you can enjoy being taken for such a powerful ride.
Fantastic writing, involving, affecting, and very very sad so I hope some nicer things begin to happen to the boys. I think Cole is beginning to hurt quite badly on Wes's behalf so it's not just Wes we need to feel sorry for.
Bruin