Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Mar 5, 2010 13:52:22 GMT
A Tribute In Motion: A Poetry Tribute To Jim Morrison
Shakespeare and Co, Notre Dame, Paris Monday July 4th 2005.
‘Is this a Snail I see before me?’ by Alex Patton from Stockton, England
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!
But on 4th July I learned that was not exactly true as I managed to do TWO brand new things and I was rather surprised at both of them.
I sat in a restaurant and ate SNAILS and bloody well enjoyed them as they tasted great and secondly I stood in a room full of people and read poetry.
And I enjoyed that too.
When Nick Jackson first came up with this idea on my message forum I thought it an incredibly cool idea and hoped it would be a resounding success but as Nick was unable to make Paris and it had seemed to go off the boil a bit I was not expecting miracles when I wandered over to Notre Dame in a Taxi Chain that afternoon with Cruisey and his fellow Scallies from Liverpool, Rick, Adam, Darryl, Kat and Tina along with our trusty translator The Bad Cowboy.
First time I ever seen Notre Dame and its quite nice but as I do not go to Paris to sight see it was quickly forgotten for far more important matters …..finding the bookshop….which was duly found as its just off the main road and had a big banner out side that said ‘Shakespeare and Co’…….
I have to be honest as I was feeling the pangs of cold feet as I got out the taxi as I am a bit shy with stuff like this and had never read in front of people in my life except for the few times at school 35 years ago when some arce masquerading as a teacher forced us pupils to stand up and read from Lorna Doone or Beau Geste while people made farting noises with the back of their hand and those few pages were an ordeal that seemed to last for an age.
I was not expecting farting noises to be perfectly honest but was beginning to chicken out and did actually say to Rick…‘I dunno if I can be arced to do this’…..so it did not look good on the Patton participation front as we wandered into the bookshop.
Bloody odd place but very cool as it mixes a bookstore with a hostel and you can apparently stay there free if you read a book a day…..be nice if the Hilton or the Marriot adopted that policy…..anyway I digress.
I was informed we were in a room upstairs and that Stuart Henderson who was Nicks number two and had helped organise the venue was sitting nervously in a chair waiting for us to turn up so the event could get underway.
So acknowledging the urgency and the importance of hurrying I went and had a pint next door with Rick and the Scallies…..
Eventually we made our way up the steep stairway and were confronted with a pokey little room lined with wall to wall books. My first thought was ‘bloody hell what a crap hole’ but then my brain kicked in a bit and I realised what an absolutely perfect place it was to remember Jim. Darryl Read was just kicking off proceedings when we wandered in and people sat crowded into this small reading room lining the book encrusted walls and fighting for space on the floor in front of the table where the readings were taking place.
I suddenly found myself at the table with Rick and was not that keen to be there….and then something odd happened….
Rick decided to go for it and read some of his own poetry and I sat down behind him at the window overlooking the back of the bookshop……Rick was really confident and his performance galvanised me into action. I spent enough time compiling this so why not bloody read it.
I said to hell with it and after Rick had finished stood up and read my five sheets of Jim Morrison poetry I had compiled in an effort to encapsulate the mans life.
Of course the stuff I chose was not remotely written the way I was interpreting it but its what it meant to me as I was the one doing the reading. I was amazed to see that I did a half decent job and was also amazed to see that my audience appreciated it.
I could not help thinking that Ray Manzarek would have been at home here tinkling his ivories to Jim and the other poets words….now THAT would have been something both strange and special!
Next up we saw Iain Boyack from Dundee read a very dramatic Soft Parade from The American Night and then it took off as Eressie Mornie from Sweden read her own poems, Jochen Tittmar from Germany read some of Jim’s including ‘Why Do I Drink’ from Wilderness, a nice young lad also called Alex stood up and read Horse Latitudes also from The American Night. Our Dutch friend Hermine Phielix read Darryl's rather poignant poem 'A Lonely Way To Die' and our host Stuart Henderson read some of his own work and some of Jim’s. Darryl Read did an encore with some of his stuff from his ‘Set’ poetry book including my request from earlier in the bar ‘Lost Poets Land’ which I love!
It was great to see the way the guys overcame their shyness and got stuck into paying such a poignant little tribute to a great poetic artist.
I was even so into it I read a further two pages from New Creatures.
So as we all filed out for a bite to eat I think all were happy to have attended what for me was the finest tribute to Jim in Paris I have ever heard or for that matter heard of.
We did not pack out the Zenith or present some new Doors product to a couple of thousand people, we were not selling T Shirts or trying to flog a gig.
All we did was a couple of dozen of us crowded into a pokey little room at the top floor of a musty old bookshop and read Jim’s words aloud and listened to others pay tribute with Jim’s words and the words Jim had inspired them to write.
A tribute by the fans to say ‘thank you’ for all the words and the music have meant to us young and old over the years and the decades.
Rest in peace dude….The Doors sold you out years ago but the fans that came to Paris whether it was in the bars, the cemetery, the alleyway outside the bar or the poetry reading damn well did you proud. AP.
Shakespeare and Co, Notre Dame, Paris Monday July 4th 2005.
‘Is this a Snail I see before me?’ by Alex Patton from Stockton, England
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!
But on 4th July I learned that was not exactly true as I managed to do TWO brand new things and I was rather surprised at both of them.
I sat in a restaurant and ate SNAILS and bloody well enjoyed them as they tasted great and secondly I stood in a room full of people and read poetry.
And I enjoyed that too.
When Nick Jackson first came up with this idea on my message forum I thought it an incredibly cool idea and hoped it would be a resounding success but as Nick was unable to make Paris and it had seemed to go off the boil a bit I was not expecting miracles when I wandered over to Notre Dame in a Taxi Chain that afternoon with Cruisey and his fellow Scallies from Liverpool, Rick, Adam, Darryl, Kat and Tina along with our trusty translator The Bad Cowboy.
First time I ever seen Notre Dame and its quite nice but as I do not go to Paris to sight see it was quickly forgotten for far more important matters …..finding the bookshop….which was duly found as its just off the main road and had a big banner out side that said ‘Shakespeare and Co’…….
I have to be honest as I was feeling the pangs of cold feet as I got out the taxi as I am a bit shy with stuff like this and had never read in front of people in my life except for the few times at school 35 years ago when some arce masquerading as a teacher forced us pupils to stand up and read from Lorna Doone or Beau Geste while people made farting noises with the back of their hand and those few pages were an ordeal that seemed to last for an age.
I was not expecting farting noises to be perfectly honest but was beginning to chicken out and did actually say to Rick…‘I dunno if I can be arced to do this’…..so it did not look good on the Patton participation front as we wandered into the bookshop.
Bloody odd place but very cool as it mixes a bookstore with a hostel and you can apparently stay there free if you read a book a day…..be nice if the Hilton or the Marriot adopted that policy…..anyway I digress.
I was informed we were in a room upstairs and that Stuart Henderson who was Nicks number two and had helped organise the venue was sitting nervously in a chair waiting for us to turn up so the event could get underway.
So acknowledging the urgency and the importance of hurrying I went and had a pint next door with Rick and the Scallies…..
Eventually we made our way up the steep stairway and were confronted with a pokey little room lined with wall to wall books. My first thought was ‘bloody hell what a crap hole’ but then my brain kicked in a bit and I realised what an absolutely perfect place it was to remember Jim. Darryl Read was just kicking off proceedings when we wandered in and people sat crowded into this small reading room lining the book encrusted walls and fighting for space on the floor in front of the table where the readings were taking place.
I suddenly found myself at the table with Rick and was not that keen to be there….and then something odd happened….
Rick decided to go for it and read some of his own poetry and I sat down behind him at the window overlooking the back of the bookshop……Rick was really confident and his performance galvanised me into action. I spent enough time compiling this so why not bloody read it.
I said to hell with it and after Rick had finished stood up and read my five sheets of Jim Morrison poetry I had compiled in an effort to encapsulate the mans life.
Of course the stuff I chose was not remotely written the way I was interpreting it but its what it meant to me as I was the one doing the reading. I was amazed to see that I did a half decent job and was also amazed to see that my audience appreciated it.
I could not help thinking that Ray Manzarek would have been at home here tinkling his ivories to Jim and the other poets words….now THAT would have been something both strange and special!
Next up we saw Iain Boyack from Dundee read a very dramatic Soft Parade from The American Night and then it took off as Eressie Mornie from Sweden read her own poems, Jochen Tittmar from Germany read some of Jim’s including ‘Why Do I Drink’ from Wilderness, a nice young lad also called Alex stood up and read Horse Latitudes also from The American Night. Our Dutch friend Hermine Phielix read Darryl's rather poignant poem 'A Lonely Way To Die' and our host Stuart Henderson read some of his own work and some of Jim’s. Darryl Read did an encore with some of his stuff from his ‘Set’ poetry book including my request from earlier in the bar ‘Lost Poets Land’ which I love!
It was great to see the way the guys overcame their shyness and got stuck into paying such a poignant little tribute to a great poetic artist.
I was even so into it I read a further two pages from New Creatures.
So as we all filed out for a bite to eat I think all were happy to have attended what for me was the finest tribute to Jim in Paris I have ever heard or for that matter heard of.
We did not pack out the Zenith or present some new Doors product to a couple of thousand people, we were not selling T Shirts or trying to flog a gig.
All we did was a couple of dozen of us crowded into a pokey little room at the top floor of a musty old bookshop and read Jim’s words aloud and listened to others pay tribute with Jim’s words and the words Jim had inspired them to write.
A tribute by the fans to say ‘thank you’ for all the words and the music have meant to us young and old over the years and the decades.
Rest in peace dude….The Doors sold you out years ago but the fans that came to Paris whether it was in the bars, the cemetery, the alleyway outside the bar or the poetry reading damn well did you proud. AP.