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Monday 5 January 2009

Monday Poetry Train Revisited #9

Posted to Monday Poetry Train Revisited


ONLY THE GOOD CAN DIE YOUNG

She told him that she

didn’t want to grow old,

to die lonely and cold.

Don’t forget Toulouse-Lautrec,

Vincent Van Gogh

or Modiglianni !

He said, don’t think

that dieing is fun but

only the good can die young.

Morrison, Holly,

Bolan and Joplin,

Hendrix, musicians, Cobain.

You can’t escape death,

which way you try, but why

would you want to die first?

River Phoenix, silver screen

Marilyn Munroe,

Jean Harlow, James Dean.

He tells her that crying is

death without dieing,

so smile girl, don’t cry!

I don’t want to say

I told you, you’re already

too old to die young.

Unlike poets, Chatterton,

Shelley, Byron and Keats,

Dunbar and Plath.

They don’t know which way

to turn now, left ways or right

they’ll still be bereft.

Colman, Byrne, Pegg and Jones,

Taylor, Whelan, Bent and Edwards,

Busby Babes

Please may the sweet sweet

thoughts of ‘em all live on in

our memories please!

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22 comments:

  1. Oh, those memories certainly live on. Infact, dying young can be a guarantee of immortality. Think of the first of this icon-type - Christ.
    Loved this.

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  2. Dying early. Havent thought that dying had so many layers of thinking. Nice one

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  3. Hi Anthony, you're so right, I think that these people are immortalised by our memories, it's when people stop talking about them that we forget.

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  4. Thanks Jeeves, no man knows the hour or the day! May you have a long and happy life.

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  5. There was much crying in assembly at my girls' school in Sale after the Munich air disaster. This was a walk down memory lane - Buddy Holly, James Dean.

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  6. I know it's my very dark sense of humor, but this made me laugh:

    'I don’t want to say
    I told you, you’re already
    too old to die young.'

    Wonderful poem.

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  7. quite a few of those folks were suicides or self-destructs, and it's easy enough to attach some romance or meaning to their deaths - although suicide is never romantic to those left behind, and death is the end of meaning. You don't (and couldn't) mention the legion of nameless who die young because they just quit living - "he not busy being born," in the words of the troubadour.

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  8. Hi Carole, the Munich air disaster in which so many young Man United players 'The Busby Babes' lost their lives was a terrible tragedy and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash too.

    Thanks Julia, I'm too old to die young too!

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  9. Hi Richard, fair point, I tried to put in a good cross section of people including suicides and fatal illnesses through to road and air crashes. The point I was trying to make was that people of my generation are already too old to die young. Thanks for your informed comment.
    Andy

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  10. What struck me most was the opening lines "didn't want to grow old/die lonely and cold"...then thinking about a lot of the names in the piece, that they were suicides or ODs.

    Is early death a way to escape loneliness...and what makes us think that we'll be lonely when we're old, anyway?

    Your poem puts a lot out there to think about. I like it.

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  11. Hi Angie, thought provoking stuff, 'She told him that she didn't want to grow old, to die lonely and cold' these opening lines are a reference to The Wino's Bench which I've written about before and specifically a character called 'Old cold Irish Pete' you can clink-the-link in my sidebar to 'wino's bench'.
    As for the names remembered in this piece more than half of them died in air and road crashes. I don't think death is an escape from loneliness no matter what age you are. Phew!

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  12. HI STG,
    I thoroughly enjoyed the many references to artists, now gone, of many different disciplines. Creative and yes, I remember them. People like these are forever etched on the tablets of our minds.

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  13. I like the references to old as well contemporary artists. It kind of makes it very unique!

    And you are on my blogroll. Always have been. Now on the MPTR one too.

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  14. It is interesting how all of these people, by dying young, have become immortalized. Thank you for a very good read!

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  15. Thanks Gel, I think that's true as long as we remember them.

    Hi Gautami, thanks for linking me on MPTR...

    Hi Fledgling Poet, thank you for reading this too!

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  16. this stirs up some good thought here... lonely and old.. does everyone die alone? i'd like to think not..

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  17. Hi Floreta, good question. I'd like to think not too.

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  18. I'm holding off to die old - the provocative words and memories in this poem are superb and bring back a flood of 'times' and 'oh, no's' that mark each decade or so of life! Great job!

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  19. Hi Sue, Me too, I want to stick it out for as long as I can. Thanks for the wonderful comment!

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  20. I'm with Tumblewords... although it's too late for me to die young, anyway...

    thanks for stopping by my blog. :-)

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  21. Thanks Danika, looks like we're all in the same boat.

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  22. I like that...crying is like death wihtout dying.

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