STEPHEN FRY

I have been reading Stephen’s book “The Ode Less Travelled”; I am a man changed overnight, unhappily not for the better. I confess I created AWOL verse. That I should have been so cursed is ironic given Stephen’s desire to awaken the poet in each of us. I did not set out to write bad poetry, and never knowingly took pen to paper without good intention; oh well too late now, it is born.

I present AWOL verse, a form carefully structured to leave one free to concentrate on the rhyme should one find oneself in the wrong place, at the wrong time for the wrong reason and one wishes to be AWOL–Absent WithOut Listening. It was born while having to listen to advice on how to avoid heart attacks, strokes and everyday stress at the same time sitting alongside asymptomatic carriers of said heart attacks, strokes and stress (my bosses) at the company health day in the Seagoe Hotel, Northern Ireland.

Of course “the wrong place” doesn’t have to be an hotel, it could be anywhere (there’s a lot of fun to be had at the Hotel Ritz).

AWOLs written in the Seagoe Hotel

I could have been
dancing toe to toe
saying hello
to Marilyn Monroe
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe

I could have been
a baseball pro
making big dough
“say it ain’t so Joe”
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe.

I could have been
Rocky Marciano
KO, KO, KO,
KO, KO, KO,
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe.

I could have been
Daniel Defoe
a long time ago
writing biblio
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe.

I could have been
Robinson Crusoe
walking to and fro
big toe in the eau
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe

I could have been
Marcel Marceau
driving a Renault
no papa only Nicole and Clio
but I want to be here
in the Seagoe.