"A Valentine At Waterloo" - Meet us in Soho in 2058

now available on my soundcloud just click here

UPDATE: September 2nd 2011

We got 'Pick Of The Week' BBC R4 - Ian McMillan reviews 'A Valentine at Waterloo' and gave 'Verse Illustrated' a big thumbs up!

Found the link, Ian plays clip at about 5 mins in... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qpdd

A VALENTINE AT WATERLOO on VERSE ILLUSTRATED

Listen: Wednesday, 23:00 on BBC RADIO 4 & Podcast FREE thereafter

In the third of the new series of illustrated poems, get in your time machines and set your GPS Sat Nav for Sohemia, The French House on the Old Compton Street River in 2058.

'A Valentine at Waterloo' written and performed by Salena Godden
An Orwellian post-apocalyptic vision of our sexual and hedonist future:

"The best show in England-Town, they have real flying femen, ladybirds and buttflies, cock-a-tails and flickbeans, hermaids and mermaids, 8-breasted gooligans, whippers, flippers and strippers-to-go-go, the finest black market moon juice in the whole of downtown Soho..."

Then you'll be transported presently and safely back to 2011 with 'A Hell of a Week' written and performed by the wonderful Scroobius Pip. This should be 'one of the biggest solo spoken word shows ever to be recorded', exclusively for Radio 4. But where exactly is Scroobius Pip...?

Actors: Carl Prekopp, Peter Polycarpou and Jonathan Forbes.

Directed by James Robinson.

website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013fj5t

podcast link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/vi

scroobius pip: http://scroobiuspip.co.uk/

salena godden: www.thebookclubboutique.com

MAE WEST: Come up and see me sometime...

MAE WEST: 

“If you can’t go straight, you’ve got to go around”

She was a fast moving woman

who liked to take it slow,

it was not the men in her life

but the life in her men.

When she landed in London

they asked Ms West “How do you like Big Ben?”

She said she was disappointed

he was just a clock.

Her problem was never how much sex she had

but how much she could get away with -

submitting hot scripts loaded with lines she knew would be cut

she’d save the real script until shooting or first night and then

watch the studio managers, theatre bosses go white with fear

but change their minds quick when the queues grew and tickets sold out.

She was the first woman to dance the shimmy live on stage

a provocative move she picked up in late night clubs, speakeasys and ghettos

cohorting with poor white trash and coloured folk.

And when Duke or Louis played - they really played

she wouldn’t allow Hollywood bosses to pay white guys to mime

their tunes to camera.

Her lifes work was a revolt against censorship

whipping up a frenzy in red neck bible belts

challenging moralising bigots.

She wrote scandalous scripts

a black man kissing a white woman

and also a gay kiss.

She spent her life on the road and touring

whilst writing plays, books and live shows,

She was born in the 1890’s

and didn’t get to the silver screen and Hollywood

or become a real household name

until she was over 40 years old.

She once booked a cast of down and out homeless bums

she gave them shelter and paid work

whilst creating an authentic Harlem ghetto on stage

and it was a sell-out show.

She dated fit boxers and sportsmen,

perhaps because they could keep up with her stamina.

She had a voracious sexual appetite

fuelling gossip she must be hermaphrodite

but she was one hundred per cent woman.

She enjoyed sex, 

but like an athlete in training

she abstained when she was working.

She believed in sexual freedom

but never screamed off the rooftops

rather whispered to one man at a time.

And goodness has nothing to do with it,

there are no good girls gone wrong

just bad girls found out.

She reduced Cary Grant to a whimper,

when her male co-star reached to hold her hand

she said through smoldering eyes

“It aint heavy I can carry it for myself.”

They used to call me Saliva

as in spit

the stuff you use to polish a thing

when you are all out of elbow grease,

Well, whoever said

there is a book inside everybody

was inside a body

at the time.

So,

peel me a grape

you can be had

The only difference

between you and me, honey

is you can afford to give it away.

Throw discretion to the wind

and your hips to the north,

south, east and west.

There’s not a dry seat in the house

for the legendary

Mae West.

© 2011. Salena Godden.

Poem first published: 

Issue 23 / THE ILLUSTRATED APE MAGAZINE: www.theillustratedape.com

 

MAE WEST: 'I'M NO ANGEL" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVrfHXnUJFc

LONDON RIOTS

 "If you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the consequences."
said Cameron returning from holiday to speak for the first time on the London riots today. 






London Riots

i didn't want to open my curtains this morning
to see black smoke and a charred city
broken glass and blood-stained pavements
burned-out buses and bins
to hear helicopters like wasps this August.

i didn't want to open my lap top this morning
to read misinformation and ill-informed twats,
fear spread thick like soft butter on burnt toast
ignorance the sticky bitter marmalade on top.

I didn't want to open newspapers this morning
revealing pictures of a war-zone that I call my London,
the stupidity of violence and the daily hate.

I didn't want to open my attachments this morning
to see such vile footage -
a victim being robbed, whilst bleeding on the road
they pretended to help him, whilst going through his backpack
appauling.

But, I did want to open my eyes to see
that London spirit rising this morning,
some gallows humour
but a sense of mucking in
communities gathering.

I hope these events open a forum for honest debate
I do believe that truth will out.

And we all know that the real criminality is ongoing
in the bad neighbourhood's
of Downing Street and Parliament
and the buck stops there.

It took less than 8hrs for the general public to organise a clean-up operation,
Yet it took 4 days for the Prime Minister of this country to utter one word.
The emergency teams, fire brigade, ambulance, these are our heroes.
The Turkish shopkeepers protecting Dalston...brilliant.

And if this was a movie something really good happens next:
a celestial ray of light,
a moment of still clarity,
the cogs of change turn,
from the dark one voice of reason..

Don't feed fear and spread ignorance.
Peace is the way and the solution.
We lead by shining example,
Spread the word,
the word is love

and i love London


(c) Salena Godden. 2011.



Some positivity / helpful links:

http://www.riotcleanup.com/ - http://catchalooter.tumblr.com/ - http://londonrioters.co.uk/ #riotcleanup #riotwombles

If you're disabled & close to riot areas pls use #disabledriothelp for emotional support from other tweeps

You can help!#riotcleanup #londonriots
by donating bedding / clothes to Apex House, 820 Seven Sisters Road, London N15 5PQ.

http://www.londononline.co.uk/local/Communications_and_Networking/Helplines/