the blue aeroplanes built a career on spoken-word poetic music. typical examples include:
journal of an airman (w h auden)
I.
three signs of an airman:
practical jokes
nervousness before taking off
rapid healing after injury
three kinds of enemy walk:
the grandious stunt
the melancholic stagger
the paranoic sidle
three kinds of enemy bearing:
the condor's stoop
the toad's stupor
the robin's stance
three kinds of enemy face:
the ****** hen
the favorite puss
the stone-in-the-rain
three terms of enemy speech:
I mean
quite frankly
speaking as a scientist etcetera
three enemy questions:
am I boring you?
could you tell me the time?
are you sure you're fit enough?
three results of an enemy victory:
impotence
cancer
paralysis
three counterattacks
complete mastery of the air
lastly but ten it's moving again
lastly but nine I forgot the sign
lastly but eight it's getting late
lastly but seven why aren't there eleven?
lastly but six I dont like its ...tricks
the maid is just dribbling tea
and I shall not be disturbed until supper
I shall be quite alone in this room
free to think of you if I choose
and believe me dear I do choose
for a long time now I've been aware
that you are taking up more of my life every day
but I'm always being surprised
to find how far this has gone
it's getting late
and I have to be up at times(?) in the morning
you're so quiet these days that I get quite nervous.
remove the dressing:
no, I'm safe, you're still there.
the wireless this evening says that the frost is coming
and when it does we know what to expect, don't we?
but I'm calm, I can wait.
the surgeon was dead right:
nothing will ever part us.
goodnight and god bless you my dear.
better burn this.
lastly but five oh god it's alive
lastly but four I can't live any more
lastly but three now it's looking at me
lastly but two what shall I do?
lastly but one I think I'll run
lastly of all it's here and I fall(?)
August the 23rd, 3pm:
we are lost.
a cart has just passed carrying the plaster eagle
the enemy are going to attack.
G.H.Q. commands:
1. that the attack take place on August 28th
first penetration of the hostile position 7:10am
2. a fake landing by pleasure--paddle-steamers
near the bathing-machines on beach 5
3. a main frontal attack:
divisions to be concentrated in the Shenley(?)
brickfields and moved forward to the battle-zone in
bakers' vans disguished as nuns
First day of mobilization:
at the prearranged zero hour
the widow bent into a hoop with arthritis
gives the signal for attack
by unbending on the steps of St. Philips
Fifth day:
pressure of ice, falling fire (???)
the last snarl of families beneath the toppling column
biting at wounds as the sutures tear (?)
Twenty-fourth:
four days.
what's the use of counting them now?
ah, what have I written?!
thoughts suitable to a sanitorium!
three days to break a lifetime's pride
Twenty-eighth:
3.40 am
pulse and reflexes: normal
barametric reading: 30.6
mean temperature: 30 F
fair
some cumulus cloud at 10,000 ft.
wind: easterly and moderate
hands: in perfect order
W.H.Auden and Gerard Langley
the applicant (sylvia plath)
First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something's missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice you are stark naked.
How about this suit----
Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they'll bury you in it.
Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that ?
Naked as paper to start
But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,
In fifty, gold.
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk , talk.
It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it's a poultice.
You have an eye, it's an image.
My boy, it's your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
links are nigh on impossible to find. i'm afraid, but most of the aeroplane's glorious catalogue is streamable on spotify.com
then there's cat stevens
morning has broken (eleanor farjeon)