Greg. Once again you illuminate my world. I only remembered him as a Playboy cartoonist. Powerful poetry leaves a lasting impression. Thanks for the great work. Billserle.com
My father liked Kipling too but this one he taught me...I sneezed a sneeze into the air...it fell to earth I know not where...but hard and cold were the looks of those...in the vicinity in which I snoze.
I liked Kipling, too. My girls and I would watch Gunga Din every summer. It was released in that fabulous year for movies, 1939. The violence was minimum despite the good battle scenes, there was a lot of humor, a lot of raucous male presence and competition with Cary Grant, Victor McLaglin, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., with Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din in the British Army in colonial India. Kipling (an actor) read the poem at the funeral of Gunga Din. Nominated for Academy Award for cinematography.
I never was into Shel Silverstein. I just wasn't. Perhaps way too urban, which probably makes no sense if you are totally urban.
My closest image for the end of the street is Wiley Coyote, always falling off cliffs with a definite look of consternation on his face. You could fill in the sound of him falling, the sound of inevitability. I associate that with Roadrunner; when I would travel a far piece, I always looked for a roadrunner to cross my path as a sign of good luck and good traveling. They usually did...my personal interaction with the physical world.
I've seen them with lizards and small snakes...they are an aggressive bird, for sure, and a skilled predator. This time of year with birds nesting and lots of eggs and chicks, I see crows and ravens going after the easy meal. I've also seen chicken snakes up in trees going after nests. Food is food. Mockingbirds and scissor-tail flycatchers are the only birds I've seen go after and attack the hawks, crows and ravens. Saw a mockingbird fight a five foot chicken snake up on a smaller limb coming after its nest, pecking it right on the head. The bird won that one.
Just a reminder that in the universe most all things in it are predatory - we all have to get energy from somewhere. Even plants fight for prime space for light and moisture.
I never really read his work. But after this, and Ro’s referencing him… ‘Sidewalk Ends, and Giving Tree are on my list.
Also interesting… songs you’ve listened to for AGES, and one day a singular line of the songs lyrics is piercingly vivid. Recently it was from the song, ‘Breathe.’
“Life’s like an hourglass glued to the table.”
Indeed.
Thank you for another great Sunday read… especially this second call out. We DO see where things are headed. It IS scary. And yet… we can only move forward.
“Or is it that children have retained their innocence, and innocence is required to know the way?”
“I see where this is headed. I see that it is scary. But I also recognize that, come what may, we must confront our fears head on, coolly and calmly, measured and slow.”
Thank you! That's a great image, the hourglass glued to the table. And all these people like Musk and Thiel want to do is figure out how to dislodge the thing from the glue.
I celebrate your intellect, the gifts that God bestowed upon you, and your messages that bring insight to all of us. I am certain that you bring ongoing joy to your mom with your achievements and love for her. Share with her our appreciation of you for all the gifts you share with us every day. Have a happy day with her.
my daughter was about 6 months old when this came out, and I was never very entranced with it myself, though my kids were when they started reading. Storytime from me involved books like "It's raining said John Twaining," a bunch of Danish nursery rhymes that are such fun to read aloud that one never tires of doing so--useful, for story time. Another like this, for prose, is The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber. Another verse one is "A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me." I recommend finding all for the grandkids (or great grands) in your life.
Not much to think about. But SUCH fun to read. For little kids, the importance of reading poems is the entrancement of SOUND, not so much the meaning.
I remember finding out I needed glasses. I was tall in 4th grade, though I maxed out at 5'2" until I started backing down to 5'1 a few years ago. But then, I sat in the back of the class. The teacher was doing something on the board--music notes, I think--and called on me. I had no clue what she was on about. I could see the board, but not what was on it.
The cover illustration for "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is much more ominous than the poem itself. The kid is one accidental slip or bump by the girl behind away from plunging into that abyss. Even the dog is scrambling to keep from falling to its death.
And that's where the sidewalk leads to: death. Why else would they want to take their time walking?
But do children intuit death? Is that why they are scared of the dark? Why they don't want to go to sleep, the daily rehearsal for death? I dunno, maybe.
Thanks for the background on Shel Silverstein, Greg. Playboy cartoons? I had no idea.
And will someone please explain to me David Mamet's going to the dark side?
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading these comments!
My dear 90 year old friend of 18 years never considered that she would die but live forever until very recently as time introduced her to organic withering. Today she is celebrating with her family.
Her Aunt died at 110 and her uncle is alive at 102.
These are interesting thoughts, Lincoln. Thanks for sharing. Fear is such a constant part of life, and I remember phases of childhood where I was afraid to sleep because I was having terrible nightmares. Nowadays. kids don't get scared at movies. Horror movies are much bigger than ever before. It's odd.
At last, some literary material that I’m actually familiar with! I have appreciated “Where The Sidewalk Ends,” and your in-depth analysis adds to my appreciation. As a music lover whose taste tends toward oldies, I always enjoy running across “A Boy Named Sue” and Sylvia’s Mother” among other Silverstein songs. I was a reader (really!) of Playboy way back then, and must have laughed at his cartoons. But, unfortunately, I can’t remember reading Shel Silverstein’s books to my son, who was 5 in 1974!
Thanks. I find the intersection of intuition with logic and wisdom a fascinating theme. Are they mutually exclusive or when used together a formidable weapon? I think the latter but only because gut instinct tells me so. In childhood instinct is constantly being informed by experience, this the essence of wisdom and logic. To me, choosing one over the other, a coin toss, 50/50. Combine them, maybe 51/49 or if your smart enough 67/33. No one gets it right all the time. Hmnn, the orange imbecile is the exception, he gets it wrong all the time.
Halo. Love the Stephen music. It’s music on a razor’s edge, perfect video…..inspiring to keep going……I know, it’s music for that break in reality. From one reality to the next. It makes the confusion all ok. It’s ok not to know wtf is going on and this odd man is stealing the children and we are looking right at this happening. Like those jump rope ditties….that become so familiar and have their roots deep in our subconscious that for everyday that’s a good day, there’s someone in a zoo swimming round and round the same pool of water. I think we should fill the bathtub with gold and let him lie in it. Gold and more gold. Cookies covered in gold. He messes with the Gulf, as they say, he knows not what he does…. Oh boy, he’s in for surprises. He may not drink…but his thirst is insatiable. I live the piece on Silverstein; he knows beyond words that nobody wants to hear anyway and they don’t listen to. Woodward said since he’s being sued, he will now say the diaper smells really really bad. He waited? How juvenile. It’s rare to find something who is an adult these days. Thanks for that. We can come here and it’s wonderful.
Greg. Once again you illuminate my world. I only remembered him as a Playboy cartoonist. Powerful poetry leaves a lasting impression. Thanks for the great work. Billserle.com
Thanks, Bill! I haven't seen much of his Playboy work, but what I've seen is very funny.
Love this Greg! Thank you.
Thanks, Helen!
Thanks for sharing this on Mother's Day. I love Shel Silverstein's poetry.
One of my favorite poems is "IF" by Rudyard Kipling https://poets.org/poem/if
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
My father liked Kipling too but this one he taught me...I sneezed a sneeze into the air...it fell to earth I know not where...but hard and cold were the looks of those...in the vicinity in which I snoze.
I liked Kipling, too. My girls and I would watch Gunga Din every summer. It was released in that fabulous year for movies, 1939. The violence was minimum despite the good battle scenes, there was a lot of humor, a lot of raucous male presence and competition with Cary Grant, Victor McLaglin, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., with Sam Jaffe as Gunga Din in the British Army in colonial India. Kipling (an actor) read the poem at the funeral of Gunga Din. Nominated for Academy Award for cinematography.
Ha! [achoo]
That's wonderful, Deepak. Thanks for sharing!
I never was into Shel Silverstein. I just wasn't. Perhaps way too urban, which probably makes no sense if you are totally urban.
My closest image for the end of the street is Wiley Coyote, always falling off cliffs with a definite look of consternation on his face. You could fill in the sound of him falling, the sound of inevitability. I associate that with Roadrunner; when I would travel a far piece, I always looked for a roadrunner to cross my path as a sign of good luck and good traveling. They usually did...my personal interaction with the physical world.
William,
I watch road runners kill and eat other birds on my patio.
Reminds me of a poster drawn by Alice Leona Briggs and worded by Charles Bowden (IMHO a most rhythmic poet).
"Killing is fun. Dying is the easy part."
I've never seen them do that.
I've seen them with lizards and small snakes...they are an aggressive bird, for sure, and a skilled predator. This time of year with birds nesting and lots of eggs and chicks, I see crows and ravens going after the easy meal. I've also seen chicken snakes up in trees going after nests. Food is food. Mockingbirds and scissor-tail flycatchers are the only birds I've seen go after and attack the hawks, crows and ravens. Saw a mockingbird fight a five foot chicken snake up on a smaller limb coming after its nest, pecking it right on the head. The bird won that one.
Just a reminder that in the universe most all things in it are predatory - we all have to get energy from somewhere. Even plants fight for prime space for light and moisture.
Few get to see what you posted above.
I suspect nature has a plan.
Unlike our current situation.
Oh wow, Cal. That's dark.
I like how Wiley Coyote didn't fall until he REALIZED he was out over the cliff. There's a metaphor there for our current moment, surely...
I never really read his work. But after this, and Ro’s referencing him… ‘Sidewalk Ends, and Giving Tree are on my list.
Also interesting… songs you’ve listened to for AGES, and one day a singular line of the songs lyrics is piercingly vivid. Recently it was from the song, ‘Breathe.’
“Life’s like an hourglass glued to the table.”
Indeed.
Thank you for another great Sunday read… especially this second call out. We DO see where things are headed. It IS scary. And yet… we can only move forward.
“Or is it that children have retained their innocence, and innocence is required to know the way?”
“I see where this is headed. I see that it is scary. But I also recognize that, come what may, we must confront our fears head on, coolly and calmly, measured and slow.”
Thank you! That's a great image, the hourglass glued to the table. And all these people like Musk and Thiel want to do is figure out how to dislodge the thing from the glue.
🎯
I celebrate your intellect, the gifts that God bestowed upon you, and your messages that bring insight to all of us. I am certain that you bring ongoing joy to your mom with your achievements and love for her. Share with her our appreciation of you for all the gifts you share with us every day. Have a happy day with her.
Thanks so much, Beverly!
my daughter was about 6 months old when this came out, and I was never very entranced with it myself, though my kids were when they started reading. Storytime from me involved books like "It's raining said John Twaining," a bunch of Danish nursery rhymes that are such fun to read aloud that one never tires of doing so--useful, for story time. Another like this, for prose, is The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber. Another verse one is "A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me." I recommend finding all for the grandkids (or great grands) in your life.
From John Twaining:
.
Two cats were sitting in a tree
kritte vitte vit bom bom
a cat called Lew.
a cat called Lee
kritte vitte fit bom bom
Now follow me said Lew to Lee
kritte vitte vitte vitte vit bom bom,
for I no longer like this tree
kritte vitte vit bom bom!
.
( I pronounce it kritta and vitta)
To find out what happens next (you can guess if you have a cat) you can read it if you have an account at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/itsraining0000unse/page/n39/mode/2up
Not much to think about. But SUCH fun to read. For little kids, the importance of reading poems is the entrancement of SOUND, not so much the meaning.
I remember finding out I needed glasses. I was tall in 4th grade, though I maxed out at 5'2" until I started backing down to 5'1 a few years ago. But then, I sat in the back of the class. The teacher was doing something on the board--music notes, I think--and called on me. I had no clue what she was on about. I could see the board, but not what was on it.
The moment of realization...it was a sad day for me.
I love the cat poem! It reminds me of a song we used to sing in elementary school: Senior Don Gato.
Well Senior Delgato was a cat
On a high red roof Dongato sat
He was there to read a letter [meow meow meow]
Where the reading light was better [meow meow meow]
Twas a love note for Don Gato.
Thank you for a wonderful sharing of wisdom on Sunday.
Thank you, Lois!
The cover illustration for "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is much more ominous than the poem itself. The kid is one accidental slip or bump by the girl behind away from plunging into that abyss. Even the dog is scrambling to keep from falling to its death.
And that's where the sidewalk leads to: death. Why else would they want to take their time walking?
But do children intuit death? Is that why they are scared of the dark? Why they don't want to go to sleep, the daily rehearsal for death? I dunno, maybe.
Thanks for the background on Shel Silverstein, Greg. Playboy cartoons? I had no idea.
And will someone please explain to me David Mamet's going to the dark side?
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading these comments!
My dear 90 year old friend of 18 years never considered that she would die but live forever until very recently as time introduced her to organic withering. Today she is celebrating with her family.
Her Aunt died at 110 and her uncle is alive at 102.
These are interesting thoughts, Lincoln. Thanks for sharing. Fear is such a constant part of life, and I remember phases of childhood where I was afraid to sleep because I was having terrible nightmares. Nowadays. kids don't get scared at movies. Horror movies are much bigger than ever before. It's odd.
I collected Shel many years ago and gave to my grand kids. And now for my great grandkids.
I subscribe to Outlaw Poetry .
At last, some literary material that I’m actually familiar with! I have appreciated “Where The Sidewalk Ends,” and your in-depth analysis adds to my appreciation. As a music lover whose taste tends toward oldies, I always enjoy running across “A Boy Named Sue” and Sylvia’s Mother” among other Silverstein songs. I was a reader (really!) of Playboy way back then, and must have laughed at his cartoons. But, unfortunately, I can’t remember reading Shel Silverstein’s books to my son, who was 5 in 1974!
He really was a Renaissance man. I had no idea!
I have both books for my kids. There is magic in his writing. I will revisit them. That photo of him also scares my kids. 👀lol
I can't tell you how much I laughed when I read those pages and saw that picture the first time. The Wimpy Kid books are very very funny.
Thanks. I find the intersection of intuition with logic and wisdom a fascinating theme. Are they mutually exclusive or when used together a formidable weapon? I think the latter but only because gut instinct tells me so. In childhood instinct is constantly being informed by experience, this the essence of wisdom and logic. To me, choosing one over the other, a coin toss, 50/50. Combine them, maybe 51/49 or if your smart enough 67/33. No one gets it right all the time. Hmnn, the orange imbecile is the exception, he gets it wrong all the time.
Maybe the whole point of life is to find the proper balance? Orange One is all id, no logic.
I'd as in idiot?
Damn autocorrect id
Posted to LinkedIn--both the Stephen Miller cartoon with flying elbows, and the wonderful essay. I enjoyed the visit with Rosanna Arquette too!
Thanks, Beverly! The book she read was great.
Yes, indeed!
Halo. Love the Stephen music. It’s music on a razor’s edge, perfect video…..inspiring to keep going……I know, it’s music for that break in reality. From one reality to the next. It makes the confusion all ok. It’s ok not to know wtf is going on and this odd man is stealing the children and we are looking right at this happening. Like those jump rope ditties….that become so familiar and have their roots deep in our subconscious that for everyday that’s a good day, there’s someone in a zoo swimming round and round the same pool of water. I think we should fill the bathtub with gold and let him lie in it. Gold and more gold. Cookies covered in gold. He messes with the Gulf, as they say, he knows not what he does…. Oh boy, he’s in for surprises. He may not drink…but his thirst is insatiable. I live the piece on Silverstein; he knows beyond words that nobody wants to hear anyway and they don’t listen to. Woodward said since he’s being sued, he will now say the diaper smells really really bad. He waited? How juvenile. It’s rare to find something who is an adult these days. Thanks for that. We can come here and it’s wonderful.
Thanks, Jackie. We have become an unserious country of unserious people. I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but I blame reality TV...