July 31, 2005

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  Terry Cuthbert
  Lord Pineapple
  a poet and a man,
  sour at times and often as
  much sweet
  given the gift of
  second sight and love
  for his fellow man
  Took the last bus 7 AM BST. 31 July , 2005
  I raise a pint in your honor
   

  
  

   

  
  

  Three poems by Jacques du Lumerie.

  
  

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  And in the distant sandscape
  There was a name,
  A name without a owner,
  A name whose bearer had died
  In this terrible war.

  
  

  
  You could see the name
  Writing itself upon the sands
  As if it were a ghost
  Who wanted us to remember.

  
  

  
  What could we do for it?
  How could we help such a sad name?
  After all, we all had our own,
  Given to us on reaching this earth.

  
  

  
  No we could do nothing
  As on the edge of the sea,
  The name wrote itself tirelessly
  Upon the sand, even as the sea
  Washed over it, or it dried
  In the never-ending sun
  That had taken over the day
  And the night too.

  
  

  
  We could only follow it's path
  And feel it's lonely letters
  As they marked themselves
  On the grave of us all.
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  And they thought you were slumming it!
  It only goes to show how big ideas
  Can turn to dust.

  
  

  
  And ashes and dust.

  
  

  
  As quickly as clouds turn to water
  Or the sea covers up
  Your silent bones.

  
  

   

  
  

  Jacques du Lumerie was one of many "personas" under which Terry Cuthbert wrote. The final poem in his blog, "More Than Just Crabs" is a reprint of a 2001 poem by Jacques de Lumiere, a persona about which Terry wrote: "I am drawn to this personality as of course it mirrors mine with its lost and loneliness, and dying. These are the sort of poems that will make me a "genius" if I am able to fool others that I was. I could of course publish these in my own name, changemy personality to this, which sometimes speak more truth than all of the facts of Lord Pineapple that I could ever give out."  In the notes for "Striking Twelve" Terry wrote: "This is a recent poem, wrote in 2001, and given to my alias "Jacques du Lumerie". The "Nana" was based on both of my grandmothers, Grandmother Hill had a loud Grandfather clock that did strike midnight, keeping me awake as a child. Grandmother Cuthbert, who died when I was seven, left few memories on my mind, but one was when I fell over and cut myself and she said she'll make it all "tickety-boo", as I saw "boo" as a ghostly word I was not sure at first, but for a long time afterwards, those were my favourite words!"

  
  

   

  
  

  "Striking Twelve."
  Posted July 24, 2005 by Terry Cuthbert
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  As a child in his grandmother's house
  He could never fall asleep
  Until her great grandfather clock
  Had struck midnight,
  Its booms echoing in his ears.

  
  

  
  Now he had to try to sleep with a new booming in his ears;
  The sound of gunfire and granades striking noon
  To his fear.

  
  

  
  "Take me back to the old clock!" he sobbed in half-sleep
  On this last day of his very young life.

  
  

  
  He died with the clock still on his mind,
  But this time there was no Nana to hear his screams,
  To put her arms around him to make
  Everything "tickety-boo".
   
  ---
  Jacques du Lumerie

  
  

   

  
  

  The link for the poems and quote are from this section of Terry's website, Clown from Clowne.

  
  

  EDIT: 12:50 p.m. On Terry's website he mentions that the original J.du L. poems were actually written in French, but I could not find any examples. MFN EDIT: 08/01/05 4:56 a.m. The photo of the magazine was obtained from Terry's Webshots Gallery.

  • 3:09 pm
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