Just that little nudge,
the everyday elbow
that sends you ever closer
to the final straw snapping
somewhere in the darkness.
Today I have a headache,
formed by the blood not flowing
properly and the neurons
firing at everything I am,
taking me downhill
like being ignored socially;
today I have a headache,
I keep rubbing my forehead,
almost violently, with the intention
to harm as my spine harms me,
my own payback
on the spite, my revenge
if you will,
1900 voices
in my head
saying nothing,
quiet
but not gentle, their silence
damning as they talk to each other,
whispering away,
laughing away
in the tranquillity of no noise,
no reached hand
to include, only
to ignore; these
1900 voices
in my head,
a pay for view
no attention
and I feel the turning away.
Ian D. Hall 2017
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Samantha Walton, Adam Nicholls, Niall Hogan, Warren Kettle, Megan Bond, Callum Forbes, Nick Sheedy.
Be careful who you let in, that knock at the door as you hide in safety in a sanctuary, huddled together with strangers as mysterious lights and deadly rays fill the sky; when the world experiences a phenomena it cannot explain, not only does life’s companion Death come to take you by the hand, but the nagging thought that the mischievous, malicious and malign could call round to join in the fireworks is very much a certainty.
The last day of anything
should be treated as though
it is a day for games, to emulate
the final day of term
in which the teacher, finally
acknowledging that she has exhausted
herself, gives up and lets the kids
run riot.
Parliament could play Buckeroo,
the appointed donkey
accounting for Government sins
as they try to explain
the difference
between a wheelchair, mental health,
a nurse’s salary and a nuclear bomb.
Athletic doping cheats,
at the moment of being banned
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Inspiration comes from anywhere, from the soul of ant creating a structure of tunnels so elaborate that it motivates the prisoner of war to dig through mounds of dirt and dust to escape his fate, through to the long worked on novel, a dedicated life’s work and shivered over as the worry of expectation over its prospects, and finding solace in the arms of a film maker wishing to take it on as his next blockbuster.
There are days I remember
how old I am
and all that has gone,
floated down stream
and now poisons the oceans,
I remember the punk
Eddie
waiting to jump Maggie
and take the self styled Iron
Lady down,
in picture form,
sometimes
those memories
are the ones that
make me smile the
most.
Ian D. Hall 2017
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Nick Sheedy, Michael Hawkins, Warren Kettle, Tom Silverton, Freddie Johnson, Adam Nicholls, Michael J. Treanor, Niall Hogan, Phil Bulman, Calen Griffin, Callum Forbes, Daniel Carmichael.
Straight up black comedy has the major issue of sometimes alienating those that dare take in a night of theatre; the unsuspecting audience not quite aware of what to expect, the references, the journey to a different place and one in which darkness prevails, the under culture of which many are drawn because it allows for a different kind of narrative to be explored.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The Long Vivid Dream opens up before the listener as if it were the prelude to an awakening, the moment where the mind is unawares of whether it is still in the hands of Morpheus or wit has somehow fallen for the charms of the dramatic day ahead, the crystal clear clarity that comes with the walk through Hell or the gamble of seeing Heaven. The Long Vivid Dream is such that its powerful feeling of melancholy is overwhelmingly familiar, especially to those that have held hands with the vision that their dream visits upon.
Their faces look down upon screens
as the 53 rattles to the touch
of two fingers of my right hand,
keeping tune with the song
rolling round my mind,
late night bus home, a few
stare my way and I allow the curl
of a semi smile to come to my aid,
lips spread wide and the fingers hit out
at the rhythm at hand,
it could be anything,
it might have been a local star
of beautiful seduction,
perhaps Thom Morecroft or dear sweet
People have weird dreams,
‘tis all I’m saying,
not making assumptions
but if my dreams are anything to go by,
that holiday home in the South
of France, sipping shelled grapes
and eating croissants for breakfast,
that expensive car, worth more
than the house they live in,
and still only capable of
listening to Classic F.M.
when the signal is weak;
they say, Living the dream,
I daren’t tell them mine,
having been seduced by glamour’s women
on my worn out sofa,
Hollywood starlet, fighting