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Wednesday 30 September 2020

ALL HAIL #6 - STEPHEN J. CANNELL

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!)  


All hail Stephen J. Cannell
05.02.1941 - 30.09.2010



Tuesday 29 September 2020

ALL HAIL #5 - JERRY LEE LEWIS

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.

This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!)  

All hail Jerry Lee Lewis
29.09.1935 - Current



Monday 28 September 2020

ALL HAIL #4 - HARPO MARX

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!)  


All hail Arthur 'Harpo' Marx

23.11.1888 - 28.09.1964



 

Sunday 27 September 2020

ALL HAIL # 3 - WILLIAM CONRAD

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!)  


All hail William Conrad

27.09.1920 - 11.02.1994 




Saturday 26 September 2020

ALL HAIL #2 - MARTY ROBBINS

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!)  


All hail Marty Robbins.

26.09.1925 - 08.12.1982




Friday 25 September 2020

ALL HAIL #1 - RONNIE BARKER

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.

This is a gallery series of people who have a connection to the date of the post.


All hail Ronnie Barker.

25.09.1929 - 03.10.2005






Thursday 24 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #50 (AND FINAL) - MAKING THE EFFORT

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


MAKING THE EFFORT

 

No road 

Too long to walk,

No river 

Too wide to swim,

No mountain 

Too high to climb,

No building 

Too tall to abseil,

No rapids

Too rough to ride,

No bungee

Too scary to jump,

No slopes

Too snowy to ski

-       That’s how much you mean to me.

But, to be honest, I’m knackered.





Wednesday 23 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #49 - STRINGS

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


STRINGS

 

I fell for a girl 

Called Mandy Lynn

And thought 

We were perfectly matched,

But soon she had me 

Under her thumb,

A lover with strings attached.




Tuesday 22 September 2020

CONTACT

 Contact me for all positive comments and legitimate writing commission requests.


JOECUSHNAN@AOL@COM

THE SMILE POEMS #48 - MONSIEUR BLUSHES

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


MONSIEUR BLUSHES

There was an homme from France
who went to the Palais de Dance,
he twisted a trifle
and gave them an eyeful
as the seams came apart in his pants.




Monday 21 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #47 - IN THE BRINY, VALENTINY SEA

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


IN THE BRINY, VALENTINY SEA

 

Even underneath the sea,

Creatures love to play

And indulge in a little wooing

On St Valentine’s Day. 

 

I think I’ve got this right,

As far as I understand,

An octopus’s favourite song

Is “I want to hold your 

Hand, hand, hand, hand, 

Hand, hand, hand, hand.






Sunday 20 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #46 - CODED LOVE SONGS

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


CODED LOVE SONGS

 

Ob la di ob la da,

Shang a lang,

A wop bop a loo bop a wop bam boom,

Scaramouche, Scaramouche,

Be bop a lula,

De do do do, de da, da da,

Do wah diddy diddy,

Coo ca choo,

Sha la la la lee,

Da do run run.

 

Can I be any clearer, my darling?





 


Saturday 19 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #45 - DING DONG DUNG

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


DING DONG DUNG

 

This farmer’s daughter was swayed and wooed

And said yes to a proposal of marriage.

Came the day of the wedding

And off she was whisked in a carriage.

 

As the groom was waiting at the altar rail, 

There came a whiff from the door, 

As the bride approached, the smell got stronger,

An aroma you couldn’t ignore.

 

Said the groom to the bride: “Is that manure on your head?”,

Just as the bells were rung,

“Why yes,” said the farmer’s daughter,

 “I’ve just had my hair dung.”








Friday 18 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #44 - EASILY LEAD

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


EASILY LEAD

 

A pencil with a cold

And a stuffed up nose

Was in love and knew 

What he had to do.

 

He approached a sheet of paper

And without much ballyhoo 

Said: “You know me, 

I dot my 'i's on you.”





Thursday 17 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #43 - WE GO TOGETHER (A ROMANTIC RAP, SORTA)

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


WE GO TOGETHER.....

We go together

Like crackers and cheese,

Like thank you and please,

Like skip and rope,

Like water and soap,

Like moon and stars,

Like jams and jars,

Like Morecambe and Wise,

Like pork and pies

Like seek and hide,

Like Bonnie and Clyde,

Like comb and hair,

Like table and chair,

Like Ant and Dec,

Like Fiona and Shrek,

Like peas and pod,

Like hook and rod, 

Like bread and butter.

Like mumble and mutter,

Like Minnie and Mickey,

Like glue and sticky,

Like Adam and Eve,

Like ho and heave,

Like Batman and Robin,

Like thread and bobbin,

Like Homer and Marge,

Like canal and barge,

Like Barbie and Ken,

Like cluck and hen,

Like Jack and Jill,

Like Ben and Bill,

Like Hansel and Gretel,

Like flower and petal,

Like Tom and Jerry,

Like Christmas and merry, 

Like bacon and eggs,

Like stockings and legs,

Like Black and Decker,

Like wood and pecker,

Like bow and arrow,

Like wheel and barrow,

Like click and clack,

Like train and track,

Like fish and chips,

Like walnuts and whips,

Like Watson and Holmes,

Like barbers and combs,

Like Wooster and Jeeves,

Like autumn and leaves,

Like finish and start

(And, I do apologise),

Like beans and fart.










Wednesday 16 September 2020

THE SMILE POEMS #42 - MOANING LISA

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


MOANING LISA

It isn't easy,

It isn't cinchy

To copy the works

of Leonardo da Vinci.




Tuesday 15 September 2020

PRESENTING WRITER DAMIEN DONNELLY - TASTING THE COLOUR OF LIFE

 I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, Black Bough, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote books on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of film star Stephen Boyd.


This is a series of (hopefully) funny poems from hundreds I've written over the years (inspired by the likes of Spike Milligan and Roger McGough) to provoke a smile in these odd times.

My own original Text ©2020 Joe Cushnan (But you can RT!) 


I am delighted to present a guest post by exemplary writer/poet Damien Donnelly.











         

I’ve returned to my beginnings not only older, occasionally wiser and sometimes wider- depending on the cake baked that week, but more importantly holding dreams I never thought I’d be able to clutch onto, let alone turn into reality. ‘Eat the Storms, Mother said’, is a line from the poem Scarlet Rising, from my debut collection and it has taken a long time to understand that concept. To embrace all, the light and the dark, the glorious colour and the shades of shadow the surround them, while turning through the spirals of tales and time.

         I grew up in Dublin, Ireland and began writing at an early age, finding the pen and the page the perfect way to deal with growing and turning and twisting through a body I had no idea how to control but fashion design turned out to be the winner in terms of focusing on a career. I attended an all-boys secondary school in Artane and, of all the options available to me, being a poet while also being the playground punch bag for bullies was not something I was encouraged to dream of. Hell, poetry was barely even acknowledged, outside of a few dusty sonnets, while I stood last in line on rainy days on parched football pitches when sports teams were being picked. I was more picked on than ever picked out. But the ‘fairy who did fashion’ and occasionally helped others with their drawing homework was much more tolerable and a much better box to be placed in for everyone else’s understanding of who I was. And this was all long before even I knew who I was. If only I’d known then how to eat those storms. 







         










A degree in fashion design from the Grafton Academy sent me off to Paris at the age of 22 where I ended up being a barman, chef and entertainments manager in a pub/restaurant instead of a designer but this was certainly where I started to learn about who I wanted to be and how to taste the colour of life. 23 years later, after lives lived in London, Amsterdam and a 4-year return to Paris to close that chapter, having worked for various fashion brands from Calvin Klein to & Other Stories as a pattern maker, I am now back home in Ireland and calling myself a writer for the very first time, and not feeling so bashful about it.  

         I started sharing my writing back in 2008 with a blog on WordPress and since then have taken slow but extremely enjoyable steps into the pond of literature. Seeing my poems appear in magazines like Barren, The Runt and Black Bough Poetry and in poetry anthologies like Nous Sommes Paris from Eyewear Publishing or my horror short stories in Coffin Bell and ‘Body Horror Anthology’ from Gehenna & Hinnom, all next to writers I have long since admired, was insane to witness, like someone had left the window open and I was the unwanted fly who’d crept in and took up position in the background just as the group photo was being taken. When I heard the news that I was one of 3 winners of The White Label Cinq, First Collection Pamphlet Poetry prize from The Hedgehog Poetry Press back in 2019 while still in Paris, there were multiple laps of crazed madness around the office that followed and a very tearful phone call to the homelands. Dreams, when they come true, really do take the breath away so my advice is to always, always, have a hankie handy. 

         Eat the Storms for me is the acknowledgement of the journey I have taken over the past 45 years, learning how to acknowledge, accept and embrace all of my shadows and how to find a way to walk with them as a strength instead of running away from them while they attempt to hold me back. As much as the beach is part sea, part sand, I too am part light and part shadow. To be able to hold both, love both, for me means to be able to come to a better understanding of who I am. How this adopted, gay, bullied fairy who did fashion made it out from all that weighed him down and managed to find a way to turn it into someone beautiful on a page. Well, beautiful to him at least. 

         ‘Eat the storms, Mother said, boil those beds of bitter blackness until the dream rips through the rain and translucent turns to trust.’ 

         The collection starts off with a soft moon on a sun-drenched beach, a blazing white light like a blank canvas of possibility just as we all are when we make those movements out into the world, and, from there, colour is added to each poem, to each understanding, taking away the emptiness of all that blankness, incorporating the shadows and light, asking us to partake in a journey that requires all the senses at once; to test the running water of the riverbed with your tongue, to hear the pout of a ruby red lip while slowly exploring what happens when shade threatens fragility as we are faced with our own fears before bringing us back again into the light as we see fragility as our strength and not our failure. 

 

‘…I am looking 

to find a new shape; turning back,

recalling that first mark, to measure how far 

from it I ran, to see what was left behind,

to lay it to rest and find the rest of me

 

beneath the red ink tipped into this flesh…’

 

from my poem Red Ink. 

 

         I am very proud of this collection and overjoyed to be joining follow poetic Hoglets at The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Mark Davidson, the head Hedgehog, has been a dream to work with and has taken my dream and turned it into something I can now call my actual work. 

         What happens next is anyone’s guess as we all find different ways to navigate through this ever-changing world. For me, there will be no official launch in a bookstore, at the moment, but the world is at our feet, thanks to the internet, and I am exploring new ways to share my poetry using video poems, blogs, podcasts, TicTok, Instagram, Facebook and zoom gatherings.

         Looking forward, I’m currently working on a 2nd poetry collection based on my time in Paris which will hopefully be a combination of a photo/poem diary and have just finished the final draft of a fictional novel entitled The Journey Home and am sending that out to publishers right now. It’s the story of 12 people on a small island in Scotland and documents the journeys they make through life, from love and loss, to acceptance and forgiveness and how sometimes it takes coming home to look back and measure how far you got. 

 

‘I wanted to draw 

the sound of the moon 

on a sun-drenched beach, 

stripped down to white sand, 

white wave, white skin…’


From ‘Meditation Under the Yellow Sun’, Eat the Storms, Damien B Donnelly, The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

 

Eat the Storms is available to buy from 17.09.20 from the bookshop on my blog at www.deuxiemepeaupoetry.com and also from Amazon co.uk/com

My Twitter page is @deuxiemepeau

My Tiktok is @eatthestorms

Instagram is @damiboy

My podcast will air in September 2020, entitled Eat The Storms, and will be available on Spotify and most podcast platforms https://open.spotify.com/show/0mOECCAcx0kMXg25S0aywi