05 Bedna od whisky

I know I’m late – apologies, and I know the piece below is not perfect. But it has been published before so I’m not changing it and sharing with the same introduction it had once had.  And I’m attaching the Czech version so you can sing along 🙂

No Longer Free and Easy

IDIO(ma)TIC expressions can be fun

Once upon a time (2001, if I remember well), I was a “Practical English” teacher at Faculty of Arts, Brno. As usual, I had students produce feedback at the end of the semester and this is one of the suggestions I received: “compose a song on idioms”. Challenged by this I tried, and this is what I produced.

I borrowed the tune from Miky Ryvola (Bedna od Whisky – Empty Whisky Box), thanks Miky.

I used the idioms found in the bottomless source of these – Leo Jones’ well of such expressions called New Progress to Proficiency (CUP, 2001), cheers mate.

The idioms are underlined. Have fun and try to sing it (sometimes it is not like free and easy…).

No longer free and easy,

And off the beaten track

A halter made of strong rope’s

Part and parcel of my neck

No more airs and graces

An open and shut case

Rough and ready tie will soon

Put me through much disgrace

 

Chorus:

So hang me high, let me rock

Let me rock to and fro

This time won’t be up and about

Or as fit as the fiddle, too,

I’ll reach the gates of heaven

Hopefully safe and sound,

If heavenly angels put

My feet back on the ground.

***

 

Put two and two together

Can’t put me at my ease,

They set a trap for me

And that trap won’t release.

To put you in the picture

Without using no knife

They’ll kill me – lovely creature,

Put a stop to my life.

 

Chorus

***

As pretty as a picture

And just as good as gold

I wanted to live by her side

And with her to grow old

Another guy as strong as a horse

Took her away from me

She was as free as the air

It’s touch and go, you see.

 

Chorus

***

 

When we met for the first time

We were as warm as toast

It was love at first sight

She was my life my boast

I gave her a bunch of flowers

We climbed a range of hills

And then a flight of stairs

And that was overkill.

 

Chorus

***

 

My life is no longer,

No more cut and dry,

For her full and ruby lips

I am now gonna die.

For that pack of cards that

I should never have played

My story’s as old as the hills

As old as love and hate.

05 Bedna od whisky

Chorus

STREET TALK

A ‘storm in a teacup’ trivial our tiff to you, sadly ’tis’ I’m that’s left ‘to stew’.
‘Water under the bridge’ ‘tant’ easy to say, while I’m left empty day after day.
‘Too blind to see’ the pain intentionally you inflicted on me, in a cruel attempt to ‘bring me to my knees’.
Caught ‘between a rock and a hard place’ what options are left for me?
‘Tis’ evident I’m ‘flogging a dead horse’ , best it’s left ‘to run its course’.
‘What goes around comes around’ that’s what they say,
I will be patient ‘I’ll have my day’.

Breda Ware

Dear Poets,

summer is here! Let’s write a summer poem full of IDIOMS!

Well begun is half done! 🙂

We can’t wait to read your poems!

M+J+A

It is spring again.
The earth is like a child
That knows poems by heart.¹

Ready to play
Ready to run fast
To bloom and have fun.

It is spring again.
The earth is like a child
That knows poems by heart.

Ready to spring
Spring to a full life
To rest again in a few months

¹By Rainer Maria Rilke

“It’s spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart”

R.M. Rilke

Though it’s May, “my life will be forever autumn cos you’re not here”¹

You’re “in these arms”² but can’t be felt, pain severe

When dreams make love to nightmares.

Who cares?

The offspring cremated by morning frost.

No Pentecost,

No finger into the palm would sneak.

There’s some green on the twig.

• Jeff Wayne: War of the Worlds
• Jon Bon Jovi: In These Arms

Dear Poets!

spring is here so let’s be inspired by R.M. Rilke and celebrate this lovely month with poems!

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”

Marie, Jarek and Adam