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    Weep and Wail: A Compilation of Poetry and Prose
    Weep and Wail: A Compilation of Poetry and Prose
    Weep and Wail: A Compilation of Poetry and Prose
    Ebook196 pages1 hour

    Weep and Wail: A Compilation of Poetry and Prose

    By Lisa Talbott and Michael Paul Hurd

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    About this ebook

    Weep and Wail is Lisa Talbott's second book. A prolific author of both poetry and short stories, Lisa's inimitable style offers something for everyone. Her works cover just about everything that life has to offer, and  truly represent "art imitating life" through the  written word.  She is sometimes sentimental and serious, other times humorous, and at other times ribald and riqsue'.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLineage Independent Publishing
    Release dateFeb 13, 2021
    ISBN9781393638988
    Weep and Wail: A Compilation of Poetry and Prose
    Author

    Lisa Talbott

    Lisa Talbott was born in Norfolk, but grew up in Leicestershire, England. She always hankered to move to sunnier climes to grow tomatoes and  become a song lyricist. Retired, Lisa now lives in a remote village in Central Portugal where, instead of writing lyrics, she found poetry more befitting.   Having acquired more land and animals than she ever wanted or needed, her lifestyle affords much inspiration for her writing, which has branched out to include short stories and novels.

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      Book preview

      Weep and Wail - Lisa Talbott

      Weep and Wail

      A Compilation of Verse

      and Prose

      By Lisa Talbott

      With Commentary by

      Michael Paul Hurd

      Copyright © 2020 Lisa Talbott and Michael Paul Hurd

      Cover Design by Michael Paul Hurd

      Cover Graphic by Colleen O’Dell from pixabay.com

      All rights reserved. This book is subject to the copyright laws of the United States, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and other countries. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, without the express written permission of the authors, Lisa Talbott and Michael Paul Hurd.

      Publisher: Lineage Independent Publishing, Marriottsville, MD

      Maryland (USA) Sales and Use Tax Entity: Lineage Independent Publishing, Marriottsville, MD 21104

      www.lineage-publishing.com

      lineagepublishing@gmail.com

      Other works by Lisa Talbott:

      Pen and Inks

      Available from Online Booksellers

      ––––––––

      Other works by Michael Paul Hurd:

      Lineage: A Novel

      Soldier, Citizen, Settler: Lineage Series, Book Two

      Iniquity and Retribution: Lineage Series, Book Three

      Wayward Son: Lineage Series, Book Four

      Available from Online Booksellers

      Contents

      About the Title

      Introduction

      Part One: Life... In General

      Part Two: Things That Go Bump in the Night

      Part Three: In Sickness and in Health

      Part Four: Try to Keep Your Dignity

      Part FIve: War Is Hell

      Part Six: We Do Love Our Animals

      Part Seven: Love, Lust, and Nuance

      Part Eight:  It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere

      Part Nine: In the Rearview Mirrors of Life

      Part Ten: Last Words

      Acknowledgements

      About the Title

      Weep and Wail has its origins in Cockney rhyming slang. Used in London’s East End since the early 19th Century, it is more than just a rhyming association; rather, the slang phrase reflects the meaning of the expression itself. Consider plates of meat. In Cockney slang, it means feet, derived from how a market hawker’s feet felt at the end of a long day plying his or her wares. In true rhyming slang tradition, it might sometimes be expressed merely by the first word, plates. Add to that a colorful phrase like Khyber Pass, meaning ass (or arse) and you could politely tell someone to be on their way or risk a plate up the Khyber.

      The phrase Weep and Wail is used exclusively to describe a tale, and more definitively a beggar’s tale. Lisa chose this as the title for her second book because it reflects what a poet’s life could be: a beggar’s tale – especially if the poetry does not find an audience.

      Introduction

      By Michael Paul Hurd

      I first came across Lisa Talbott’s poetry as I was preparing my third historical fiction novel, Iniquity and Retribution: Lineage Series, Book Three for release. One of my signature techniques in my books is to include an epigraph as a separator between each chapter, usually a quotation that relates to the theme of what follows. I don’t remember exactly how I came across it, but one of Lisa’s recently written poems was a perfect fit. In fact, the fit was so perfect that I wanted to replace another quotation already laid down in the book with Lisa’s poem.

      Taking the bull by the horns, I reached out to Lisa through social media and explained to her what I was trying to do. One thing led to another, and I ultimately got permission to include the poem, Our Last Dance in my book. That initial contact has led to a continuing electronic friendship that has expanded to include Lisa’s mother, Elizabeth, as well. I also included another of Lisa’s poems in my fourth book, Wayward Son: Lineage Series, Book Four, and look forward to finding another of her poems for inclusion in my next book, with a working title of The Seventh Wife: Lineage Series, Book Five.

      In the interest of full disclosure, rarely have I focused on reading poetry as a literary genre’. I prefer narrative prose and especially historical fiction. In fact, I have not personally paid much attention to poetry since my early college days and undergraduate literature courses. Lisa changed that. I now find myself reading not only Lisa’s work but that of other emerging poets as well.

      Lisa and Elizabeth were part of my pre-release team for Books Three and Four and will be part of that team again for Book Five, which is being written concurrently with this anthology of Lisa’s work. What is even more notable is that Lisa and I have never met face-to-face. She is in Portugal, having retired from the UK to her place in the sun. I am in Maryland, in the United States, having also recently retired myself. I did, however, spend over a decade living and working in the United Kingdom – which made it even easier for me to understand some of the Brit-speak in Lisa’s works. I’ve also kept the preferred British spellings throughout, as I felt it would be a disservice to Lisa to Americanize them.

      Lisa’s first compilation, Pen and Inks, with illustrations by Lucas Volaart-Vermeulen, was published in 2019 and remains available through online retailers in both printed and electronic formats. Her poems in both books are at times evocative, humorous, often poignant, and at other times, as they say in England, quite cheeky. Some may be based on real life, but the majority are, as Lisa puts it, just a figment of my wild imagination. You be the judge of which is which.

      I originally thought that this compilation would be simply a volume of Lisa’s poetic works, without regard for structure. Instead, I made the editorial decision (with Lisa’s concurrence, of course!) to group her poems into thematic categories as reflected in the Table of Contents. Then, as we were laying down the final verses for the book, Lisa tells me that she has written several short stories as well. I couldn’t resist including five of them – they are just as good as her poetry!

      ––––––––

      © 2020 Michael Paul Hurd

      Part One: Life... In General

      From the homeless man on the street corner to the Queen in Buckingham Palace and everything in between, the observations Lisa makes about the generalities of life range from the humorous to the provocative. In fact, one of the poems could, with a little imagination, possibly be set to the melody from a well-known play by George Bernard Shaw. I’ll leave you guessing as to which one and which song.

      There are places in the next poems where an American reader might not understand the terminology. For example, a 10 tog duvet is a comforter that is suitable for the cooler nights of spring or autumn. A winter-weight duvet/comforter would have a tog rating of 12 or higher. The tog as a unit of thermal measurement was invented by the Shirley Institute in Manchester, England, during the 1940s.

      Elsewhere, references to food might be baffling to anyone who did not enjoy a proper British upbringing. Take chip buttie for example. It’s basically a French fry sandwich. However, I have it on good authority (my wife, whose mother is British) that there is really nothing tastier than a chip buttie made with fresh bread, creamery butter, and piping-hot chips/fries. The butter melts into the bread, coats the chips, and teases the palate... Simple, but exquisite!

      We are certainly fortunate that Lisa’s works, even with cultural variations, are more coherent and understandable than Lewis Carroll’s famous poem, Jabberwocky.

      " ‘Twas brillig and the slythy toves

      Did gyre and gymble in the wabe

      All mimsy were the borogroves

      And the mome raths outgrabe."

      © 2020 Michael Paul Hurd

      The curtain twitcher

      The window cleaner’s on his way; hasn’t been for weeks:

      Tried to do ‘em by myself but can’t see through the streaks.

      They’re full of flies and nicotine and fingerprints galore.

      I have to get this ‘man that can’ cos I can’t reach no more.

      Don’t think that I’m a gossip or a nosey so-and-so.

      I like to keep abreast of where my neighbours come and go.

      It’s purely out of interest, see. Neighbourly, you’d say.

      And I sit here just to ‘people watch’; hours and hours a day.

      Oh the stories I could tell you all, but like I said before,

      I’m not about to gossip therefore nought will pass my door.

      But I like to write about my ‘friends’, a ‘tribute’ may say I?

      Pages in my journal. My legacy when I die.

      None so blind and deaf as those who do not wish to know.

      But cruelty such as I’ve been dealt has been a bitter blow.

      Oh I know the names they call me. It’s why I stay inside.

      Safe behind these lonely walls and dingy nets I

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