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  The Poetry of Damon Runyon - We...

  Damon Runyon

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  Alfred Damon Runyan was born on 4th October 1880, in Manhattan, Kansas.  
   
  When Runyon was two his father was forced to sell his newspaper and the family moved eventually settling in Pueblo, Colorado where Runyon spent his youth.  
   
  By most accounts, he attended school only through the fourth grade and then worked for his father in the newspaper trade.  
   
  In 1898 Runyon enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Spanish–American War. After his service he returned to Colorado and worked for the local newspapers.  
   
  By 1910 he had moved to New York to work for Hearst newspapers, writing a daily column.  He was soon promoted to be the Hearst newspapers' baseball columnist and developed his trademark viewpoint of writing up the eccentric and the unusual, whether on the field or in the stands. 
   
  But Runyon also wrote poetry, plays, essays and, of course, his short stories with his famous ‘Runyonesque’ characters who were funny, gritty and instantly memorable, all distilled into black and white type. 
   
  Of course, the cliché about newspapermen and writers is that they are heavy drinkers, chain-smokers, gamblers and obsessively chase women with a sideline in gathering info and only getting something written just before the deadline hits.  And that, pretty much, was Runyon’s life. 
   
  In 1938 he developed throat cancer which would leave him unable to speak but he continued to work at a ferocious pace, pursuing a Hollywood career as writer and producer at MGM, Universal and RKO studios. 
   
  Alfred Damon Runyon died in New York City on 10th December 1946 from throat cancer.  He was 66. 
   
  His ashes were scattered from a plane over Broadway.   
   
  In his early short Story ‘The Defense of Strikerville’ Runyon takes up the cause of workers’ rights as it comes up against the nasty tactics of big-dog capitalism.  
   
  Runyon’s poems brilliantly illustrate his style and ideas with works that are individual, observational, heavy on the vernacular and bring a rarely seen poetic talent to our attention.  
   
  1 - The Poetry of Damon Runyon - An Introduction 
  2 - The Song of the Strike-Breakers by Damon Runyon 
  3 - Song of the Steel Worker by Damon Runyon 
  4 - The Song of the Bullet by Damon Runyon 
  5 - A Song of the Panama Canal by Damon Runyon 
  6 - A Song of the Rails by Damon Runyon 
  7 - The Song of King Barleycorn 
  8 - The King of Moo by Damon Runyon 
  9 - The Song of Silence by Damon Runyon 
  10 - Song O' the Lost Trains by Damon Runyon 
  11 - The Song of the Saddle by Damon Runyon 
  12 - The Ghosts of the Great White Way by Damon Runyon 
  13 - The Softest Town by Damon Runyon 
  14 - The Ballad of the Big Town by Damon Runyon 
  15 - Ballads of a Beach Comber by Damon Runyon 
  16 - When the Ships Go Home by Damon Runyon 
  17 - Dream of a Drowsy Day by Damon Runyon 
  18 - Ballad of Hop Looey 
  19 - The Ladies in the Trenches - a Solider Song of the Sulu Isles by Damon Runyon 
  20 - Nostalgia by Damon Runyon 
  21 - A Divorce Problem by Damon Runyon 
  22 - The Boy She Used to Know by Damon Runyon 
  23 - Roses of a Dream by Damon Runyon 
  24 - Homeward Bound by Damon Runyon 
  25 - The Spirit of You by Damon Runyon 
  26 - Ghosts by Damon Runyon 
  27 - Ballad of Lonely Graves by Damon Runyon 
  28 - Pal, Algeria 1910 by Damon Runyon 
  29 - Requiem by Damon Runyon

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  Foam

  Harry McDonald

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  'You forget I knew you were a queer long before I knew you were a fascist.'
  1974, a public lavatory. Nicky shaves his head, watched by an older man.
  Publicly, Nicky is a skinhead. And a neo-Nazi. But right now, in this place, that doesn't matter. This is not the first man Nicky has met in a public toilet, and he won't be the last…
  Spanning twenty years and inspired by a true story, Foam examines the nature of identity and the consequences of right-wing extremist ideology against the backdrop of London's skinhead and gay scenes of the 1970s and 1980s.
  Colliding the terrifyingly personal and the violently political, Harry McDonald's play Foam was first performed at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Matthew Iliffe.

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  Antony and Cleopatra

  William Shakespeare

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  Antony and Cleopatra (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed, by the King's Men, at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre in around 1607; its first appearance in print was in the Folio of 1623.
  The plot is based on Thomas North's 1579 English translation of Plutarch's Lives (in Ancient Greek) and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the Final War of the Roman Republic. The major antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumvirs of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire. The tragedy is mainly set in the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt and is characterized by swift shifts in geographical location and linguistic register as it alternates between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and a more pragmatic, austere Rome.
  Many consider Shakespeare's Cleopatra, whom Enobarbus describes as having "infinite variety", as one of the most complex and fully developed female characters in the playwright's body of work. She is frequently vain and histrionic enough to provoke an audience almost to scorn; at the same time, Shakespeare invests her and Antony with tragic grandeur. These contradictory features have led to famously divided critical responses. It is difficult to classify Antony and Cleopatra as belonging to a single genre. It can be described as a history play (though it does not completely adhere to historical accounts), as a tragedy (though not completely in Aristotelian terms), as a comedy, as a romance, and according to some critics, such as McCarter, a problem play. All that can be said with certainty is that it is a Roman play, and perhaps even a sequel to another of Shakespeare's tragedies, Julius Caesar.
  Among the most significant works William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Orpheus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, The Tempest, Venus and Adonis, Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure, The Winter's Tale and many more.

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  If Cows Could Sing

  David Fluck

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  Ever heard a cow sing, or seen a three-legged pink flying sheep? Or wondered how a mighty oak tree, could ever have been a tiny trembling acorn? Well, welcome to a world where your fantasy and imagination can bring them all to life.

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  Pain Songs

  Daniel Sluman

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  Pain Songs, Daniel Sluman's fourth poetry collection, is written through the personal experience of chronic pain, examining the ways the body and the world interact and intersect. Tender and often sensual, we encounter the internal weather systems and shifting states of the bodily self, challenging conventional ideas of wellness and illness.
  Reflecting on love, family, and relationships, the poems explore intimacy, fertility, pregnancy, and what the repercussions are of living inside a body that feels like 'an alarm that rings and rings'. Sluman's poetry, with its immense lyric clarity, brings the human song of the self alive by witnessing its pains and pleasures intimately.

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  Victims and Perpetrators - Light...

  John Gentry

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  Dive into the mischievous world of Victims and Perpetrators: Light Verse Judgement on the Criminally Inclined, where the lines between lawbreakers and law enforcers blur in the most whimsical ways. Through the masterful pen of John Gentry, a humorist poet with a penchant for the peculiar, this collection of poems invites readers on a rollicking journey through the underbelly of society, all from the safety of their armchairs.
  From the tale of Felony Fred, whose criminal escapades are as endearing as they are egregious, to the saga of a hapless diner in Hard Rock, Idaho, Gentry crafts a universe where crime does indeed pay – in laughter and wit. Each poem is a vignette, a snapshot of life on the other side of the law, told with a twinkle in the eye and a tip of the hat to the absurd.
  So, whether you're a seasoned criminal mastermind looking to take a break from your nefarious activities, or a law-abiding citizen with a love for the lyrical, Victims and Perpetrators offers something for everyone. It's a reminder that, in the end, we're all just characters in the grand, ridiculous story of life – some of us just have better alibis than others.

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