prologue from "I left no footsteps behind me"

[barry9393]

prologue

When I look inside my head
at night or even
some times
during the day
on the metro or the train
trying to pass the time.
I see my life
as a series of photographs
or clips of a film
that are taken out
and passed around
as the occasion demands
In a café or at a dinner party
or even sitting with a stranger on a train
going somewhere
on another of those journeys
that I still take from time to time.
a chance word / a few bars of a song
even the name of a city
or a country bring
these memories to the surface again
Last night
I passed the open door of a café,
from inside the words from a kinks song
screamed into the street
joining the many tourists
that wafted by in their stoned wanderings,
“There she was just a walking in the street…
.singing …
…DO WA NINNY NINNY…DO WA BA DO…
……” Zap ! Karaang ! Shaboom !
and there I am walking down the Broad in Oxford,
Barbie at my side on our way to the folk club…
from there my mind flows of in many directions,
the people I met/ places / worked, ate & drank in,
poems wrote/ songs sung
pipes toked.
So many people & so many places
that it is hard to focus on one incident at a time,
there comes a time when
I must put them in some form of order,
if only for my own peace of mind.
Many people have said to me,
you have many things to tell
write them down,
so now I have decided to do just that.





This is not just about me,
its about a way of life that does not exist anymore,
that cannot exist
because of state of the world that we live in.
there is no longer the trust,
the feeling of safety when you travel,
the freedom to just go where you wanted to
is no longer there ,
so many restrictions
due to wars,
politics etc.
in one way
it’s a travel book
in another
it’s a collection of snapshots
it’s a tribute to a life of freedom
which so many of us tried to live.
Read it , like you
would look at a photo album,
do not expect any consistency
for there is none,
do not expect the absolute truth
because memories fade
things diminish
become exaggerated,
some of the people I mention
would be embarrassed
to be connected with the places and events
that I talk about
due to the fact
that they have now
become ‘respectable’
members of this society
that we live in.
so out of a kind of respect
that I have for them
and of course
the fact that they might even sue me
I have changed some of their names,
but to my readers
if ever there are any,
if you were around at the time
you will know who they are.






Amsterdam 2004

[Doreen Peri]

hey Barry!

good to see you!

Do you have a recording of this? I'd love to hear it!

[barry9393]

no recording, its the prologue from my last book
I thought it would fit into the theme
a lot of new stuff on the website though
including sound files
and interactive poems
note new URL

http://poetryperformance.p5.org.uk

love and flowers
from
Amsterdam
Barry