“Where Have All The Good Times Gone”

A few days ago(29th Nov 2017), I had started writing a poem about Penny Farthing Bicycles, prompted by an article in the Geelong Advertiser newspaper, the arrival in Geelong of eight members of the Melbourne Bicycle Club in March 1880, as per featured picture above, courtesy of the Geelong Heritage Centre Collection. Then I was chatting with my friend Jane of Janebasilblog, she had just sent me the song and lyrics of the Mary Hopkin hit, “Those Were The Days”, from 1968, and I mentioned The Kinks were one of my fav’s from that era, and of course their song “Lola”. After our chat, I starting thinking [which is dangerous for me] about writing a crazy, combined, mixed up poem… The piece below is the result of those thoughts, and to my older readers, you’ll notice all the phrases written in Italic, are song titles taken from The Kinks album “The Kinks Collection”. So apologies to Ray Davies for using his song titles in such a manner. And thank you to Jane for providing me with the inspiration to actually write these jumbled up words.  ** And now today(8th Nov 2018), this poem has been edited, and re-posted, as a response to CalmKate’s Friday Foto Fun – Wheels Or Circles.

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“Where Have All The Good Times Gone”

 

I remember the olden times

Of pennies and farthings

Pounds and pence

When money made no sense

Mary Hopkins sang

“Those Were The Days”

And the Kinks song “Lola”

Was the best number one ever

Many a lazy Sunny Afternoon

Spent down near Waterloo Sunset

Where we would all dance

All Of The Day And All Of The Night

My Friends would all dress-up

Like Dedicated Followers Of Fashion

Unlike that lonely Plastic Man

Who faked the Death Of A Clown

Way back then, You Really Got Me

You fired me up, here in Victoria

Thousands of Days forgotten in the burn-out

Charred in a cloud of Big Black Smoke

But now, I’m Tired Of Waiting For You

Wondering, Where Have All The Good Times Gone

Ivor Steven

8th November 2018.  10.30pm

Published by

ivor20

G'day, and welcome to my blog site. My name is Ivor Steven, I live in Geelong, Australia. I'm an ex-industrial chemist, and a retired plumber, and a former Carer of my wife(Carole), for 30 years, who suffered from severe MS. I Write poetry about those personal thoughts, throughout and beyond my life as a Carer. I've been blogging for over 2 years, and writing poems for 19 years. Of course a lot of my poems are about my favourite subject Carole, but since I've been blogging my writings have become quite varied, humourous, mystical, observational, and even a few monster/horror poems.

32 thoughts on ““Where Have All The Good Times Gone””

  1. Good one, Ivor! You could start a new poetry craze. I have written poems using titles of books, quotes from books, Cd cover titles, and lines from others’ poems. It’s all good fun 🙂

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  6. This *Gypsy Flower Child *Can’t Cry Anymore. *The Way I Did Before I met her as *Piece By Piece *All The Gold In California which was mined by the *Midnight Choir while they chanted *We’re Number One. *Hold Me Closer she shouted at the leader or I’m * Taking Somebody With Me When I Fall. Losing patience with the impatience of his fellow miners the leader of the pack demanded his share before bowing out questioning bluntly *How Much Is a Man Supposed To Take. All*marked are song titles from a 1979 album release by Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers titled Straight Ahead.(It needs a lot more work so the challenge is there for any one who wishes to take it up)

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      3. yes but she hangs in there at huge cost … just met a retired couple caring for 5 young grandkids coz parents are wasted … had them 4 years, can’t imagine doing that at their age!

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