Versa: Issue One
Versa is a biannual publication and will be published every autumn and spring term. Versa will replace the former magazine, OA Bulletin and will offer a comprehensive insight into the many facets of alumni life.
Versa is a biannual publication and will be published every autumn and spring term. Versa will replace the former magazine, OA Bulletin and will offer a comprehensive insight into the many facets of alumni life.
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9<br />
LINES<br />
by Niall Matthews<br />
(OA 1974)<br />
time<br />
takes a cigarette i<br />
the park<br />
breathed<br />
come to a strange place<br />
we’ll talk over old times ii<br />
twentieth century boys iii<br />
distant memories<br />
diffracted<br />
reflected<br />
refracted<br />
by different shards of glass<br />
my salad days<br />
when I was green in judgment<br />
cold in blood<br />
to say as I said then<br />
but come<br />
away<br />
get me ink and paper iv<br />
fingers stained royal blue<br />
the smell of ink in the bottle<br />
when the white eagle of the north<br />
is flying overhead v<br />
arma virumque cano vi<br />
I sing of arms and a man<br />
cross-country runs along the flint<br />
wall<br />
where roman boots<br />
once beat in cadence<br />
boot caliga caligae<br />
spit<br />
polish<br />
blanco on khaki webbing<br />
the last post<br />
construe<br />
so many, many songs were waiting<br />
to be sung vii<br />
the ablative absolute long forgotten viii<br />
somehow<br />
I still conjure latin roots<br />
e ducere<br />
lead out<br />
education<br />
ductile<br />
the duke of edinburgh<br />
swiss time was running out<br />
it seemed that we would lose the race<br />
smoke on the water<br />
fire in the sky ix<br />
we mixed emotions<br />
in clever retorts<br />
we used<br />
slide rules<br />
logarithms<br />
irony<br />
sarcasm<br />
I got a silver machine<br />
it flies sideways through time x<br />
pocket chess<br />
the french defence<br />
cela se fait à paris! xi<br />
but that’s what’s done in paris<br />
baguettes and bottled beer<br />
hey babe, take a walk on the wild<br />
side xii<br />
il pleure dans mon coeur comme il<br />
pleut sur la ville xiii<br />
tears in my heart like the rain on<br />
the town<br />
je t’aime<br />
moi non plus xiv<br />
I love you... me neither<br />
me<br />
neither<br />
can’t even think of a word that<br />
rhymes xv<br />
subjunctive<br />
mood<br />
détente<br />
detention<br />
writing<br />
lines<br />
bet you’re wond’ring how I knew xvi<br />
gowns unfurling like black wings<br />
jackets of tweed or beige linen<br />
teachers<br />
some were kind<br />
going back to find<br />
to a simpler place ’n’ time xvii<br />
I could last forever<br />
outlast the sea<br />
the earth<br />
and all men xviii<br />
in our paintings<br />
the teacher<br />
always found a line to admire<br />
the smell of oil paints<br />
this my hand will rather<br />
the multitudinous seas incarnadine<br />
making the green one red xix<br />
no more will my green sea go turn a<br />
deeper blue xx<br />
der die das<br />
a sharply-dressed<br />
german german teacher<br />
carried a brown leather<br />
accusative case<br />
we rowdily<br />
declined<br />
adjectives<br />
über den wolken muss die freiheit<br />
wohl grenzenlos sein<br />
above the clouds freedom has no<br />
borders xxi<br />
do I der to eat a peach? xxii<br />
cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in<br />
to saucy doubts and fears xxiii<br />
a gentle english teacher<br />
showed us the jokes in shakespeare<br />
you were half blasted ere I knew<br />
you xxiv<br />
he collected shopping bags<br />
tonight I’ll lose my head<br />
tonight I’ve got to get<br />
tonight xxv<br />
film club<br />
old oak pews<br />
film reels flickering<br />
strangers on a train xxvi<br />
fingers stretching for a lighter<br />
is there concrete all around<br />
or is it in my head xxvii<br />
walking home through the park<br />
in my striped school blazer<br />
three boys from the secondary<br />
modern<br />
looking grim<br />
fell into step<br />
a girl called out<br />
“he’s my brother”<br />
and reluctantly they faded away<br />
I never saw her again<br />
kicking around on a piece of ground<br />
in your home town xxviii<br />
at a rock concert<br />
a girl from the grammar school<br />
smiled<br />
though the music is lethal<br />
let the night take me in xxix<br />
visiting years later<br />
on the hill<br />
is the shop where I got my first<br />
camera<br />
still<br />
somebody’s shouting<br />
up at a mountain<br />
only my own words return xxx<br />
in the high street<br />
a man sitting on the pavement<br />
shouts<br />
“change please!”<br />
but we had already changed<br />
time may change me<br />
but I can’t trace time xxxi<br />
in the end<br />
maybe there were no answers<br />
only questions<br />
and I know where to find some good<br />
ones<br />
the park<br />
breathed<br />
and as for<br />
time<br />
he’s waiting in the wings xxxii<br />
i David Bowie, Rock ‘n’ roll Suicide<br />
ii Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Somebody called me Sebastian<br />
iii Twentieth Century Boy, title of a song by T Rex<br />
iv Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra act 1 scene 5<br />
v The Moody Blues, The Dream<br />
vi Vergil, the Aeneid, opening line<br />
vii Dusty Springfield, Yesterday When I Was Young<br />
viii = an ablative absolute<br />
ix Deep Purple, Smoke on the Water<br />
x Hawkwind, Silver Machine<br />
xi Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary part 3 section 1<br />
xii Lou Reed, Take a Walk on the Wild Side<br />
xiii Paul Verlaine, Il Pleure dans mon Coeur… from Romances sans paroles<br />
xiv Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, Je t’aime… moi non plus<br />
xv Alice Cooper, School’s Out<br />
xvi Marvin Gaye, I Heard It Through the Grapevine<br />
xvii Gladys Knight and the Pips, Midnight Train to Georgia<br />
xviii Joseph Conrad, Youth<br />
xix Shakespeare, Macbeth act 2 scene 2<br />
xx The Rolling Stones, Paint it Black<br />
xxi Reinhard Mey, Über den Wolken<br />
xxii Do I dare to eat a peach? T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock<br />
xxiii Shakespeare, Macbeth act 3 scene 4<br />
xxiv Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra act 3 scene 13<br />
xxv Easybeats, Friday on my Mind, covered by David Bowie on Pinups<br />
xxvi Strangers on a Train, directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a novel by Patricia Highsmith<br />
xxvii Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes<br />
xxviii Pink Floyd, Time<br />
xxix Mick Ronson, Music is Lethal<br />
xxx Deep Purple, Pictures of Home<br />
xxxi David Bowie, Changes<br />
xxxii David Bowie, Time
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