The Juggler

[Glenny Palmer]

‘The Juggler’ © 2008 Glenny

It’s hard to be a hermit when the public owns your voice
if you’re gunna be a ‘lebrity you gotta make the choice
to be devious, committed, no more waving, saying ‘Hi’
and never tell the blighters where you live or they’ll ‘drop by’.

You have to wear disguises just to make it safe through Coles
or you’re bound to be accosted by your ‘fans’…(God bless their souls)
where they hold you hostage in the yoghurt section while they spray
a masterpiece their little Johnny wrote ‘that very day’.

The sheila in the doctor’s office knows your every vice
and bellows them across the waiting room which isn’t nice,
particularly if you’re there to get your penicillin
and half your romance prospects bolt, no longer keen or willin’

The paparazzi snap you when you’re trying to reverse
a bloody trailer down a lane & stuffing it…what’s worse
is the blighters all misquote you & your enemies accrue
for something that you never said that lands you in the poo.

You dare not go to church each week to make your sad confession
or they land across the front page of ‘The Times’ in bold impression;
you just can’t keep a secret (that’s assuming that you find
one chance to get in mischief of the naughty sorta kind.)

Oh, your life becomes a soapie where you play the leading role
while you dream of being ‘nonymous & living in a hole
that’s nice & still & dark & safe (perhaps beside a lake…
or bloody miles from nowhere in the scrub, for goodness sake?)

Yeah, that ‘bloody miles from nowhere’ is the place you need to be
when you want to be a writer more than grand celebrity,
but the deal is self perpetuating, round & round you go
all because you have to eat sometimes & pay the piper’s dough.

But when the night time settles on your tired & weary mind,
you gaze into the diamond sky & know you’ll never find
a sanctuary better than the peace within your breast
reflected all around you in your ‘miles from nowhere’ nest.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Gee, Glenny, I wouldn't know. It sounds exciting!

[Glenny Palmer]

Hahaaa Stephen. That was just me in my 'hey-day'...exaggerating my delusions.....

[Stephen Whiteside]

Cool.

[Shelley Hansen]

Dear me, Glenny -

Thank goodness I'm not famous! I have visions of myself hiding in a barrel of broccoli to escape the supermarket paparazzi! And I'm positively terrified of the prospect of being held hostage in the yoghurt section!!!

I'm checking out dark glasses and false moustaches on eBay as we speak ... just in case fame strikes when I'm least expecting it!!!



Loved the poem.

Cheers
Shelley

[Glenny Palmer]

Oh you made me laugh Shelley

Isn't it amazing what we find in our 'old' records. As I (now) recall...it was a time when I was heavily involved in the community...often labelled a 'media tart' for all the community/poetry promotion etc that I was forever doing. Anonymity was a luxury denied me.

I think it was more a cry for time and space to be free to write! Pretty much the lament of all poets, I guess.

[David Campbell]

Ah yes, Glenny, I know what you mean. I have to clear the media away from the front gate every morning, and they chase me down the road with their cameras when I go for a run. And as for all those requests for product endorsements, celebrity selfies, and red carpet appearances at gala events...my manager has to turn most of them down. Just not enough minutes in the day to keep the millions of fans happy when you're a writer!

Cheers
David

(PS: hang on to this post...it'll be worth a mint in a few years. )

[thestoryteller]

To make your presence felt it takes a lot of work Glenny and though it takes you many places and at different
paces and it's interesting to look back through the scrapbook, I must say that I'm enjoying the doing it at my pace scenario these days.

Booking a tour in advance kept the shows going but there were times when we met nice folk who wanted us to join them doing this and that and had to knock it back so in order to get to the next venue.

I've enjoyed the trips we took over the last couple of years and just doing shows when we wanted to.

Just staying healthy seems to be the challenge at the moment.

Enjoyed the verses.


Merv.

[alongtimegone]

But it would be nice Glenny, if only for time enough to experience the up side of it.
Wazza

[Glenny Palmer]

I must say it certainly provides some lovely memories Wazza. But ' there's no such thing as a free meal' still rings true... Lol.