new play reading. All are welcome
RACE RELATIONS
new play reading. All are welcome
Posts
THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL
And sometimes it is better than the writing on the page! Here are some examples:
Think like a genius, work like giant, live like a saint.
The chamber of secrets has been opened- enemies of the heir, beware.
One day this wall will be replaced by trees. Stephanie.
Remember, no matter how cute he is, somewehere, some girl is tired of taking his shit.
Never trust a skinny cook
And my favourite – Stop me before I paint again!
Visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
PRISONER
PRISONER
The ticking clock is silent
Articulating emptiness
Mainspring not busted
Just not required.
Time gulling it over the horizon
Speckled in the distance
The residue left behind
Not worth a light
Over some visionary hill
Virtual reality is real enough
More and more scream the worms
Turning every which way but one
More length, more depth
More leisure, more pleasure
More love, more life
Bur mostly more coin
Nothing prepares us for this
The hand that held the answers
Trembling now before new idols
Knowledge bootless as experience
New waves have old beginnings
But tired dogs own no snap
It’s the rut we’re stuck in, see?
Slow going forward but no going back
Sitting by time’s window
Waiting for the daily rebuff
To come winging by
Sifting little crumbs of comfort
From the embers
Screaming all the way……
LETTERS TO MOTHER AND OTHER DEAD RELATIVES
This is a collection of letters to various dead relatives including my mother, father, grand-uncle Mikey, aunt Margaret. Subjects include wills, WW1, Illigitimacy, Patrick Kavanagh, Jack Joyle, famine, sowing potatoes, old cemeteries, the magic road, Donncha Ruadh, Bobby Sands, IRA, the Easter Rising, My aunt Margaret, etc etc etc.
visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
RUSSIAN ROULETTE AS A CURE FOR DEPRESSION
RUSSIAN ROULETTE AS A CURE FOR DEPRESSION
‘The first time I pressed the trigger
I knew I was immortal’
‘I wished the feeling could last forever,
My jubilation was total’
‘I’m a five-timer’, he told the newcomer
Extending his gun-finger and closing it slow
Every lost life seemed etched on his forehead
Five down, one more to go
‘Boredom mostly’ and ‘it passes the time’
Were his excuses for such dramatic play.
‘And it turns the girls on too
In some extraordinary way’
‘The best cure for depression I know’
Handing the game to the next in line
Where the muzzle blew a hole between his eye and his ear
Death, too, passes the time
KATHY KIRBY – ICON
Kathy Kirby had everything. A remarkable voice, stunning looks and was the highest paid female singer of the 1960s. So what went wrong? She stopped singing and became a recluse at the peak of her career, never performing in public again for nearly thirty years until she died in 2011.
Her rollercoaster life embraced a bit of everything – celebrity lovers, including an affair with Bruce Forsyth, a knife attack at her flat, a drug overdose, bankruptcy, alcohol abuse, admission to a mental hospital and a lesbian affair. She earned more than five million during her heyday – and her manager – and lover – Bert Ambrose spent it all for her.
My play KATHY KIRBY – ICON, a musical about her life, sold out its short run at The Camden Fringe Festival in 2012, where it received numerous 5***** reviews. See http://www.kathykirby.info/
Watch this space for news of further productions.
Visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
napowrimo
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
PAPA
The time is near
The clock is queer
I have had more than one beer.
Papa crept downstairs
In the early morning.
The keys are close to the time.
They open the locked cabinet beneath it.
The shotgun is quickly loaded
Two in the chambers just in case
Then the gun is heeled to the wall
And his forehead firmly anchors it.
Hands reach down –
And Bang!
Papa is no more.
THE MISSING POSTMAN AND OTHER STORIES
A collection of quirky stories about life in modern Ireland
short
Visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
napowrimo
SHE…
Who coaxed me screaming
Into the world in ‘46
When blizzards were raging.
(Or was it me?)
Who carried turkeys in her shopping bags
Suspended on the handlebars of her bicycle
(going to see the turkey cock)
Who picked blackberries with purple hands
And topped the full barrels with water
To increase her payment from the blackberry buyer
(her pocket money she called it)
Who ate dilisk on June Sundays in Bonmahon Strand
And washed her feet in the foamy salt water near at hand
Who grew fat when I was ten
And was bed-ridden till grandma came;
Then the doctor gave here something
That made her thin again
CRICKLEWOOD COWBOYS
CRICKLEWOOD COWBOYS first saw the light of day as a stage play, under the title BOTTOM DOG, and premiered at THE TABARD THEATRE in West London in 2000.
Visit my Amazon book page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent
My Writing Life 