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2018 Best New Talent - Short and Sweet Festival Sydney
2014 Pushcart Prize nominee. (more)

Books:



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TrunK TowN - A Kids Story







TrunK TowN


This is a true story.
Some years back in a riverside town of 600, the Circus rolled in. This was much more common in towns then than now. As they unpacked, a small but ageing elephant stood tied to a tree. Somehow, due to an oversight, the elephant escaped. It wondered off slowly, so no one noticed. Soon though, it became excited by its freedom and ran through the streets, relishing the exercise and the novelty.
Cars were forced to pull over. Tractors idled. Bicycles halted. People watched without moving, just to make sure that this was real.




In next to no time, the elephant stirred up everyone. They all joined the chase, but an elephant is not an easy catch. Every now and then a big brave man would step up to grab him, but the elephant bowled them all over. Even when he was only walking and a cheeky teenager grabbed his tail, all the boy could do was hang on, skidding along by the flat of his shoes.
Men, women and children chased him down the main street, some laughing, some angry. Others were too stressed to do anything but stand and stare with hands over their mouths.
Eventually an 11 year old boy came up with a plan. He had also been running all over town, watching the grey animal disrupting everybody and getting a kick out of it, but when it walked into the local park by the river, an idea struck.
He ran ahead to the end of the park where the trees were close together. Having been brought up in the town, he knew that it was the only way out of the park.




The boy scampered up the tree and waited until the elephant was close. Just as it walked underneath, he dropped onto its back. The elephant broke into a run and the boy was forced to grab the large floppy ears like reins on a horse.
‘Whoa boy. Whoa.’ The voice was young and not at all mean like the adults in the circus and it soothed the elephant. Soon the whispers calmed him completely. By now, he was ready to rest. After all this was a lot of excitement for an elephant with a predictable life.
Before long, the animal was back in the circus having a sleep.
That night all of the townsfolk turned up at the circus. It was the most successful circus ever. Yet the only reason that they all came was to see the elephant that had stopped a town.




https://www.anthonyjlangfordbooks.com/books



Coming Soon,
The First in an ongoing Series; Dramatist or Illusionist - A Novel Gestation. Ongoing Updates about my Novels.

Also A New Series, Famous After Death.

and more Poetry and Stories.


Poem - Non Vitals


Non Vitals 

In Your Face 
Bloated 
Intrusive 
In Your Business 
Your Privacy is Penetrated 
You Have No Rights.



 
Mentally Stripped 
Can't be Raped 
If You're not Desired. 
Who said You had an Opinion? 
You = A Stat Adrift 
In a Overpopulated Mass 
You're the Unwanted Majority.

Don't Dare Speak 
Your Opinions 
And Essence Are Crass. 

Yet you were never Asked 
Consulted or Considered. 
Log Off 
Shut Down 
Your Privileges Denied 
You Crumple under the Weight of Numbers... 
This happened so Fast 
There is Nothing More Lonely 
Than being Irrelevant.

end.






(This time you get your opinion. 
Please see top of Page for Poll on this Poem) 
Coming Next, Trunk Town. A kids story. Until then,


Greatest Written Films - Being There (1979)

Being There (1979)





Chance (Peter Sellers) is a simple gardener employed by a wealthy man. When the man dies, Chance is left to fate. Oh the irony. His simplistic wanderings and philosophies soon find a chord. He happens to say the right things at the right time and people assume he is more intelligent that he really is, bringing him much attention. Being There is a satirical look at the trappings of the media and how we project onto others. It’s very similar in tone to Forrest Gump (‘94), itself born from a novel ('86). Some say Gump was born from Chance.





The screenplay by Robert C. Jones and Jerzy Kosinski is based on the Kosinski’s 1971 novella of the same name.

Sellers hounded Kosinski and Director Hal Ashbury for years to make the film, seeking a more serious role. His dedication paid off. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. It was the last film he saw released before he died. You can almost see him looking worn out, yet remains one of his best. The making of the film is seen in the solid biopic, ‘The Life and Death of Peter Sellers.’ ‘Being There’ also won a BAFTA for its writers.





Kosinski, a Polish Jew, who had survived the War by hiding, was a successful novelist prior to the film. Yet he was accused of plagiarising the story from a 1932 Polish novel, ‘The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma.’ Kosinski was a colorful character who enjoyed his fame and attracted his critics. Some say he even had a borderline personality disorder. Yet the claims were never proven, nor disproven and the mud stuck. He eventually committed suicide in 1991 at the age of 57.





Either way, the film remains a quiet triumph; subtle, ironic and with a dose of genius.



More on the film.
More on Jerzy Kosinski.
More on Sellers.


Coming Soon,
New Poetry,
A children's story, Trunk Town
and a new series in September, Famous After Death.

Wheelchair - A Poem based on experience



My recent experiences with my partner in a Wheelchair prompted me to write this poem. I don't wish to cast any aspersions on those who are permanently in them, but for those who can walk and suddenly find themselves in one, they must go through a period of transition. And that can't be easy.




For my partner, it's a brief period, 8 weeks in total, (and a further 6 on crutches) but I felt compelled to turn a thought to those who will never have that option.





W h e e l C h a i r


Trapped – Here
Entwined – By This
Restricted - By the Body
It's a Prototype Made Final.

The Flesh is Demanding – Selfish
The Mind Relegated
to Second Place
Nor Time
Nor Scope
To Soar
To Give Weight to these Dreams
To grow Skin and seethe Blood
To these flowing Whims
Held Backward
Steel Shoe Laced
And Perpetually Captive
By these Destroyed Limbs.

The Design is Faulty
Bones but Fractured Bars
The Chair – a Mobile Prison.

Forever Reminding
Of the Life
I had Before.



https://www.anthonyjlangfordbooks.com/books


Coming Soon,
Another in the series on Greatest Written Films,

Feedback (of any kind) appreciated.

A Flash Fiction for the Net Generation




Enter-Net.

One of those stories.



The girl clicks the mouse. Electrons dance and the screen surges. A white beam shoots up her arm and sucks her into the net. It isn’t as she imagined. Numbers fly every which way, streams of code, like those movies, without the fancy colors and sound effects. It is noiseless. It is dull.
Millions of people logged in, infatuated, giving credence to cyber novels of yore. If only they could see what she sees. It's really quite dull. How much time had she wasted? Online.
On. And now In.
A code zooms by.


6 3 7 5 2
What? Is that minutes? Surely not hours. Oh my God! That’s her life! And what did it all mean? What did she get out of it? But the internet had the possibility for so much good! Right? What had she used it for? Surfing… chatting… She had made some real friends... Well, maybe not real, she’d never met them, never actually spoken to them, but they were real… Weren’t they?
But… But...
What about…
She struggled to think of the good things. She knew there had to be many things. So many. But all she could recall at that moment was the cold hours in her room.
On her own.
Wasted.
What a fucking waste.
I’ll stop. I’ll change! I swear…
A code appears.



2 8
What are you saying? Two. Eight. Too late?
But I’ll change… I promise!
I'll…
The electrons fire again, her arm frazzles. And she's out.
She lifts groggily from the keyboard.
Dribble on the keys, seeping in-between.
‘Crap.’
She snatches the nearest piece of clothing, a dirty sock from the floor and quickly wipes the keyboard.
She tests the computer.
It still works.
‘Lucky.’

87457864578364573475748578578816076139843689576485678465762437561378564785617845678456475891457834657864578167856487156470657846578214365016458764350610956147657045781465716457437548758987934908490845873673289793476895566478945943878249458768578456746573675826645287285767674365764752054654643485643785643856734658465765012459475894564568362765435648957892475987435275847358972859763485673465345643285643858456846846584658632862894658945894758975874857348572540759857897589465897234657346345632456266324562=2678562356389684658945897348578937536523=2612611133010140346790749757457171545718457845719485395490745856987569875684764897625876557267623756746782689901278156343274684945574786784658946574598648516498578657185647985671846161897564785687346547589074=0571571895165814335445345354353543453452380917345990845147561745617365781465701645716478563756374567645167456745674657665147656174567345714746572647167851567164576147556475647567657816475467856716576147561475678465786574657184657645781647856978561785678164571658716874678165781651784658764785617450817465781657864583478t3246253645324573437473247364036476343746=364723676853453454763278463274672364723647326473647374673763764654764+475643756753................


ends

(Inspired by a teen I know who spends way too much time online).


https://www.anthonyjlangfordbooks.com/books



Coming Soon,
A new Poem, Wheelchair
and more Greatest Written Films,

Until Then,