JAMES KELSO
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Et Cetera

FOR EVERY 100 AMERICANS, 120 GUNS The Guardian 
Americans are a very frightened race. 

2.30am IN JR HOSPITAL.
Nurse shakes sleeping patient awake.
​'Would you. like me to remove your dentures?'

'Madam, these are my own teeth.'

​THE SAD WHITE LAB OF WATLINGTON

Haunts the High Street
In the early hours
Dragged by its owner,
Too fast for its ancient legs, 
Head torch blinking distress
We love our pets

BACK IN THE GERMAN 30s
Did the burghers of Munich
Think the nazis would lead
To Auschwitz? 
Not for a moment
Would I vote Reform?
Not for a moment
Not for a moment
 
DANCE IS NOT SOMETHING FRED ASTAIRE DOES.
It happens to him, like a fit of the giggles.
Susannah Clapp, The Observer

RUPERT MURDOCH CONFESSES!
But no one believes him!
Every hack, every lie, every scam, the lot!
Making it the most-read front page in newspaper history.
Collect it for your records - it'll be worth a fortune.
one day.
The big question - will he be pseud?
 
DAD DAD WAS A POET
A versifier, a rhymer of renown
Not in the league
Of the Swan of Avon
But even so, not bard

TRUMP & ​VANCE
Soiled their pants
And soiled the Oval office
 
What was cherished 
Has now perished
​
IF YOU ONLY READ ONE MORE BOOK
Make sure it is Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari.
Or Going Nuclear by Tim Gregory.

IN BIBLICAL TIMES
There were, of course,
No bibles. They came later,  
Centuries later. I
ntroducing Gods
And other odds and sods,
And that, pray,
Is where we are today.

SO, DON BABY, 
When was America great?
Was it during the Vietnam war?
When full of strength and might
We set that little naked girl alight?

YOU KNOW THAT MAN UPON THE STAIR
That famous bloke who wasn’t there?
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish to hell he’d go away.

IS DOUBLES DOWN A PLACE?
If so, where is it?

HAVE YOU NOTICED
How some correspondents to newspapers fall in love with their own words.? They write repeatedly. An example is the Keith Fletter’s page in the Grauniad.

WILL LEWIS
Englishman, publishes the ghost of the Washington Post.

POETRY
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. Marianne Moore, poet.


THERE'S MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL INSIGHT 
in a square centimetre of John Singer Sargent than in the whole of Francis Bacon’s oeuvre. 

FRANCIS BACON AT THE NPG 
Given the artist is illustrating the Sigmund Freud play book. And Freud’s theory of ‘medicalised Christianity’ no longer holds sway, is it time to review the painter’s status? Or at least some of the rasher works? Would Freud’s ‘abusive’ investigative methods be given licence to practise today?

BE GLAD RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE REPRESSED
Imagine where we'd be if their free creativity was unleashed..

JERUSALEM BY SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
Magnficent. Masterly. 800pp. I had not thought 
death had undone so many. TSE


40% OF INTERNET SEARCHES 
Are for porn (report says)
Given porn is pictures
​Does that make porn l’art du jour?
If so, so what?

UKRAINE
The saddest thing about
Putin’s little hobby war
Is the dead are just as dead
As in all wars before

PUTIN THE WARMONGER
Not getting any younger
What lies in waiting
Even more hating?


I AM NOT PUTTING THE KNOCK ON DOLLS.
​It's just that they are something to have around only when they come in handy...like cough drops..
​Sky Masterson, G
uys and Do;;s

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
And all at once, in all my annals,
I saw a crowd of solar panels

BREXIT BROKE BRITAIN 
Into leave or remain
Will it ever be put 
Together again?

SIX POINT PERCY SIGHTED AT WATLINGTON ARTWEEKS
United Nations informed., NATO alerted.

IT'S ALL CHANGE AT THE GARRICKY GARRICK
The bouncers are slinging them in.

PRESS ON
Rupert pays another whack
To those he says he didn’t hack
Things it seems are still a-mutter
Down in Murdoch's slimy gutter

TRUMP
Denies the insurrection
It’s hard for him to bear
It’s hard for him to see
What's obviously there

I WAS UP TO MY NECK IN A POTHOLE
Reflecting on life as you do
When I saw the lifeboat
Coming towards me
Crater love hath no man

WE HAD A BRIEF ENCOUNTER 
With honour and decency
But it never really was us.
Us is Liz Truss, the gutter press,
Brexit, and seizing every chance
To sing tragedy chants.

OL' MAN SEWAGE
That ol' man sewage
Spreading spillage
Around the village
It’s something Thames Water
Really oughter…

GARRICKY, GARRICKY, GARRICKY, GARRICK,
Dwells within a macho barrack
Protected from the feminine curse
Until it’s time for goodnight nurse

TREE ME, GOD
​
AT LEAST HER GRAVY USED TO MOVE ABOUT A BIT
Tony Hancock

IF TRUMP HAD TEN MEN LIKE CLOUSSEAU
He could destroy the world.

THE GRAINS OF SPACE
Separate apace
When so distant
Light can’t reach 'em
It's goodnight Mrs Beecham
 
I DON'T UNDERSTAND GENERAL RELATIVITY
I don’t understand quantum physics
I'm thick as two Plancks

IS THE BREAKFAST BAR AT PAUL'S RESTAURANT,
Haymarket Hotel, Central Stockholm, the best breakfast bar in Europe? The world? 

​RADIO 3, THE HOME OF REPETITIVE, ON-AIR PROMOS
Claiming excellence, never demonstrating it.

ADAM ELSHEIMER MAY BE 'THE MAN' 
His miracle multitudes,
On tiny copper sheets,
Aren’t easy on the eyes.
Personally I can't bridge
The bridge of size
​
WE WATCHED THE UK
Fall to bitz
We could have left it
To the blitz

WRITERS ON ART
Against all odds
Spend lots of time
Walloping cods

​THE N-U-S-A
The clench-ed fist 
The grab-ed pussy 
The N-U-S-A 
Is on its way

MY BRILLIANT, OVERPRICED NEW READING LAMP
It's so bright I can see how ugly it is.

BREXIT'S SUCCESS
Will never be forgot
Remind me again 
​
BBC VERSUS SIX POINT PERCY
The longest copyright dispute in British legal history. 

THE DAILY MALE
At school Dacre learned the 'C' word. It was all he ever needed. He became a famous editor. Totally succeeded. Fame and fortune followed. Right to the end, you see. Even today his name lives on, from ‘C’ to shining ‘C’.
​
IS FRANCIS BACON ILLUSTRATING Sigmund Freud? Would Sigmund Freud be allowed to practise today? 

​THE MORAL RIGHT OF THIS AUTHOR IS DETESTED

CHURCH OF ENGLAND
Umpteen followers, zero believers. No one will behead you if you set fire to the War Cry. Light up at will.

MAR-A-LAGO-ITIS
Symptoms, red neck, loss of vision, withdrawal from world and human race, excess of bile and hatred, highly contagious, no known cure, listed in DSM5.  

MORE HOT IN NUMBER 5 PLEASE

CONCERT 
Her first Prom nearly deafened the maiden.

NUT CASES 
Freud peddling medicalised Christianity. Jung believing in exploding wardrobes. 

RECITAL IN PRAISE OF BETTING SHOPS 
Where Corals Lie.

​'THE DOTTY WORLD OF MUSIC NOTATION' by James Kelso
“Mein Gott. If I had read this when starting out, maybe I 'd become somebody, instead of being just a bum.”
L. von Beethoven (Leslie not Ludwig.)

SKY GLASS TV 
I am not a hate-filled man
But then I bought Sky Glass
As I age I do not rage
But then I bought Sky Glass
Rarely felt the urge to kill
But then I bought Sky Glass
Peaceable I’d say, until the day
I bought Sky Glass
​
LETTER OF THE WEEK
As Radio Three morphs ever closer to Workers’ Playtime, please bring back Paul -“Wait in the car, Steve!” - Temple.

PENIS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
No, pen is mightier than the sword. Ah.

NASA'S SHOCK CRICKET ANNOUNCEMENT STUNS LORDS
Nasa’s decision to replicate Stonor Cricket Club’s ground on Mars  causes consternation. US Lt General Herzog von Rumblestrip said: “It is the most beautiful cricket ground on earth. And some things need to be exported." Stonor’s grumpy groundsman, Tony, said: “Yeah, why not.”

PRESSURE
Not a girl in the house washed and the street full of sailors.

BANKSY DENIES AUTHORSHIP OF SIX POINT PERCY'S
Et Cetera column. 

KANN NO VUN VERSTOPPEN VERSTAPPEN? 
Is gettink too mutch this Dutch 
Nurburgrings he’s running  around us 
Mayhappen orange is the only fruit

​THE DAILY TELEGRAPH'S 
Up for sale, up for sale, potential buyers goose-step this way.

FORMULA ONE'S DILEMMA
There aren't enough Adrian Neweys to go round.

​THIS IS LATIMER ROAD
​
AND SOME GRAPES IF THEY'RE ON OFFER.

THEY’RE BROWN, LET ‘EM DROWN
Vote Leave's new slogan..

THE PURPOSE OF ART IS TO BE UNNECESSARY 

NAME THE ART CRITIC
Highly knowledgeable, often insightful, always spiteful. Confuses petulance with perspicacity, meanness with meaning, rudeness with shrewdness. Male, of course, as in malevolent. Jokes, gags, a grin, a smile to please a child, come there none. Known in the trade as the Gerald Ratner of art critics. Hates art and most artists but, aw shucks, it’s a living.

WHO IS, WAS, WILL BE, THE NEXT SIX POINT PERCY? 

PHYSICS 1: 
There are five basic states of matter:
Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, and Doesn't.


​HE SHOULDN'T-A, HADN'T-A, OUGHN'T-NA SWANG... 

HOW BORIS JOHNSON BECAME ARCHIE RICE 
He rehashes his Peppa pig speeches. Happy as Larry. Happy as Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, the failing third-rate music-hall act. Perfect casting.

THIS I KNOW OF PHYSICS 
Quantum theory 
And general relativity 
Are incompatible. 
And a pint of water weighs 
A pound and a quarter 

"ET QUELQUES RAISINS S'ILS SONT OFFERTS..."

​GRAND DESIGNS
Book-less, picture-less.
Bannister-less stairs.
Barren as Arran.
Off-springs hate
Can’t bring friends home
House intimidates.

FAVOURITE ARTISTS
​
I'm one of the fans
Of the Vans
I very much lyck
Dyck and Eyck
​
​CHORAL EVENSONG
Still going strong
A lot of palaver
Read by ​Father Cadaver

​SHE HAD THE DAZED LOOK
common to parents of teenage percussionists.

TRAFALGAR
Landseer's lions
In the square 
View the 4th plinth
And despair

DUPUYTRENS

Listening to his piano-playing she wondered if and when Dupuytrens might strike.

"UND EINIGE TRAUBEN, WENN SIE ANGEBOTEN SIND..."

MOUTHWASH
It's said Elon Musk is so rich he could afford to pay Paul Dacre's  mouthwash bill.

MEMORY
What was that famous 20th century sexy novel? It began with an old person in bed with his catapult when the archbishop called?
 
REPAIR
I took the UK to the Repair Shop
They said nothing could be done
It's broken beyond repair stop
Something's made it come undone.


REMINISCE
Was it Ozymandias
Who used to play for Spurs?
No, that was Ossie Ardiles
He was mighty
Your man Dias never had a kick
Though that’s a bit unfair
We supported Fulham
So were always in despair

PAY ATTENTION TO PERFECTION
J.S. Bach said hark
The herald angel sings on high.
Fitzgerald, E., Ev’ry time
We say goodbye.
 
WHEN WAS IT
We lost the bottle of Britain?
When the m
any beat the Few?
When we were split down the middle?
Phew, I wish I knew.


SCOTS GNATS
I’ve an idea
To spare the red deer.
Let’s stalk midges
Instead.
 
Let’s fill up our fridges
Baps and sandwiches
With the chironomidae,
Dead.
 
I itch to dispatch them
Catch them and scratch them.
I lust for their
Blood running red.
 
Out with the venison
In with the benison
For Scotland, my neck
And ma heid.

"NA BAADHI YA ZABIBU IKIWA INA OFA..."

THE PAINTER
Once he’d seen his oeuvre
In the Louvre
Pendant at the Nat and in
The Met
And been thrilled to bittzi
When it dangled in Uffizi
And known how sublime it
Was to Guggenheim it
And swooned into a coma
When he made it into Moma
With red spots like measles
On the product of his easels
And when a bit of wall space
He did squidge,
In darkest Russia’s
Splendid Hermitage,
He chucked his beret on the fire
For man can reach no higher
And having made his mark
He spent the day at
Kempton Park.
 
ESSEX ACCENT 
Where-a be yer gooin’? 
I baint-a gooin’ nowhere
​
I just-a cumming baack.
 
[email protected] - 07881 908903
​GALLERY







  • Home
  • About JK
  • Gallery 1
    • Dune
    • The Winter's Tale
    • The Raft
    • Vespers
    • Dupuytrens
    • Farewell to Stockevik
    • Gallery 2
    • Gran Via
    • Carriers
    • Isolation
    • La Malvinie
    • 16 Walpole
    • The Ghost Tanker
    • The Shipping Forecast
    • The Didcot Interpretation
    • Site
    • Lake Keitele
    • Tom Stoppard
    • The Maybe Man
    • Double Self Portrait With Knees
    • Post Ironic Iron Horse
    • Terminus
    • Cleared to Land
    • Matins
    • The Worm Forgives the Plough
    • Isolation
    • Red Spotty
    • Landed
  • Prints
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Landed
  • Et Cetera
  • doc, can you.../
  • The Dotty World of Music Notation./
  • Carol Coles
  • Flag