Biography - Dave's Booking-In Notes 2002

Cherry

By Ray Schaufeld

Sun, 16 Feb 2014
  • 5319 reads
16 comments
 
Dave booked him in.
And when I came on shift that night
At St Francis House
At hand-over I learned
 
He'd booked in Pat.
Prisoner for 14 years
Then released under
The Good Friday Agreement,
Told the night before release
That he would be freed tommorrow.
 
Then turned loose
Out the prison gates
With one weeks dole money.
 
Was senior IRA-man.
'Yeh - must have killed a few,'
We muttered
Sort of in horror-awe
Accepting it.
 
And now for past three years
South coast of England
From place to place
In homeless hostels
Two or three days in each
Staying a couple of days
And nights
Then moving
Moving on and on
From place to place.
 
Well Scotch Andy
Had walked off the shift
That afternoon
When Dave told him who he had booked in
And his story.
Andy was ex-marine
Couldn't be in the same building
As Pat
Knowing what Pat had done.
 
So we talked about that
In down-home indignation
'Cos you don't walk off a shift
You just
Don't!
 
And me
I read Dave's three pages
Of well penned and clearly expressed
Italic hand.
 
And dreamed up my own
Resettlement plans for Pat.
Ken Livingstone, Lord Mayor of London
If we phoned up maybe Ken could find
A council flat for him.
 
Yeh - ideas
That's me.
 
Don't think I ever saw Pat once
Before he left.
 
And all I maybe know
The rooms
The room
Always the same
Just about clean
With the tired walls
And the bare, basic furniture
The bed, wardrobe, set of drawers, table, chair
And maybe out the tired curtains
A little bit of view
 
                            That room
                            That little little room
                             And a not that big a person's body
                            Lying there under the duvet
                            Lying there inside the bed
 
                           
                            And the whole of Pat
                            And the whole of it
                            Contained inside.
 
 
And outside being
Out
     Out     there.
 
(my God).
 
I'm glad Dave booked Pat in
Dave writes his notes
Well.
 

 

 

Certificate PG
Poem
All I want is a room somewhere
Biography
Journal

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

I'm not sure why you go to bold face. But the prosaic and the profound are intermingled here.
 

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for the comment. The tale is competely true by the way although I have adjusted the names a tiny bit (I cannot in fact remember the man's surname). The bits in bold face are where I would slow down and use more emphasis when I read this aloud          Elsie

 

Hey cheers to the greengrocer too!

Submitted by blackjack-davey on

I think it's very moving the description of the rooms, the rooms Pat will be exchanging for other identical rooms, his ongoing containment and confinement although he is free. Simplicity of the last stanzas matches the starkness of these final rooms. Personally, the bold distracts from my reading experience. This should be good live

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks  for this. You are the 2nd reader who has  questioned my use of bold type - I might change it so all the type is the same. Yes, thanks for your kind last comment, it is a poem which I hope which will work as spoken word .       Elsie

Submitted by jeand on

HI Elsie

Interesting story, and I'm glad to know its true. What a boring life Pat has lived since his heady IRA days.  But just his presence added interest to the lives of others.

 

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Jean, thanks for this.His presence certainly made me think.

Boring? That's the bit we'll never know. Somewhere in a back corner of my head I feel that what was happening  to him was a massive sense of lost restlessness, as if the whole wide world cannot ever be wide enough to contain him.

It is also possible that Pat's constant moves were for his personal safety. At one time he was involved in organising the deaths of a number of people. Some of the victim's immediate families may be very angry.

I found it impossible to put all this in the poem and might try at some future time to develop the theme with a new poem, either about Pat or about a new person. Or possibly a longer story with Pat as the second character..          Elsie
 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Bear thanks for this. Yes it's better with italics, the bold was a bit of and eyesore. I  like your comments about the build-up.

Whatever we think of what the man did (I have for many years been strongly against organised killings of any sort and disapprove both of Pat's past and the past of Scotch Andy, making little distinction between them), this is an appalling way for the Home Office to release a long-term prisoner. One week's dolemoney and no place lined up to go.....    Elsie

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

A brilliant piece, elsie...begging to be read out loud.

Tina

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Tina, thankssmiley   Elsie

Submitted by VeraClark on

Elsie, there's so much I love about this piece. The tale-telling amongst the staff, Pat growing in fear stature along his travels. His hand-to-mouth lifestyle beckons and the speculative tension of what Pat contains deep inside himself, unknown to all, because of his crimes, builds and gives this hard-hitting emotional density. Have been back several times to read it. 

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Glad you liked this, Vera. Considering I am not even sure if I spotted him before he moved on again Pat certainly gave me pause for thought.

BTW my resettlement notions were not as dizzy as it might appear at first glance. Ken Livingstone, the then Lord Mayor of London, has always been friends with Gerry Adams so he might have stepped in to help. Maybe.

I hope that Pat (I forget his precise name) is alive and thriving these days and that he has been able to settle         Elsie

Submitted by VeraClark on

Not dizzy at all. Considering Pat'd be on a life licence, you'd think Gerry Adams would pull his finger out. Background's in homelessness, worked in a 'wet' daycentre for street drinkers for years. One notoriously dangerous individual was banned from every mode of public transport, every pub and basically every public building in Nottingham City. Nobody dared tell him to get out though.

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for the good feedback here,Vera and yes that's a good point about Pat being on a life licence.

I have twice worked with homeless folks (and also been homeless myself in 1999, spending 6 months in a B&B in Bournemouth for homeless individuals and families when myself and my 2 daughters moved back down South from Edinburgh).

Summer 1978 I worked as a volunteer at the Belfast Simon Community. All  the workers lived in and were volunteers. The administrator who did not live in got paid but not much, just enough to rent a flat in town. My ten weeks there were non-stop and sometimes bits still work their way into my writings. The piece on Abc here which employs some of my time there is entitled 'when the music stops.' The poem has Remembrance Day 2013 as it's jumping-off point and it has still to be set into 'cleave layout.' It is in Variegated Leaves.

2001 - 2004 I worked on the relief bank of a 40 bed project in Exeter filling in gaps in the rota, about two thirds of my shift being project work, a third being cleaning and 2 shifts as the cook!

These days I'm back on their books as a relief bank cleaner. Might look into the project work side of it although it would mean updating myself with all the new 'policies and procedures'. And  there's a queue to do it now and I think the relief bank workers are expected to do voluntary work first.

I sort of 'blow hot and cold' about re-entering the arena of homeless work. The question for me is not 'can I do it again' it is 'how much of myself would I wish to give?'

However it is a good thing that homeless people are given roofs over their heads        Elsie

Submitted by VeraClark on

I'll go and have a look at your pieces of work. Having been both sides of the coin possibly makes it a harder job emotionally and it's draining at the best of times. Rewarding though, hope you enjoy it if you jump back in.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Just came back to this again, Elsie. It certainly sets the scene for thought on the muddle of life being released from prison gives, and the little the state can  do to help, and the less that the state does. Just individuals who can, sometimes, help. And of course, the released person themselves praying grace for a way forward, and help towards some positive readjustment, new life, if they will. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Ray Schaufeld on

Thanks for reading and thinking Rhiannon and yes please pray for Pat to find find peace, hope, love and sunshine       Elsie