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Mark’s indigestion story… Was familiar… From forty years ago… To further emphasise… Our sense of… Endless drift… Bob told Mark’s story… When Mark wasn’t there… And re-told his… Scouser story… Which he last told… When last we met… They are good stories… But too few… And far between… It’s not our fault… That we lost the art of story telling… Arts have to be practised… To be retained… Like anything… The Irish bards… Could relate upwards of… One hundred and fifty stories… From memory… And some of these stories… Were epic tales… Which means… They lasted for hours… How?
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Repetition… Stock bridges… And phrases… Onomatopoeic runs… Rhymes… Parts of the story told in verse… These are all helpful devices… But it is still a prodigious feat… They also eschewed writing… Only commercial transactions… Eventually… Were committed to writing… Writing though… Gives us a clue… Because many writers… Report a phenomena… Variously known… As automatic writing… Or channeling… Both terms… Being woefully deficient… In accurately conveying… The phenomena to which they relate… Ghost writing would be better… But has been usurped… For a different purpose.
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The Epic of Ulster… Famously… Was related… By a ghost stone… Or Ghaist Stane… To lend it a Scots tone… Which means… There must have been… At one time… An understanding… That spirits… Dwelt in stones… Particularly standing stones… That is… Stones erected at a particular spot… For a particular purpose… Maybe that purpose… Was always… That they were there… To tell stories… The telling stone… Is a term that has cropped up… More than once… Another Bardic trait… Was… When pondering a problem… To retreat to a dark place… And lie… With a stone… On one’s chest.
France & Vincent 