Tuesday, September 18, 2018

THE CIRCUS



Submitted to dVerse Tuesday Poetics
September 18, 2018
In their heyday, traveling circus trains were a mile long
and included living quarters for performers and 
animal keepers.  In the day of long ago, farm boys
were given free tickets to the circus for pasting
the advertising posters on barns, most likely the birth
of American advertising!  It's those posters of long
ago that cling to the corners of my mind.




Somewhere in mind's cobwebbed corners 
I see the weathered barn
Proudly wearing the posters
The circus is coming to town!

*************
Photo is my own digital collage.



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15 comments:

  1. brudbergSeptember 18, 2018 at 12:27 PM

    I like how you went back to those old posters... they do matter and tell more than any stories of the expectation people felt from the circus

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  2. Gillena CoxSeptember 18, 2018 at 12:31 PM

    Lovely circus memoir Bev.
    Happy you dropped by my blog today

    Much😊💛😊love

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  3. Frank HubenySeptember 18, 2018 at 12:40 PM

    It occurs to me that barns were a good way to advertise in those days without TV.

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  4. sarahSeptember 18, 2018 at 12:54 PM

    Made me think of lost hopes and faded dreams.

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  5. UnknownSeptember 18, 2018 at 1:01 PM

    I remember the signs too. We only ever went once, and to be honest, I don't really recall the show, but the posters had such allure.

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  6. Glenn ButtkusSeptember 18, 2018 at 1:17 PM

    Poster Art is a favorite interest of mine, Circus and vintage movie posters. Too often the posters were better than the show!

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  7. Anmol (HA)September 18, 2018 at 3:10 PM

    Oh, those posters carry such nostalgia in them. I saw one recently tattered and dirty with its bright imagery that evoked the same feelings as your words.
    I really like your take.
    -HA

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  8. Dorianna Ric (paintswithwords)September 18, 2018 at 4:27 PM

    Yes, those posters used to be seen all over countryside barns...love the picture and walk down memory lane.

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  9. WaltermarksSeptember 18, 2018 at 5:01 PM

    I remember that poster boys got free entrance at the circus. I like your photo collage too. Thanks for taking us down memory lane

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  10. NosaintSeptember 18, 2018 at 6:03 PM

    Thanks for sharing your memories of the posters and the farm boys with their free tickets, this was something I never knew about!

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  11. Dwight L. RothSeptember 18, 2018 at 7:45 PM

    Amazing how images seem never to die in our minds. The name Barnum and Baily will also be stuck in the same file.

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  12. Kim M. RussellSeptember 18, 2018 at 11:18 PM

    We had similar poster when I was growing up in London but no free tickets. I think I only ever went to the circus once when I was a child - I cried so much that my parents never took me again!

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  13. GinaSeptember 19, 2018 at 4:43 AM

    those posters are very nostalgic, again it reminds me of TV series i watched set in the dust bowl of America.

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  14. annell4September 19, 2018 at 7:23 AM

    Those were the days, of our inoccence. I enjoyed our poem.

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  15. purplepeninportland.comSeptember 20, 2018 at 7:57 AM

    I love those old posters!

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