Jim Daniels' Poetry

Before enjoying the comforts of the Billy Goat Tavern, a person wishing to go there must leave the bright, sunny streets of downtown Chicago and travel down a flight of stairs into shady Lower Michigan Avenue. Upon entering, the familiar scents of greasy, salty burgers fill a customer's nose. He/she looks warily at the wooden walls covered in peeling brown paint, which one would expect to see in an old haunted house. Some impetuous customers have left their mark on the tavern walls. The written and carved names meander around numerous framed newspaper articles from the mid-1900's.

Johnny Walker Sera walked into Circle K on fifth st. without noticing it had not been remodeled since 1986, and that someone from another, more financially kept city might actually find the convenience store to be disgusting, the dirt being so thick on the windows that you could only see blurry faces on the inside. Inside she saw five people in the store and believed that all of them were staring at her, looking through her like they knew more about herself than she did. The clerk, she thought, had even looked up from her monotonous duties at the cash register to glance her wrinkled leathery face in Sera's direction. An ugly bum in the beer section reached into the cooler with a calloused black hand as Sera walked through the candy aisle to pick up a case of Budweiser. "Ah yes, forty ounces to freedom."

I had a definite, differentiated response to this piece of literature because in my occupation I can relate to both cafe workers. Hemmingway's somber tale is about conquering late night loneliness in a bright cafe. The customer drinking brandy suffers from it and so does the older waiter. However, the younger waiter cannot understand loneliness because he probably hasn't been very lonely in his life. He mentions a couple times throughout the story that he wished to be able to go home to his wife, yet the old man and old waiter have no wives to go home to like he does.

The reasoning I presume for this action is due to not wanting to drink alone in a bar, but still drink alone in a corner, or at the end of the bar. With their he... ... middle of paper ... ...he air with gusto. Everyone in the bar saw it coming and yet the bartender still let it happen.. I would like to call it boredom on the bartender's behalf due to wanting something to stir up the crowd and get the Freshman out the door and make the scene balanced once again. The next time you walk into a bar and see that all the elements seem to be at balance and the bartender is smiling ear to ear, you'll know that this will be the bar you'll stay at.

After all I needed the odd smoke after a day with the odd bunch at the factory. I liked to go to the pub and imagine the scenes of the men drinking. I sometimes even took a small bottle of scotch on a Friday, which was my treat. My visits first began when I found an... ... middle of paper ... ...his was your domain, but not anymore. They may have buried me in fifty-six but the balance of power I now own.

It was a bitter winter evening in New York the night I met Rufus. A sinister cool mist had been blown in by a nasty, biting wind, the kind that sends a shiver right down to your bone marrow, but thankfully I wasn’t outside. I was sitting in The Magic Hat, a tiny, smoky jazz club, one renowned for its lack of classy clientele, throwing back whiskey sours like they were going outta style. The bitterness of whiskey had always made me flinch, not that I cared about the flavour of the damn things, so long as I was filling my blood-stream with some kinda alcohol, I was keeping off reality for another 30 minutes. A combination of a bad week and lousy weather can push a guy to find any kind of numbing anaesthetic nearby, even overpriced bullshit like whiskey.

Laurens was a slave activist and he helped make it so slaves were allowed to fight in the continental army. Alexander Hamilton stepped into the musty, old bar and completely ignored the people staring at his bleeding arm. He plopped down on the bar stool; it gave a loud groan. Alexander had just ordered a drink to escape the pain in his arm, when a handsome, young soldier came and sat down next to him, “So…” he said in a smooth

In today’s world, going to bars and drinking is a popular thing to do. Many people associate bars with hanging out with a lot of friends and having a good time. The 2011 Heineken’s “The Switch” Commercial persuades the audience to believe that happiness, confidence, and a bright life begins with drinking Heineken beer. In this ad, three men, wearing tuxedos, walk into what looks to be like is going to be another boring, lifeless, and grimy bar. The few people that were in the bar were slouched over and looked very spiritless.

They took-up a booth at the rear of the lounge. Evan carefully selecting the table because of its proximity to the bar’s rear exit that spilled out into the far side of the bowling alley. As they entered, the bartender had been busy washing wine glasses in a basin tucked away under the bar. He looked up at Evan and Angela while they seated themselves and said, “There’s no waitress on duty, so if you folks would like anything just let me know.” “Two coffees,” replied Evan, and then he looked down at Liam. “And a milk for the kid if you got it.” “Chocolate,” Liam demanded.

He is in a tavern talking amongst the whalers. He asks if they know of any ships on witch he could board as a hand for the captain. One of the stories he receives is of a man named Ahab. He is offering good pay and good work for any man who wants to join him on his ship. the only problem is that people say that he is a rather evil man.