Category: Poetry
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Spend It Now or Pass It On?
The quality of his heirsMust give pauseTo him whose lootIs slated for their jaws. A rather more classical meditation on this theme we find in Horace. Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae tempora di superi? Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico quae dederis animo. Who knows if Jove who counts our score Will toss…
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Seventeen-Syllable Sketches
Be Between phony formalityAnd false familiarityBe. Pulp, p. 152 Aim lowDon't tryTo sleep in your own bed at nightIs success enough. Bukowski Too degradedTo be called effeteHis droppings were poemsNonetheless Meat Wheel Meat wheel rollingEver voidingHopes of mortalsMoiling In the Void. Maker of Gravemakers Born to dieLupine Road 1922Wolf to girlsWho make graves. Forgetful Troglodyte…
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Don Colacho’s Aphorisms
If you value aphorisms, do not miss these specimens from a master. Example: Poetry rescues things by reconciling matter and spirit in the metaphor. Permit me a quibble. There are poets who eschew metaphor in favor of metonymy, Bukowski, for example. If you protest that he is not a 'real poet,' I won't put up…
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Theodore Roethke’s “Dolor”
Listen.
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Variations on a Theme
Life's a bitchAnd then you die. Life is a bitch. And then you die?No: Life is a joyous adventure. And then you die. (Ed Abbey, Confessions, p. 325) Life's a beachAnd then you dive. Life's a beach? Which?Sonova Beach. Life's a bitchBut I'm married to one. (Redneck bumpersticker) Life's a bitchBut I found my niche.…
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Philip Larkin Reads “Aubade”
Reading by Larkin. A reading by another, with text. This is a great poem!
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Herder on the Dream of Life
Ein Traum, ein Traum ist unser LebenAuf Erden hier. Wie Schatten auf den Wolken schweben Und schwinden wir. Und messen unsre trägen TritteNach Raum und Zeit; Und sind (und wissen's nicht) in Mitte Der Ewigkeit . . . Johann Gottfried Herder My loose translation: A dream, a dream is our lifeHere upon the earth. In…
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A Poem by Robert Dodsley (1703-1764)
From The Oxford Book of Short Poems, eds. Kavanagh and Michie, OUP 1985, p. 100: Song Man's a poor deluded bubble, Wandering in a mist of lies,Seeing false, or seeing double, Who would trust to such weak eyes?Yet, presuming on his senses, On he goes, most wondrous wise:Doubts of truth, believes pretences, Lost in error lives and dies.
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To Brandeis Girl
I gave you my love You handed it backA letter unread.You said,"It was wrongly addressedTo being-in-loveAnd not to me." You were wrong about that.I loved love, but you too.You should have handed it backWithout explanation.Better a brute refusalThan a refusal rationalizedBadly. With that I began to take a hard-eyed look at youThe cataracts of love…
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Non-Nature-Themed Haiku
Haiku Grammar Lament Into desuetudeFalls the subjunctive moodAlong with the hyphen. Haiku Commentary on Marx's 11th Thesis on Feuerbach The Marxist Nowhere ManAttempts to changeWhat he does not understand. Anti-Commie Haiku Utopic heads in fog,They broke real eggsFor an unreal omelet. 9/11 Haiku Nihilist numbskullsVirgins in brain,Topple a tower with a plane.
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Kerouac October Quotation #9: Mexico City Blues 228th Chorus
Kerouac reads.
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My Angelic Wife
One indicator of her angelicity is her support of my chess activities — in stark contrast to the wives of two acquaintances both of whose 'better' halves destroyed their chess libraries in fits of rage at time spent sporting with Caissa. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," wrote old Will. I'm no bard,…
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Poetry as a God Substitute?
From the mail: Thanks for your blog. It deals with matters of real interest (…using the word 'interest' in its original sense of 'it matters'). [From Latin inter esse, which is suggestive.] Perhaps you could elaborate on something you mentioned in your (very funny) post on some aphorisms of Wallace Stevens: After one has abandoned…
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Sans Souci
The renter builds no equity In exchange his abode is sans souci. Me I'd rather own something real And leave it to my stoicism to adjust how I feel.
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Haiku Commentary on Marx’s 11th Thesis on Feuerbach
The Marxist Nowhere Man Attempts to change What he does not understand.