Poetry

[Beppo]

The first thing that might draw your attention in Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson is the trouble with ambiguity:

An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful. I propose to use the word in an extended sense, and shall think relevant to my subject any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.¹ Sometimes, especially in the first chapter, the word may be stretched absurdly far, but it is descriptive because it suggests the analytical mode of approach, and with that I am concerned.

¹In the first edition I made it 'adds some nuance to the direct statement of prose.' This, as was pointed out, begs a philosophical question and stretches the term 'ambiguity' so far that it becomes almost meaningless. The new phrase is not meant to be decisive but to avoid confusing the reader; naturally the question of what would be the best definition of ambiguity (whether the example in hand should be called ambiguous) crops up all through the book.

[Beppo]

nnyhav

The villanelle had an effect but late: so I'm thinking post another for more effect:
   

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose the lions all get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.


If I Could tell You
WH Auden                     

[nnyhav]

I'm sorry to have taken it down, Beppo, am reposting below; first, tho, refs to other Empson available online -- the villanelles themselves seem overambitious somehow, the other just a bit of fun:

Missing Dates: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/202.html
Villanelle: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/706.html
Just a Smack at Auden: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1311.html

Reflection from Anita Loos

No man is sure he does not need to climb.
It is not human to feel safely placed.
"A girl can’t go on laughing all the time."

Wrecked by their games and jeering at their prime
There are who can, but who can praise their taste?
No man is sure he does not need to climb.

Love rules the world but is it rude, or slime?
All nasty things are sure to be disgraced.
A girl can’t go on laughing all the time.

Christ stinks of torture who was caught in lime.
No star he aimed at is entirely waste.
No man is sure he does not need to climb.

It is too weak to speak of right and crime.
Gentlemen prefer bound feet and the wasp waist.
A girl can’t go on laughing all the time.

It gives a million gambits for a mime
On which a social system can be based:
No man is sure he does not need to climb,
A girl can’t go on laughing all the time.


REFLECTION FROM ANITA LOOS. There is a strong paragraph in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes about Louie's spats. Dorothy told him to take them off, because "Fun's fun, but a girl can't laugh all the time." When she saw his socks she told him to put his spats back on. Unconsciously generalising from the fine character of Dorothy, I seem to have taken a very feminist view here; actually no doubt women are about as ambitious as men. The lime is meant to be birdlime (also hanged criminals are buried in ordinary lime). I had better say some more about the line, as many readers may find it merely offensive. Anyway the religion of love produced appalling cruelties when made a government institution, but it seems arguable that the ideas of Jesus himself got fatally connected under the stress of persecution with the official and moneymaking cult of blood sacrifice, which he had tried to combat. That he drove out of the temple the doves that were being sold for sacrifice just before he became one is an awful irony in his story. The way earlier societies seem obviously absurd and cruel gives a kind of horror at the forces that must be at work in our own, but suggests that any society must have dramatically satisfying and dangerous conventions; and people can put up with almost any political conditions, either because they are lazy or because they are ambitious.

[kitinkaboodle]

Summer's lease hath all to short a date.

                    --W. Shakespeare



August rushes by like desert rainfall
A flood of frenzied upheaval
Expected
But still catching one unprepared
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled
A moment
Shadows caught in a blink
Like a quick kiss
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave
Dragging summer away

                    --E. M. Taylor





Simply sharing...

[madupont]

Kenneth Rexroth on the student movement, 1960

"The Students Take Over"

In talking about the Revolt of Youth we should never forget that we are dealing with a new concept. For thousands of years, nobody cared what youth were doing. They weren’t news. They weren’t minding.

They aren’t minding now. That isn’t news. They haven’t been minding since the days of.... F. Scott Fitzgerald. In those days, they were cutting loose. In the thirties, they were joining up.... During the McCarthy Epoch and the Korean War, they were turning their backs and walking away. Today they are striking back. That is news. Nobody else is striking back.

--Kenneth Rexroth, July 2, 1960 in the Nation magazine

[Chakotay]

Just dropping by. Thought I'd share some haikus written as Microsoft error messages in Japan:

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and
unhelpful Microsoft error
messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry
has strict construction
rules - each poem has only 17 syllables; 5 syllables
in the first, 7 in
the second, 5 in the third. They are used to
communicate a timeless
message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and
powerful insight through
extreme brevity. Here are 16 actual error messages
from Japan.

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.


The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.


Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.


 
Program aborting
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence
"My Novel" not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao-until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

 
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank....

[madupont]

Oh, those Japanese poets.

                                     Haiku Poets
 

 

Autumn evening —
A crow on a bare branch.

                                                               BASHÔ (1644-1694)

 

An old pond —
The sound
Of a diving frog.

                                                               BASHÔ

 

On this road
No one will follow me
In the Autumn evening.

                                                               BASHÔ

 

Summer grass
Where warriors dream.

                                                                BASHÔ

 

The tree from whose flower
This perfume comes
Is unknowable.

                                                                 BASHÔ




 

A blind child
Guided by his mother,
Admires the cherry blossoms.

                                                            KIKAKU (1660-1707)




Wild goose, wild goose,
At what age
Did you make your first journey?

                                                             ISSA (1763-1827)

 

In my life
As in the twilight,
A bell sounds.
I enjoy the freshness of evening.

                                                              ISSA


I can see the stones
On the bottom fluctuate
Through the clear water.

                                                              SHIKI (1867-1902)

 

Frozen in the ice
A maple leaf.

                                                               SHIKI

 

Shitting in the winter turnip field
The distant lights of the city.

                                                                SHIKI


Translations/Kenneth Rexroth

[Chakotay]

Here's a funny little poem that a friend sent me some time ago. It was apparently written for Valentine's Day. I like the play on words.  Like so many, it was written by A. Nony Mous:

   If You Carrot All For Me

Cabbage always has a heart;
Green beans string along.
You're such a Tomato,
Will you Peas to me belong?

You've been the Apple of my eye,
You know how much I care;
So Lettuce get together,
We'd make a perfect Pear.

Now, something's sure to Turnip,
To prove you can't be Beet;
So, if you Carrot all for me
Let's let our Tulips meet.

Don't Squash my hopes and dreams now,
Bee my Honey, dear;
Or tears will fill Potato's eyes,
While Sweet Corn lends an ear.

I'll Cauliflower shop and say
Your dreams are Parsley mine.
I'll work and share my Celery,
So be my Valentine.

[kitinkaboodle]

Chakotay--

Now that was corny...

[Chakotay]

I like to write haikus, so here's one I wrote for Halloween:

Halloween

Chill air stirs dry leaves;
a snaggle-toothed pumpkin grins,
waiting for its prey.

[barton]

Three things are certain
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.


LOL

Haiku provokes thought:
maybe death IS lost data
Big magnet's grim swipe.

[kam]

they call me the hiphopapotamus, flows that glow like phosphorous
poppin off the top of this esophagus, rockin this metropolis
i'm not a large water-dwelling mammal. Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis?

my rhymes are so potent, that in this small segment
i made ALL of the ladies in the forum pregnant
yes, sometimes my words seem sexist
but you lovely bitches and hos should know i'm tryin to correct this

others posters diss me ... say my rhymes are sissy

Why?  

Be more constructive in your feedback, please.

Why cuz i rap about reality?
Like me and my Grandma drinkin a cup o tea?

There aint to party like my nanna's tea party, hey ho!

[pugetopolis]

I Want To Be

I want to be—
a Young Republican
so I can suck dick
and still be kosher.

I want to be—
Tammy Faye Bakker
so I can praise god
and make a million.

I want to be—
a Congressman
so I can make it
with all the Pages.

I want to be—
an Astronaut
Mars needs women
And so I.

I want to be—
a NYTimes reporter
so I can pimp
for Condoleeza.

I want to be—
the first gay Prez
so I can ban
Heterosexuality.

I want to be—
first gay poet laureate
so I can say
Walt Whitman rules!!!

[desdemona222b]

Anyone up for a dirty limericks writing contest?

[Donotremove]

Puge, I don't understnd the 4th one.