tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58772133748487344622024-02-07T12:44:40.910-05:00Just a Guy Who Reads BooksStarting June 1 - Poetry Month!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comBlogger426125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-63153619059077616382017-08-13T12:27:00.001-04:002017-08-13T12:27:10.857-04:00Charlottesville Reaction<div class="MsoNormal">
On April 9, 1865, in Virginia, about an hour and a half
south of Charlottesville, Robert E. Lee surrendered. Lee was a traitor who
violated his oath to the US Constitution and led other traitorous soldiers
against the forces of the United States. On June 2, 1865, Edmund Kirby Smith,
who also broke faith with his country in violation of oaths he took as an
officer in the US Army, surrendered the last of the Confederate armies, and the
US Civil War ended. White Nationalism lost. Their attempt to create a white
nation failed. And then, because it was politically expedient, and because the
United States has a long and difficult past in regards racial harmony, they and
their ancestors were allowed to act as though that were not the case. They were
allowed to erect statues to traitors who violated their oaths, and who lost the
war they fought as a result of those treasonous actions. They were allowed to
fly a treasonous flag which symbolized treason and support for racially based
slavery. They were allowed to perpetuate their ideas of racial superiority, and
the de facto institution of slavery, because the Democrats, and then the
Republicans, needed their votes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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100 years later, in 1965, they lost again. No one needed
their votes that much anymore. Their repression of a significant percentage of
the Southern population, in terms of social interaction, access to public
services, and, significantly, voting rights could no longer be ignored. Dr.
King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, and their allies had made it very very hard to ignore
that repression. And so an overwhelmingly white government said, in essence, “Wait
a minute. They LOST the war in 1865. Why are we letting them pretend
otherwise?” and took some very small steps towards addressing that pretense.<o:p></o:p></div>
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52 years after that, people in the United States have started
to say, “Hey, didn’t they LOSE that war? Why do we have statues of loser
traitors who violated their oath to the US Constitution in our public spaces?
Why is the losing flag of a treasonous movement devoted to the preservation of
racial slavery flying over our public buildings? Shouldn’t we do something
about that?” And, for a wonder, government officials in control of those public
spaces and buildings are starting to agree, and act accordingly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What happened in Charlottesville, and what is probably going
to continue happening across the South for a little while, I’m very sorry to
say – those are the actions of a group of people who have been allowed to
pretend that they won, when, in reality, they did not. For 152 years, they
(their ancestors and themselves) have been able to say, sometimes out loud, and
sometimes quietly to themselves, “the history books say we lost, but when I go
into my public places, I see Robert E. Lee, and Edmund Smith, and all of the
other leaders of our briefly glorious white nationalist movement immortalized
in statues. I see the symbol of that movement flying over my government
buildings. And so I know that, even if people say otherwise, we actually won
that war.” Well, they didn’t. And now, as the statues are removed, and the flags
come down, and their entire ideology is repudiated, now they are responding. This
is not the response of people who are winning – this is the response of people
who are losing, and are finally being forced to come to terms with it. Dr. King
said that people in power never give up that power without a fight, and make no
mistake, the ability to dictate who we memorialize and how we remember events
is a pretty potent power. But they’ve lost. They lost in 1865, they lost in
1945, they lost in 1965, and they’re still losing now – torches and Nazi
salutes are the actions of losers. They want us to think they aren’t covering
their faces now because they’ve won – but really, it’s because they think they
have nothing left to lose. Our job now is to show them they are wrong. They
should be prosecuted as terrorists, but if not that, they should lose socially.
They marched with their faces uncovered; they should lose jobs, social
standing, the right to be served in restaurants. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Additionally, here’s a link to a list of links to a series
of Charlottesville charities which are congruent with civil rights/social
justice beliefs, and antithetical to the ideology of neo-Nazis, white
nationalists and racists. https://medium.com/@SaraJBenincasa/what-to-do-about-charlottesville-dfc7d6636d56<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-87277878672044736982016-07-09T14:27:00.001-04:002016-07-09T14:27:41.793-04:007/9/2016 - Collection month, Week 1 - Maggie Stiefvater - The Raven CycleFour books: <i>The Raven Boys</i>, <i>The Dream Thieves</i>, <i>Lily Blue, Blue Lily</i>, and <i>The Raven King</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
A friend of my wife recommended these, so she read them, and then handed them to me. She contended that I should review them one at a time, and read them as I reviewed them, but I'm an idiot and didn't do that. Instead, I read them all at once. Well, that's a lie, I read them all in a row, but with other books in between them, and I really shouldn't have done that, because there is a fantastic growth of characters, style, and strength of writing over the course of the series. That's lost, a little (for reviewing purposes) when read all together. So, this is not as good a review as it could be, because I should have spent all month reviewing them one at a time. Oh well.<br />
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These books are fantastic. Book one starts slow, with a standard introduction of characters - the Raven boys are attending a private boarding school in rural Virginia (I love boarding school novels, but this isn't really a boarding school novel), the mascot/crest is a raven. Richard Gansey III (Gansey), Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch - Gansey and Ronan share an apartment off campus, Adam rounds out their Three Musketeers, but refuses to live with them. Blue is a townie, and the child of a family of psychics. She's known since early childhood that when she kisses her true love, he will die. And, at the beginning of this book, we learn that this year will be the year in which that happens. Oh, and Blue is not herself psychic; however, she enhances the abilities of psychics when she's around. She meets the Raven boys when they come for a reading - Gansey is searching for the tomb of a Welsh king he believes was shipped to the New World for a hidden burial - he believes the tomb is nearby, and has something to do with the local ley lines. So, it's a coming of age series (as suggested by the themes of love, and the incidental setting of a boarding school), it's a fantasy series (as suggested by the psychics and the ley lines), it's a mystery/exploration series (as suggested by the lost king's tomb), and it's also shockingly, amazingly deep. Three books in, my wife said to me that she thought it might, for the right sort of reader, be a "warm blanket" series - the sort of books that you return to when everything around you seems confusing and gross. Having read the books, I concur - the characters deal with and resolve mysteries of missing Welsh kings and magic, but also the more mundane mysteries of love, friendship, family, loyalty and making the sort of decisions about life paths that create the sense of confusion and grossness which precipitates the need for such "warm blanket" books. At the end of the series, there is a strong sense that, even if not everything ends happily, everything ends, and sometimes happiness can be wrung, through great effort, from the ending of things. There is a delight and a comfort in watching other people struggle with, and overcome, issues of life.<br />
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Oh, but these books are also more than that! I read them in and amidst June's poetry, and Stiefvater has a decidedly poetic style. As the series grows, so too does the style; Stiefvater uses language with a delightful and delicate touch that builds a sense of character, enhances the tension of the novels, and, really, makes these a pure joy to read.<br />
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I can't guarantee that they will be "warm blanket" books for you - I don't think they will be for me, because I already have a number of those tucked away as needed - but I can say this: if you like mysteries magical and mundane, books about love, life, and loyalty, strong characters who consistently surprise and delight, and poetic language which does not detract from the solidity of the overall work, then you will almost certainly like these books.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-43898387962667597132016-06-30T17:02:00.000-04:002016-06-30T17:02:21.620-04:00Poetry Month, Day 30, redux, Miriam Dunn, _Who Will Love the CrowPublishing poetry has become increasingly easy over the past ten years. (Making money publishing poetry - still fiendishly difficult, but a different story). This is a slim volume of poetry and some photographs. Many of the poems were delightful. I especially liked Dunn's quirky rhyme scheme (in the poems that had rhymes) - making poems rhyme is actually really really hard, and making them rhyme is a way that is not ABBA CDDC and such is even harder. Also, Dunn's use of rhythm (in the poems where there was a consistent rhythm) throughout is good, pulling the reader through the poem. A few of the poems felt a little self-indulgent - but then the poem that I find self-indulgent may resonate more fully with you, and vice-versa. There are also some pleasantly silly poems, and a series of haiku.<br />
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If that all sounds eclectic - well, it is. My chief criticism is that there is no cohesion here, no theme which pulls the whole book together, just a collection of poems, all (well, mostly) individually excellent, but with very little to suggest why they should be placed next to each other.<br />
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There were several poems that I found really really good, but because I posted some Matthew Arnold the other day, this one seems most appropos:<br />
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Still, Dover Beach<br />
<br />
The ebb and flow of love,<br />
smooth pebbles tossed against the shore,<br />
leaves unbelievers lost,<br />
rough tumbled in its roar.<br />
<br />
Pale specter of the world,<br />
its shadows fall on darkling plain;<br />
white cliffs will still loom tall<br />
'ere crumbling once again.<br />
<br />
And melancholy night<br />
in timeless paths across the sky,<br />
are stilled by lovers' words,<br />
though long centuries pass them by.<br />
<br />
For rivers of our time<br />
still interweave with currents past;<br />
covenants conceived,<br />
collected like sea-glass.<br />
<br />
A note hangs in the air;<br />
the channel's cry at end of day,<br />
voluminous with life,<br />
before its sweet decay.<br />
<br />
And there still hangs the moon,<br />
on Dover's tide, its plaintive song;<br />
eternal notes abide.<br />
Sea of faith still moves as strong.<br />
<br />
Old Sophocles could hear<br />
the voice of time within the spray;<br />
and now the voice is mine,<br />
lest my words be washed way.<br />
<br />
The ebb and flow of time,<br />
a love sea-tossed against the strand,<br />
retreat and then return,<br />
back to the moon-blanched land.<br />
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That sort of reply/response to other poetry, that's a thing I don't think you see (ever? often?) in any other forms of writing. Maybe in painting? Maybe in music, a little (although, that might result in a lawsuit these days). But the idea that a poet can have a conversation - well, a short one, perhaps - with another poet, although long dead - that's just wonderful. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-26323039207910302382016-06-30T14:23:00.000-04:002016-06-30T14:23:15.032-04:00Poetry Month Day 30I am sick. I have a (very very mild) fever, and my brain does not work. I really really want to post a coherent review of a collection of poetry here, but I don't trust my ability to type a full review. So you'll just have to wait, and hope that I'm better tomorrow.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-87258718293724505072016-06-28T21:32:00.005-04:002016-06-28T21:32:54.782-04:00Poetry Month, Day 28, William Blake, "Laughing Song"There are poems about negative outrageous fortune, many and many. Poetry is really good at expressing dismay at the unpleasant surprises that life affords. There are not so many poems about positive fortune - at least, I could not find any (if you know any, please, share!). Instead, here's a silly little bit by the normally gloomy and serious William Blake:<br />
<br /><br />Laughing Song<div>
<br />When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy,<br />And the dimpling stream runs laughing by;<br />When the air does laugh with our merry wit,<br />And the green hill laughs with the noise of it;<br /><br />when the meadows laugh with lively green,<br />And the grasshopper laughs in the merry scene,<br />When Mary and Susan and Emily<br />With their sweet round mouths sing "Ha, ha he!"<br /><br />When the painted birds laugh in the shade,<br />Where our table with cherries and nuts is spread:<br />Come live, and be merry, and join with me,<br />To sing the sweet chorus of "Ha, ha, he!"</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-6215480756983215802016-06-28T06:50:00.000-04:002016-06-28T06:50:04.310-04:00Poetry Day 27 (belated), Computer sonnetI was going to post this yesterday, I swear! From NPR's <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/27/480639265/human-or-machine-can-you-tell-who-wrote-these-poems">All Tech Considered</a>, computer written sonnets.<br />
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Quake with true fear of just reproach my shame</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">while her eyes came to me we sweetly sing</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">hand clasped in her breast her withered hands fling</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">yet by and claim loves boon nor let the tame</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">But this affliction sure thy heart inflame</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">he in silence come and assistance bring</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">then comes a small bright spark comes wandering</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">sorrows for him you gave that love once came.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Of doom lest any see the signal hear</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">that tremble through their incandescent nights</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">wave must dare if the while himself he cheers</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">what sudden bird will bring us any cheer</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Fled to that audit by advised respects</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">a sequent day to your world of gain roars.</span><br />
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;"><br /></span>
So, the idea was to have computers write sonnets in an effort to pass the Turing Test (which is to say, a computer which acts sufficiently like a human to fool another human). Poetry is a big step, since human poetry follows certain rules (as in sonnets - a certain number of lines, a particular number of syllables per line, and a cohesive rhyme scheme, often ABBA CDDC and the like, although there are several versions), which computers are good at, but also contain coherent and consistent images and sustained metaphor, which computers are not good at at all. (Having a computer compose blank verse might be more successful - you could convince the judges that the computer was a moody teenager, perhaps). The above was written by a computer, and it's not the worst poem I've read, but it's clear that the computer is still stringing words together to follow a set of programmed rules instead of crafting metaphors.<div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">A green nub pushes up from moist, dark soil.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Three weeks without stirring, now without strife</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">From the unknown depths of a thumbpot life</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">In patient rhythm slides forth without turmoil,</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">A tiny green thing poking through its sheath.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Shall I see the world? Yes, it is bright.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Silent and slow it stretches for the light</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">And opens, uncurling, above and beneath.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">The sun warms it and with a little time</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Another slight leaf joins its neighbor,</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">They crown slowly and birth without labor</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">Feeding on the air’s breath like a rhyme.</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">How can we know with body and with brain,</span><br style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;" /><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 27.2px;">The force that makes the earth suck up the rain.</span></div>
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By contrast, this is a human written sonnet - note the sustained metaphor; every phrase building to a logical image with a message and meaning. So, in a world run by computers, humans will still write poetry (for now...).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-31230198581401359162016-06-26T14:35:00.001-04:002016-06-26T14:35:40.769-04:00Poetry Month, Day 26, Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"Today, we are going to the lake, because it is Sunday and it is hot. So, here is a poem about a beach, and also for the Brexit vote, in a certain sort of way.<br />
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<span class="hdg hdg_utility" style="border: 0px; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.025em; line-height: 1.231; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/matthew-arnold" style="border: 0px; color: #045482; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MATTHEW ARNOLD</a></span></div>
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The sea is calm tonight. </div>
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The tide is full, the moon lies fair </div>
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Upon the straits; on the French coast the light </div>
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Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, </div>
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Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. </div>
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Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! </div>
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Only, from the long line of spray </div>
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Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, </div>
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Listen! you hear the grating roar </div>
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Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, </div>
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At their return, up the high strand, </div>
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Begin, and cease, and then again begin, </div>
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With tremulous cadence slow, and bring </div>
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The eternal note of sadness in. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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Sophocles long ago </div>
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Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought </div>
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Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow </div>
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Of human misery; we </div>
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Find also in the sound a thought, </div>
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Hearing it by this distant northern sea. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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The Sea of Faith </div>
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Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore </div>
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Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. </div>
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But now I only hear </div>
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Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, </div>
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Retreating, to the breath </div>
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Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear </div>
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And naked shingles of the world. </div>
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Ah, love, let us be true </div>
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To one another! for the world, which seems </div>
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To lie before us like a land of dreams, </div>
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So various, so beautiful, so new, </div>
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Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, </div>
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Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; </div>
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And we are here as on a darkling plain </div>
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Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, </div>
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Where ignorant armies clash by night.</div>
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Arnold is, of course, one of those poets you read in school. This has a strong rhyme scheme and a compelling rhythm. He addresses universal issues - love, life, disappointment - and uses some fairly obvious images to do so. The last stanza feels a little depressing - the world has no joy or love or light or anything like that - but think of it as Sir Pratchett suggested - if you ground up the universe into tiny dust, and sifted it, would you find any particles of jo, or love, or light or any of that? And yet... </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-55203105761354798462016-06-25T15:48:00.002-04:002016-06-25T15:48:45.584-04:00Poetry Month, Day 25, Christopher Morley, "To the Little House"Once again into the Funk and Wagnall's collection.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To the Little House</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Dear little house, dear shabby street,</div>
<div>
Dear books and beds and food to eat!</div>
<div>
How feeble words are to express</div>
<div>
The facets of your tenderness.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How white the sun comes through the pane!</div>
<div>
In tinkling music drips the rain!</div>
<div>
How burning bright the furnace glows!</div>
<div>
What paths to shovel when it snows!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
O dearly loved Long Island trains!</div>
<div>
O well remembered joys and pains.</div>
<div>
How near the housetops Beauty leans</div>
<div>
Along that little street in Queens!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Let these poor rhymes abide for proof</div>
<div>
Joy swells beneath a humble roof;</div>
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Heaven is not built of country seats</div>
<div>
But little queer suburban streets!</div>
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<div>
Some delightful oddities in this collection, yes? I mean, first of all, it's interesting to see what the editors considered to be "the best poetry" - they clearly valued rhyme and tight structure. There are also lots of poems about domesticity and such - and some love poetry, true, but even the classical stuff (Plato and Homer feature) tend to be quiet little paeans to domestic bliss. Second, I don't know that I'd consider Queens suburban anymore - but, perhaps I am wrong? Ahhh, but it WAS suburban, in a certain sort of way, before the 1950s suburbanization began - this is a train based suburban setting, when the "urbs" were smaller, and when most of Long Island was still potato farms. Hmmm. I wonder if I can use this in a class? I bet I can!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-48994621864592229772016-06-24T10:47:00.002-04:002016-06-24T20:01:10.559-04:00Poetry Month, Day 24, Robert Francis (by way of Mother Crane), "Summons"Today, we spent the day at the <a href="http://www.nyfaeriefest.com/">New York Faerie Festival</a>, which runs all weekend (although we're only going for today). One of the regular performers is Mother Crane, who approaches visitors and reads them a random poem, which she then gives them (on a card). My poem today:<br />
<br />
Summons<br />
<br />
Keep me from going to sleep too soon<br />
Or if I go to sleep too soon<br />
Come wake me up. Come any hour<br />
Of night. Come whistling up the road.<br />
Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door.<br />
Make me get out of bed and come<br />
And let you in and light a light.<br />
Tell me the northern lights are on<br />
And make me look. Or tell me clouds<br />
Are doing something to the moon<br />
They never did before, and show me.<br />
See that I see. Talk to me till<br />
I'm half as wide awake as you<br />
And start to dress wondering why<br />
I ever went to bed at all.<br />
Tell me the walking superb.<br />
Not only tell me but persuade me.<br />
You know I'm not too hard persuaded.<br />
<br />
Robert Francis<br />
<br />
And now I have shared it with you, so it is your poem for today as well.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-16165901069750210142016-06-23T15:06:00.002-04:002016-06-23T15:06:39.007-04:00Poetry Month Day 23, Selections from _Swidden Fields_So, a million years ago, when I was doing my first degree (BA English/History), I took a class on poetry writing, which was amazing. It was a once a week seminar, where 15 of us met, shared new poems (at least one a week, that was the rule), critiqued each others work, and generally dug deeply and drank fully of each others passion and such. Often, we met off campus, with food and sometimes alcohol. Occasionally, we would leave class (it was an evening class) and go to a bar. It was very very good, exactly the sort of thing everyone tells you college is going to be (except it mostly isn't. Except when it is, and when it is, it sort of makes the rest of it worth the effort). At the end of the semester, we printed a short chapbook to which each of us contributed a poem or two (it's got an ISBN, it counts as a publication credit!). Here are three or four selections from the chap book (not my offerings, other peoples.)<br />
<br />
Des Davidge (Des was an older gentleman, somewhat of an anomaly in the class, which was mostly female and mostly younger - college seniors, not senior citizens. His poetry has a lot of nature imagery, and tends towards the narrative or descriptive, which is great.)<br />
<br />
<i>Harvest Journey</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
We climb to the top of the last load of the day<br />
swaying on that rutted road.<br />
<br />
Our bodies mold a bed in rich fresh scent,<br />
the sound of horses' hoofs and metal wheels<br />
muffled by the evening<br />
you measure the soft white of your hand<br />
against my callused fingers.<br />
<br />
Seeded heads tickle along my spine<br />
the smell of you mingling with the aroma of hay<br />
soft and quiet<br />
I am full - only my eyes can speak.<br />
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Catherine Glass<br />
<br />
<i>More than Sex</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The salty taste of your skin<br />
Keeps me buoyant<br />
Like a swimmer in the Dead Sea<br />
<br />
(We were young, 18, 19, 20. Lots and lots of poems about sex, more or less)<br />
<br />
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Dianna Graham<br />
<br />
<i>wilderness notes</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
the skin of still-blind mice in winter<br />
the eyelid's gloss<br />
<br />
the freshborn flesh of tadpoles<br />
irises flicking<br />
<br />
a fiddlehead cupped gently in my palm<br />
your body naked<br />
furled upon my bed<br />
<br />
(See? Also, we did a lot of playing with the position of text on the page; odd line breaks and spacing - and some of us thought we were e.e. cummings, you know?)<br />
<br />
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M (don't mock - my poems were published under the name Michael Delphinius - we were young and soooo pretentious! But the poetry was pretty good.)<br />
<br />
<i>Let us come to some conclusion</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Let us come to some conclusion<br />
something to cancel the crease of time<br />
Let us seize the distance between cities<br />
the dept separating silence and slumber<br />
Let us carve the ceiling paint it blue<br />
<br />
(let us create the sky anew).<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Sarah Mayes (I seem to remember Sarah as the youngest of the group?)<br />
<br />
<i>Medusa</i><br />
<br />
my strand<br />
of hair<br />
curled<br />
complacently<br />
on your collar<br />
is a snake<br />
waiting<br />
to strike<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Carolyn Tilley (Carolyn is the only one of the group I've stayed in touch with - I knew her before the class. Carolyn was always a little crazy; I met her because she posted posters with a rant about Miss Piggy all over campus [she was a strong supporter of Miss Piggy, I seem to recall] and included her e-mail address. This was back when e-mail was still kinda new and exciting. A poet all the way down to her combat boots)<br />
<br />
<i>Players</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
A hand on my shoulder<br />
and one on my back...<br />
I wish you wouldn't<br />
but you seem earnest,<br />
so I'll let it pass.<br />
<br />
A lean, a whisper, a wink...<br />
You say I have the eyes of an actress,<br />
I say, it takes one to know one.<br />
You tell nice lies,<br />
so I'll let it pass.<br />
<br />
Has practice made you convincing?<br />
Or is it thinking that you're the best -<br />
the confidence of an artist?<br />
<br />
I wonder at the years that brought you to me,<br />
are you watching this or ... directing?<br />
<br />
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<br />
Ahhhh, the fruits of a mis-spent (or properly spent?) youth.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-21195634096644687622016-06-23T08:42:00.000-04:002016-06-23T08:42:00.762-04:00Poetry Month, Day 22, belated, Mike Timonin, "Goliath's Mother's Lament"Ack! Yesterday was a little crazy, for reasons, but that's not an excuse. I even had a poem planned to share! Here it is, the response I wrote to Amal's poem from "yesterday." Obviously, I cannot review my own work, but here's the background - I'm working (slowly - so slowly that I'm not sure it counts as "working") on a cycle of poems based on the Old Testament; specifically, stories of people who didn't make it into The Book. So. Here's the backstory on Goliath. (Oh - I like to write narrative poetry, and I also like to write short, epigramatic poems. This is from the first sort!)<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goliath’s Mother’s Lament<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, you know,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Strong and big and brave – not so smart, but smart is
overrated, I think.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, and I thought he would live forever,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And he thought he would live forever,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And why not? He was strong, and big, and brave,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And all I had – surely Death would not dare to take him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, and when he was born the midwives said<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“he will be strong, and big, and brave, and he will help on
the farm,”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And they were right – he grew fast, and could lift two goats
when he was just a boy,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was strong, yes, but gentle: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the cows gave sweeter milk when he tended them, I swear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was gentle, yes, but not soft:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the ox gored his father, my son carried the broken,
bleeding body home to me,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then he killed the ox as a death gift; but gently, one
strike to its head:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He carried that body home, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, strong and brave, big and gentle;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He would not fight with the other boys,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He was too big, he said,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I saw him bruised and bleeding more than once,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because he would not back away when someone smaller needed
help.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, so big and strong that, soon, he did not
need to fight,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sound of his footstep was enough,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sight of the fist he used to kill the ox sufficed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So big and brave,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The men came with bronze armor and a sharp sword,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They said, “your son is big, and strong, and brave, and we
need him,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He won’t have to fight – just the sight of him, like a
bronze clad tower,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With a sword like God’s own scythe,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our enemies will flee like insects when you light a lamp,”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And they took my son, so brave, so big, so strong,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And we were wrong,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death dared to come – not at first, but in time,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death came in the form of a small boy,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death came in the form of a small sling,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death came in the from of a small stone,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And who could carry that body home to me,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Broken and bleeding?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And who could make a death offering of that boy,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With one strike of the fist?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And who will gentle the sweet milk out of my cows now,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And lift the goats, two at a time, into to olive trees?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a son once, you know.<o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-28146127116933956882016-06-21T15:16:00.002-04:002016-06-21T15:16:50.421-04:00Poetry Month, Day 21, Amal El-Mohtar, "Day 11 - Blackberry Honey"Administrative stuff: ChimeraCat notes that posting comments is complicated by the fact that the comment section is not secure. Sorry - I'm not sure if that's a thing I can fix? I'll look into it.<br />
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<br />
ChimeraCat also notes that zi doesn't usually like poetry. I think many of us feel that we don't like poetry - maybe it is something to do with the way we've been taught to analyze rather than enjoy poetry?<br />
<br />
Yesterday, I posted a summer poem by a noted Arabic poet. That, naturally, made me think of my friend Amal, also an Arabic poet (also, Canadian). Long time readers of the blog will remember that I reviewed, extensively, her collection <i>The Honey Month</i> back in 2011 (newer readers, the series starts <a href="http://guy-who-reads.blogspot.com/2011/02/honey-month-day-1-212011.html">here</a>, and runs for 28 days). This was, as the title suggests,the poem from day 11 of February 2010 (the project was 28 poems/short works of fiction written over the course of the month of February, accompanied/inspired by 28 different flavors of honey). This was my favorite poem from the collection (I think - I may have said differently back when - say, rather, this is my favorite from the collection right now).<br />
<br />
My body is a knot of limbs<br />
and I dream of Alexander<br />
of a clean bright blade to slice<br />
through the tangle of what is left.<br />
<br />
They pulled me from the rubble<br />
like a fabled sword; never<br />
was Excalibur so tarnished, never<br />
did dustier hands reach<br />
for so shattered a hilt.<br />
<br />
Blueberries washed the ash from my tongue<br />
after they came; after the metal and the phosphor<br />
that washed us all so red, so white. Perhaps<br />
if we powdered our cheeks so every day<br />
they would come to think us beautiful?<br />
We might ornament their lawns, their homes<br />
that once were ours, their swimming pools<br />
and tourist traps, their cafes and museums.<br />
<i>Behold! The savage Philistine</i><br />
<i>undone by David's sling! See</i><br />
<i>how his mighty giant's body</i><br />
<i>is limned in our pale chalk!</i><br />
The Americans would live it<br />
buy a t-shirt to take home.<br />
<br />
Yesterday I had daughters. Today<br />
I have these berries on my tongue.<br />
<br />
I am lucky, they say, to live; to have<br />
blueberries and water, medicine for my wounds.<br />
I am lucky, they say, to breathe<br />
the air thick with stone<br />
that was my house; safe in my lungs<br />
who would think to take it?<br />
<br />
I am lucky, they say, to sleep. To dream.<br />
I lay my head where the Son of Man once did<br />
and close my eyes. To think,<br />
<i>tomorrow I may yet wake</i><br />
<i>to better.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I cannot sleep.<br />
The earth is knotted with screams.<br />
I taste blueberries on my tongue<br />
and dream of nothing.<br />
<br />
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
This poem is explicitly political, which is made most clear when you understand that the Biblical Philistines are today's Palestinians. I've been preparing a lesson plan which addresses the status of Jews in Europe at the time of the French Revolution (yes, there's more to that story). Consequently, I am sympathetic to the ongoing need for some sort of Jewish homeland. However, I'm sure that there could have been a more equitable way of creating such a homeland. And that's as political as I'm going to get right here.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-44014933887372633432016-06-20T21:15:00.002-04:002016-06-20T21:15:40.126-04:00Poetry Month, Day 20, Nizar Qabbani, "In the Summer"<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823; font-family: Roboto, "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">
<b>In The Summer</b></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823; font-family: Roboto, "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "roboto" , "droid sans" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">In the summer</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "droid sans" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "droid sans" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">I stretch out on the shore</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "droid sans" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;"> </span>And think of you<br />
Had I told the sea<br />
What I felt for you,<br />
It would have left its shores,<br />
Its shells,<br />
Its fish,<br />
And followed me. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823; font-family: Roboto, "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #141823; font-family: Roboto, "Droid Sans", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.4286px;">
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Short, sweet, and to the point. Nizar Qabbani was a Syrian diplomat and poet, known for his short, sweet love poetry. If this poem is indicative of his work, I'll need to find more - the simplicity is delightful.<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-78792630477031139522016-06-19T09:37:00.001-04:002016-06-19T09:37:40.034-04:00Poetry Month, Day 19, Poems about FathersSo, I think the theme today is pretty self explanatory. It's Fathers' Day, so some poems about or involving fathers are in order.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">On the Beach At Night, Walt Whitman</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">ON the beach, at night,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Stands a child, with her father,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Watching the east, the autumn sky.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Up through the darkness,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Lower, sullen and fast, athwart and down the sky,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Ascends, large and calm, the lord-star Jupiter; </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And nigh at hand, only a very little above,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Swim the delicate brothers, the Pleiades. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">From the beach, the child, holding the hand of her father,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Those burial-clouds that lower, victorious, soon to devour all,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Watching, silently weeps.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Weep not, child,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Weep not, my darling,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">With these kisses let me remove your tears; </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">They shall not long possess the sky- shall devour the stars only in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">apparition:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Jupiter shall emerge- be patient- watch again another night- the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Pleiades shall emerge,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">They are immortal- all those stars, both silvery and golden, shall</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">shine out again, </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again- they</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">endure; </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">The vast immortal suns, and the long-enduring pensive moons, shall</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">again shine.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Then, dearest child, mournest thou only for Jupiter? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Something there is,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">(With my lips soothing thee, adding, I whisper,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,) </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Something there is more immortal even than the stars,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter, 30</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Longer than sun, or any revolving satellite,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Or the radiant brothers, the Pleiades. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">I'm not a huge Whitman fan - as Homer Simpson says, "<i>Leaves of Grass</i>, my ass!" - but I like the image here of a father and daughter on the beach at night, looking up at the stars and such. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Father William, Lewis Carroll</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'You are old, father William,' the young man said,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'And your hair has become very white;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And yet you incessantly stand on your head -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Do you think, at your age, it is right?'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'In my youth,' father William replied to his son,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'I feared it would injure the brain;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Why, I do it again and again.'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned before,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And have grown most uncommonly fat;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Pray, what is the reason of that?'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'In my youth,' said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'I kept all my limbs very supple</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Allow me to sell you a couple.'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'You are old,' said the youth, 'and your jaws are too weak</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">For anything tougher than suet;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Pray, how did you manage to do it?'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'In my youth,' said his father, 'I took to the law,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And argued each case with my wife;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Has lasted the rest of my life.'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'You are old,' said the youth; one would hardly suppose</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">That your eye was as steady as ever;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">What made you so awfully clever?'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">'I have answered three questions, and that is enough,'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Said his father; 'don't give yourself airs!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!'</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">From <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>, obviously. I'm a great fan of Alice and her adventures, and I particularly like Carroll's pastiches of popular educational poetry.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Father's Chore, Edgar Allen Guest</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">My Pa can hit his thumbnail with a hammer and keep still;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">He can cut himself while shaving an' not swear;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">If a ladder slips beneath him an' he gets a nasty spill</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">He can smile as though he really didn't care.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">But the pan beneath the ice-box- when he goes to empty that- </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Then a sound-proof room the children have to hunt;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">For we have a sad few minutes in our very pleasant flat</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">When the water in it splashes down his front.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">My Pa believes his temper should be all the time controlled;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">He doesn't rave at every little thing;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">When his collar-button underneath the chiffonier has rolled</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">A snatch of merry ragtime he will sing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">But the pan beneath the ice box- when to empty that he goes- </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">As he stoops to drag it out we hear a grunt;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">From the kitchen comes a rumble, an' then everybody knows</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">That he splashed the water in it down his front.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Now the distance from the ice box to the sink's not very far- </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">I'm sure it isn't over twenty feet- </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">But though very short the journey, it is long enough for Pa</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">As he travels it disaster grim to meet.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And it's seldom that he makes it without accident, although</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">In the summer time it is his nightly stunt;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">And he says a lot of language that no gentleman should know</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">When the water in it splashes down his front. </span><br />
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We've seen some of Guest's poetry before. Apparently, fathers and fatherhood are some of his favorite topics, I've found seven or eight by him in this vein. I like this one.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-88165472653370995902016-06-18T20:55:00.002-04:002016-06-18T20:55:49.518-04:00Poetry Month, Day 18, Lytton Bell, "Jane's Heartbreak Yard Sale"<div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.941176); border: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 29.155px; margin-bottom: 1.615em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Today was yard sale day - we made a whole whopping $50, but we did manage to get rid of a pair of tents. So, today, a poem about yard sales.</div>
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<a href="http://www.rattle.com/janes-heartbreak-yard-sale-by-lytton-bell/">Here</a> is a link to where I found the poem, which includes a reading, I presume by the author. I really like the last stanza - I find that really makes the whole poem pop. The first stanza is quite provocative as well...</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">JANE’S HEARTBREAK YARD SALE</strong></div>
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Who sells used sex toys at a garage sale?<br />I knew I had to pull over<br />as soon as I saw that table full of dildos<br />just to hear this woman’s story</div>
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A whole bed was for sale<br />and a claw-footed bathtub<br />a motorcycle, a large stack of books<br />lingerie and ten photo albums<br />Photo albums?<br />Leafing through, I could see that they were all<br />happy couple love photos:<br />their trip to Hawaii<br />backpacking through Europe<br />mountain climbing in Tibet</div>
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And I shouldn’t forget to mention all of the love notes<br />three huge cardboard boxes full of them. I picked one up:<br /><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I stood outside your window for hours last night</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">while you were sleeping</em><br /><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">hoping you would feel me there, and pull open the curtain</em></div>
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I approached her as she sat by the cash box<br />wearing a pair of oversized pink sunglasses<br />So, this is everything he ever gave you? I asked her, trying to be nonchalant<br />She nodded<br />I was going to light it all on fire, she told me<br />But what’s the point?<br />True, I replied, not sure what else to say<br />She seemed so peaceful about it. Almost happy</div>
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Just then I noticed a pile of cds:<br />Jane’s Joy Ride Mix<br />Jane’s Taking a Bath Mix<br />Mix for Jane for When She’s Feeling a Little Blue<br />And one called<br />In Case of an Emergency, I LOVE YOU<br />It was sealed with yellow CAUTION tape<br />and had obviously never been opened</div>
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Can I buy this?I asked her<br />$3.50, she said<br />I gave her the money and put the cd in my car<br />and cried and could not open it</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-69899861300726759522016-06-17T11:23:00.001-04:002016-06-17T13:22:01.227-04:00Poetry Day 17, Lora Timonin, "Untitled Poem on a Hardees Wrapper"Before we dated, way before we got married, my lovely wife wrote this poem for me. As today is our 18th anniversary, and since she apparently kept the original, written on the back of a (clean) Hardees burger wrapper (she was working at Hardees when we met), I shall retype it here. For posterity.<br />
<br />
Now Ladies looking<br />
for a Good Man<br />
We've got this bachelor<br />
on the stand<br />
<br />
We'll start the bidding<br />
close to nil<br />
You can't imagine such a steal<br />
He calls you when he says he will<br />
he happily will foot the bill<br />
<br />
He's witty<br />
He's charming<br />
He's debonair<br />
And notice -<br />
Such cute red hair*<br />
<br />
Such a good deal cannot last<br />
this one should be going fast<br />
He'll write you poems<br />
He'll bring you flowers<br />
He'll sit and talk with you for hours<br />
<br />
He's sweet<br />
He's single<br />
He isn't gay!**<br />
And so much more<br />
that we could say<br />
Ladies Ladies, don't delay<br />
Come and claim this Mike today!<br />
<br />
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* Uh, only in my beard. And not so much anymore, much more grey.<br />
<br />
** I recall I was afraid that girls thought I was gay - not because I had any problem with people being gay, but I felt that it hurt my chances with them if they dismissed me as unavailable off the bat.***<br />
<br />
***I'm not sure WHY I was worried about this. I had NONE of the stereotypical gay attributes. I think I maybe heard some girls talking about it? Or something?<br />
<br />
Editing to add:<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-71152681211269616042016-06-16T21:45:00.001-04:002016-06-16T21:45:22.239-04:00Poetry Month Day 16, George Croynyn, translator, "Chippewa Nonsense Song of the Game of Silence"<div align="center">
<b>NONSENSE SONG OF THE GAME OF SILENCE</b></div>
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<i>(If you speak or laugh you are defeated)</i>It is hanging<br /> in the edge of the sunshine<br />It is a pig I see<br /> with its double (cloven) hoofs<br />It is a very fat pig.<br />The people who live in a hollow tree<br /> are fighting</div>
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They are fighting bloodily<br />He is rich<br />He will carry a pack toward the great water.<br /><i>(The rabbit speaks)</i><br />At the end of the point of land<br />I eat the bark off the tree<br />I see the track of a lynx<br />I don't care, I can get away from him<br />It is a jumping trail<br />sep!</div>
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I'm utterly exhausted, so I don't feel like tracking down any provenance on this. It's from my lovely wife's trip to the library sale (many many books of poetry!), a collection of American Indian Poetry edited by George Cronyn. I can only imagine that it's a lot funnier in the original, because I find I can read it with a straight face. But, also, perhaps there's something lost when it's on the page.</div>
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Ok, I lied. A little research. Frances Dunsmore recorded the poem/song in 1913 for the Bureau of American Ethnography, as told to him by a John Carl, whose mother was Chippewa, and who lived with the Chippewa until he was 10. The poem/song was performed for children, to keep them busy while grownups were doing something else. Prizes were awarded to the children who stayed quiet the best. The joke comes from the 4 distinct images: a fat pig hanging from a tree, a fight between people who live in a hollow tree (probably French people, in their log cabins), a rich man carries a sack, and then the rabbit at the end. There are actions to go with these, which might be grotesque or over stated to get a reaction. The song ends abruptly - sep! - again to provoke a reaction. Who laughed? Who gasped?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-6728065691565541532016-06-15T20:15:00.003-04:002016-06-15T20:15:38.390-04:00Poetry Month, Day 15, Robert Kroetsch, "Meditation on Tom Thomson"Something Canadian today, I think. I opened my book of Canadian poets at random to Robert Kroetsch - and then flipped around a bit, because Kroetsch specialized in massively long poems that wander all over the place, very psychedelic and thinky. Too much to type out, for damn sure. So, here's a shorter piece. Note the line breaks, reminiscent of old English poetry.<br />
<br />
Meditation on Tom Thomson<br />
<br />
Tom Thomson I love you therefore I apologize<br />
for what I must say but I must say<br />
damn your jack pines they are beautiful<br />
<br />
I love your bent trees and I love your ice<br />
in spring candled into its green rot<br />
and I love the way you drowned all alone<br />
<br />
with your canoe and our not even knowing<br />
the time of day and the grave mystery<br />
of your genius interrupted is <i>our</i> story<br />
<br />
and art, man, art is the essential<br />
luxury the imperative QUESTION(?)<br />
the re-sounding say of the night's loon<br />
<br />
and holy shit mother the muskeg snatch<br />
of the old north the bait that caught<br />
the fishing father into his own feast<br />
<br />
the swimming art-man who did not drown<br />
in the lake in his pictures<br />
who drowned for murder of grief or<br />
<br />
the weave of the water would not hold<br />
the shoulders of the sky were deep<br />
the maelstrom would not spin to spit him<br />
<br />
free, daddy, FREE FREE FREE (but I must say<br />
DAMN your jack pines) for the whorl<br />
of the whirlpool breaks us one by one<br />
<br />
we stretch and tear the joints<br />
opening like curtains on a cool<br />
Algonquin morning onto a red sun<br />
<br />
or down onto the black bottom or far<br />
(the grammar of our days is ill defined)<br />
or rapt in the root and fire of that wind<br />
<br />
bent forest (about your pine trees<br />
this evening one of them moved<br />
across my wall) daring the light<br />
<br />
daring the bright and lover's leap across<br />
the impassible gap the uncertain<br />
principle of time and space straight down<br />
<br />
he dove and he would seize unearthly<br />
shades and he would seize the drowned land<br />
the pictures from the pool the pool's picture<br />
<br />
and the gods cried Tom, Tom, you asshole<br />
let go and you had found their secret<br />
and would not ever let go they cry<br />
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Kroetsch actively pursued an effort to unpack poetry, to dismantle it and re-invent both myths and the way that we record them. He was opposed to the simple completeness of lyric poetry, and so his work rambles all over, and refuses to come to a point or a conclusion. It's anti-lyric poetry, but still really strongly structured. It's actually pretty cool, from a poetic point of view.<br />
<br />
Tom Thompson was a Canadian painter who influenced the Group of Seven (Canadian painters who painted nature scenes in a distinctive style), but he died before the group was founded. As Kroetsch mentions, Thompson was famous for his paintings of jack pines. He died on a canoe trip in 1917 in Algonquin park, and there is considerable speculation about how he died - murder? accident? suicide? - with no conclusive answers forthcoming or even really possible.<br />
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Here is a pair of Thomson jack pine pictures:<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-56088921649743929752016-06-15T09:06:00.000-04:002016-06-15T09:06:00.490-04:00Poetry Month, Day 14 (belated), Ogden Nash, "Goody for Our Side and Your Side Too"Dad-blast-it, I missed a day. Two poems today, I guess. Here's a poem for yesterday, from Ogden Nash. I am a great fan of Ogden Nash; he was witty, but also wise. His most often cited couplets tend to downplay the wise aspects - "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker, and sex won't go to your head," for instance - so here's a witty poem that is both wise and apropos:<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 23px;">Goody For Our Side And Your Side Too</span></div>
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Foreigners are people somewhere else,</div>
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Natives are people at home;<br />If the place you’re at<br />Is your habitat,<br />You’re a foreigner, say in Rome.<br />But the scales of Justice balance true,<br />And tit leads into tat,<br />So the man who’s at home<br />When he stays in Rome<br />Is abroad when he’s where you’re at.<br /><br />When we leave the limits of the land in which<br />Our birth certificates sat us,<br />It does not mean<br />Just a change of scene,<br />But also a change of status.<br />The Frenchman with his fetching beard,<br />The Scot with his kilt and sporran,<br />One moment he<br />May a native be,<br />And the next may find him foreign.<br /><br />There’s many a difference quickly found<br />Between the different races,<br />But the only essential<br />Differential<br />Is living different places.<br />Yet such is the pride of prideful man,<br />From Austrians to Australians,<br />That wherever he is,<br />He regards as his,<br />And the natives there, as aliens.<br /><br />Oh, I’ll be friends if you’ll be friends,<br />The foreigner tells the native,<br />And we’ll work together for our common ends<br />Like a preposition and a dative.<br />If our common ends seem mostly mine,<br />Why not, you ignorant foreigner?<br />And the native replies<br />Contrariwise;<br />And hence, my dears, the coroner.<br /><br />So mind your manners when a native, please,<br />And doubly when you visit<br />And between us all<br />A rapport may fall<br />Ecstatically exquisite.<br />One simple thought, if you have it pat,<br />Will eliminate the coroner:<br />You may be a native in your habitat,<br />But to foreigners you’re just a foreigner. </div>
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Ogden Nash</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-19387291565115633282016-06-13T18:45:00.001-04:002016-06-13T18:45:50.918-04:00Poetry Month, Day 13, Lin-Manuel Miranda, "Sonnet"<div>
<br /></div>
My wife's the reason anything gets done<br />She nudges me towards promise by degrees<br />She is a perfect symphony of one<br />Our son is her most beautiful reprise.<br />We chase the melodies that seem to find us<br />Until they're finished songs and start to play<br />When senseless acts of tragedy remind us<br />That nothing here is promised, not one day.<br />This show is proof that history remembers<br />We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;<br />We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer<br />And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.<br />I sing Vanessa's symphony, Eliza tells her story<br />Now fill the world with music, love and pride.<div>
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Presented without comment. Well, except for this - the first stanza could just as easily be about my wife (replace "son" with "daughters," naturally).</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-7165431672631899672016-06-12T20:09:00.002-04:002016-06-12T20:09:50.676-04:00Poetry Month, Day 12, Richard Henguist Horne, "Pelters of Pyramids"From Book 5 of the <i>The World's 1000 Best Poems</i>, I have selected this short piece (and it was a rough selection, I can tell you. Book 5 covers the poets from Guest to King, and there are some rather long pieces in there - Homer falls between Guest and King, for instance, as does A.E. Houseman. I was tempted to give you all some Houseman, actually.)<br />
<br />
Horne's poem talks about, perhaps, the futility of resisting the passing of time. Or maybe the smallness of small minds. At any rate, sometimes it feels as though we are cursing the ancients and throwing rocks at pyramids, expecting some reaction. Horne says people have felt like that for ages. What art thou more than we, indeed.<br />
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<tr><td align="CENTER"><span style="color: #9c9c63;"><b>Pelters of Pyramids</b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td align="CENTER"><span style="color: #9c9c63;">Richard Henry Horne (1802–84)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td>A <span>SHOAL</span> of idlers, from a merchant craft</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Anchor’d off Alexandria, went ashore,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="2"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>And mounting asses in their headlong glee,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Round Pompey’s Pillar rode with hoots and taunts,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>As men oft say, “What art thou more than we?”</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="5"><i> 5</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>Next in a boat they floated up the Nile</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="6"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Singing and drinking, swearing senseless oaths,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="7"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Shouting, and laughing most derisively</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="8"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>At all majestic scenes. A bank they reach’d,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="9"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>And clambering up, play’d gambols among tombs;</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="10"><i> 10</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>And in portentous ruins (through whose depths,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="11"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>The mighty twilight of departed Gods,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="12"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Both sun and moon glanced furtive, as in awe)</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="13"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>They hid, and whoop’d, and spat on sacred things.</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td> At length, beneath the blazing sun they lounged</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15"><i> 15</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>Near a great Pyramid. Awhile they stood</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="16"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>With stupid stare, until resentment grew;</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="17"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>In the recoil of meanness from the vast;</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="18"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>And gathering stones, they with coarse oaths and jibes</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="19"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>(As they would say, “What art thou more than we?”)</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="20"><i> 20</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>Pelted the Pyramid! But soon these men,</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="21"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Hot and exhausted, sat them down to drink—</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="22"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Wrangled, smok’d, spat, and laugh’d, and drowsily</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="23"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Curs’d the bald Pyramid, and fell asleep.</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="24"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td> Night came:—a little sand went drifting by—</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="25"><i> 25</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>And morn again was in the soft blue heavens.</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="26"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>The broad slopes of the shining Pyramid</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="27"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Look’d down in their austere simplicity</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="28"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Upon the glistening silence of the sands</td><td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="29"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td>Whereon no trace of mortal dust was seen.</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="30"><i> 30</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td> </td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-34522124276063872602016-06-11T19:54:00.001-04:002016-06-11T19:54:23.875-04:00Poetry Month, Day 11, Robert Service, "The Cremation of Sam McGee"Today, it is quite warm here - although my house is reasonably cool. Still, what better on a hot day than a poem about bone chilling cold? <div>
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Robert Service is the poet of the Yukon Gold Rush, and this is one of his two most famous works - "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" is the other one.<br /><div>
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There is a decent chance that you've read this poem in school. It has a complex rhyme scheme which makes it relatively easy to memorize, and a compelling narrative format that makes it easy to analyze. Also, it is amusing, which is key. </div>
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<div class="detail-hd" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="hdg hdg_1" style="border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 1.5rem; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.231; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i class="icon icon_childrensPoetry_small js-tooltip-trigger" data-tooltip-target="#tooltip-c" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-weight: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px;"></i>The Cremation of Sam McGee</span><h2 class="isVisuallyHidden" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">
Related Poem Content Details</h2>
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<div class="detail-byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 6px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="hdg hdg_utility" style="border: 0px; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.025em; line-height: 1.231; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/robert-w-service" style="border: 0px; color: #045482; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ROBERT W. SERVICE</a></span></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are strange things done in the midnight sun</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By the men who moil for gold;</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Arctic trails have their secret tales</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That would make your blood run cold;</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the queerest they ever did see</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I cremated Sam McGee.</em></div>
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Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows. </div>
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Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows. </div>
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He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell; </div>
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Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell." </div>
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On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail. </div>
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Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail. </div>
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If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see; </div>
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It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee. </div>
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And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow, </div>
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And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe, </div>
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He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess; </div>
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And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request." </div>
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Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan: </div>
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"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone. </div>
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Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains; </div>
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So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains." </div>
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A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail; </div>
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And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale. </div>
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He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee; </div>
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And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee. </div>
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There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven, </div>
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With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given; </div>
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It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains, </div>
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But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains." </div>
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Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code. </div>
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In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load. </div>
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In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring, </div>
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Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing. </div>
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And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow; </div>
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And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low; </div>
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The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in; </div>
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And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin. </div>
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Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay; </div>
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It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May." </div>
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And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum; </div>
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Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum." </div>
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Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire; </div>
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Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher; </div>
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The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see; </div>
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And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee. </div>
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Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so; </div>
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And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow. </div>
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It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why; </div>
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And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky. </div>
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I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear; </div>
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But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near; </div>
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I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside. </div>
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I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide. </div>
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And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; </div>
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And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door. </div>
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It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm— </div>
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Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm." </div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are strange things done in the midnight sun</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By the men who moil for gold;</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Arctic trails have their secret tales</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That would make your blood run cold;</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the queerest they ever did see</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I cremated Sam McGee.</em></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-58273684866863736512016-06-10T20:01:00.002-04:002016-06-10T20:01:22.364-04:00Poetry Month, Day 10, Psalm 23 (English and Hebrew)I learned this morning that my grandfather has died. It's sad, because he was my grandfather, and I liked him. At the same time, he was old, and suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's - I'm not really sure, but he was losing his memory, and wasn't able to do the things he loved, like gardening. Also, I haven't seen him in a long time - he lived in England, and so I haven't seen him in almost 20 years. Also too, as a Universalist Christian, I believe he is in Heaven, and I'll see him again at some point in the future. Or I'm wrong about an afterlife, and I won't. Anyway, here's a poem for loss - one of my favorite psalms, in Hebrew and English. I don't read Hebrew, but I find the script delightful. Also, I'm not usually a King James Version person, but this feels right in that translation:<br />
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Psalms Chapter 23 <span class="h" style="font-size: 40px;">תְּהִלִּים</span></h1>
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<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;" width="50%"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1"></a><b>א</b> מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד: יְהוָה רֹעִי, לֹא אֶחְסָר.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>1</b> A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="2"></a><b>ב</b> בִּנְאוֹת דֶּשֶׁא, יַרְבִּיצֵנִי; עַל-מֵי מְנֻחוֹת יְנַהֲלֵנִי.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>2</b> He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="3"></a><b>ג</b> נַפְשִׁי יְשׁוֹבֵב; יַנְחֵנִי בְמַעְגְּלֵי-צֶדֶק, לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>3</b> He restoreth my soul; He guideth me in straight paths for His name's sake.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="4"></a><b>ד</b> גַּם כִּי-אֵלֵךְ בְּגֵיא צַלְמָוֶת, לֹא-אִירָא רָע-- כִּי-אַתָּה עִמָּדִי;<br />שִׁבְטְךָ וּמִשְׁעַנְתֶּךָ, הֵמָּה יְנַחֲמֻנִי.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>4</b> Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; <b>{N}</b><br />Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="5"></a><b>ה</b> תַּעֲרֹךְ לְפָנַי, שֻׁלְחָן-- נֶגֶד צֹרְרָי;<br />דִּשַּׁנְתָּ בַשֶּׁמֶן רֹאשִׁי, כּוֹסִי רְוָיָה.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>5</b> Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; <b>{N}</b><br />Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="h" style="direction: rtl; font-size: 26.4px; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="6"></a><b>ו</b> אַךְ, טוֹב וָחֶסֶד יִרְדְּפוּנִי-- כָּל-יְמֵי חַיָּי;<br />וְשַׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית-יְהוָה, לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים.</td><td style="direction: ltr; font-size: 19.2px; unicode-bidi: embed; vertical-align: top;"><b>6</b> Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; <b>{N}</b><br />and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. <b>{P}</b><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-21893661448927403832016-06-09T16:57:00.001-04:002016-06-09T16:57:50.449-04:00Poetry Month, Day 9, D.G. Jones, "Beautiful Creatures Brief as These"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">You might know - I don't know if I've mentioned it, but if you know me outside of this blog then you know - I'm Canadian, and my first degree, which is in English Literature (I'm qualified to write this stuff, y'all!), came from a Canadian university. Part of that degree was a course on Canadian poetry, and the text we used was <i>15 Canadian Poets X2</i>, edited by Gary Geddes. It contains, as the title suggests (in an oddly convoluted sort of way) the work of 30 poets. Here is one by D.G. Jones, chosen at random:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Beautiful Creatures Brief as These </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><br />for Jay Macpherson<br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Like butterflies but lately come </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">From long cocoons of summer </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">These little girls start back to school </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">To swarm the sidewalks, playing field </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And litter with colour. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">So light they look within their clothes </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Their dresses looser than Sulphur's wings, </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">It seems that even if the wind alone </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Were not to break them in the lofty trees </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">They could not bear the weight of<i> things</i>. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And yet they cry into the morning air </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And hang from railings upside down </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And laugh, as though the world were theirs </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">And all its buildings, trees, and stones </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">Were toys, were gifts from a benignant sun. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.25px;">This one is lovely to read aloud, there are subtle little half-rhymes and the rhythm is pleasing. The images are delicate, and remind me of various campuses in Fall (and, also, in the Spring as it happens). </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276438221642890950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877213374848734462.post-41558893007460814302016-06-08T18:09:00.000-04:002016-06-08T18:09:36.403-04:00Poetry Month, Day 8, Elizabeth Alexander, "Narrative: Ali"Today, for Muhammad Ali, a poem by Elizabeth Alexander. I don't actually know a great deal about Ali, but this seems like an interesting snap shot.<br />
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Related Poem Content Details</h2>
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<span class="hdg hdg_utility" style="border: 0px; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.025em; line-height: 1.231; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/elizabeth-alexander" style="border: 0px; color: #045482; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ELIZABETH ALEXANDER</a></span></div>
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a poem in twelve rounds</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.</em></div>
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My head so big </div>
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they had to pry </div>
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me out. I’m sorry </div>
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Bird (is what I call </div>
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my mother). Cassius </div>
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Marcellus Clay, </div>
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Muhammad Ali; </div>
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you can say </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
my name in any </div>
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language, any </div>
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continent: Ali. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Two photographs </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
of Emmett Till, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
born my year, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
on my birthday. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
One, he’s smiling, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
happy, and the other one </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
is after. His mother </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
did the bold thing, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
kept the casket open, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
made the thousands look upon </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
his bulging eyes, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
his twisted neck, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
her lynched black boy. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
I couldn’t sleep </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
for thinking, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Emmett Till. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
One day I went </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Down to the train tracks, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
found some iron </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
shoe-shine rests </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
and planted them </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
between the ties </div>
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and waited </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
for a train to come, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
and watched the train </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
derail, and ran, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
and after that </div>
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I slept at night. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
I need to train </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
around people, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
hear them talk, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
talk back. I need </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
to hear the traffic, </div>
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see people in </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
the barbershop, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
people getting </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
shoe shines, talking, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
hear them talk, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
talk back. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Bottom line: Olympic gold </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
can’t buy a black man </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a Louisville hamburger </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
in nineteen-sixty. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Wasn’t even real gold. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
I watched the river </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
drag the ribbon down, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
red, white, and blue. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Laying on the bed, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
praying for a wife, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
in walk Sonji Roi. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Pretty little shape. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Do you like </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
chop suey? </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Can I wash your hair </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
underneath </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
that wig? </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Lay on the bed, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Girl. Lie </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
with me. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Shake to the east, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
to the north, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
south, west— </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
but remember, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
remember, I need </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a Muslim wife. So </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Quit using lipstick. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Quit your boogaloo. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Cover up your knees </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
like a Muslim </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
wife, religion, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
religion, a Muslim </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
wife. Eleven </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
months with Sonji, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
first woman I loved. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6.</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
There’s not </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
too many days </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
that pass that I </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
don’t think </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
of how it started, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
but I know </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
no Great White Hope </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
can beat </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a true black champ. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Jerry Quarry </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
could have been </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a movie star, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a millionaire, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a senator, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
a president— </div>
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he only had </div>
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to do one thing, </div>
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is whip me, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
but he can’t. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7. Dressing-Room Visitor</em></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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He opened </div>
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up his shirt: </div>
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“KKK” cut </div>
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in his chest. </div>
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He dropped </div>
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his trousers: </div>
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latticed scars </div>
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where testicles </div>
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should be, His face </div>
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bewildered, frozen </div>
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in the Alabama woods </div>
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that night in 1966 </div>
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when they left him </div>
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for dead, his testicles </div>
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in a Dixie cup. </div>
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You a warning, </div>
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they told him, </div>
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to smart-mouth, </div>
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sassy-acting niggers, </div>
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meaning niggers </div>
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still alive, </div>
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meaning any nigger, </div>
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meaning niggers </div>
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like me. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. Training</em></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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Unsweetened grapefruit juice </div>
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will melt my stomach down. </div>
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Don’t drive if you can walk, </div>
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don’t walk if you can run. </div>
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I add a mile each day </div>
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and run in eight-pound boots. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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My knuckles sometimes burst </div>
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the glove. I let dead skin </div>
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build up, and then I peel it, </div>
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let it scar, so I don’t bleed </div>
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as much. My bones </div>
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absorb the shock. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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I train in three-minute </div>
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spurts, like rounds: three </div>
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rounds big bag, three speed </div>
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bag, three jump rope, one- </div>
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minute breaks, </div>
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no more, no less. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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Am I too old? Eat only </div>
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kosher meat. Eat cabbage, </div>
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carrots, beets, and watch </div>
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the weight come down: </div>
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two-thirty, two-twenty, </div>
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two-ten, two-oh-nine. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">9.</em></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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Will I go </div>
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like Kid Paret, </div>
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a fractured </div>
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skull, a ten-day </div>
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sleep, dreaming </div>
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alligators, pork </div>
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chops, saxophones, </div>
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slow grinds, funk, </div>
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fishbowls, lightbulbs, </div>
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bats, typewriters, </div>
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tuning forks, funk </div>
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clocks, red rubber </div>
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ball, what you see </div>
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in that lifetime </div>
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knockout minute </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
on the cusp? </div>
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You could be </div>
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let go, </div>
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you could be </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
snatched back. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">10. Rumble in the Jungle</em></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ali boma ye, </em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ali boma ye,</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
means kill him, Ali, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
which is different </div>
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from a whupping </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
which is what I give, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
but I lead them chanting </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
anyway, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ali </em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">boma ye,</em> because </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
here in Africa </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
black people fly </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
planes and run countries. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
I’m still making up </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
for the foolishness </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
I said when I was </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
Clay from Louisville, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
where I learned Africans </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
live naked in straw </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
huts eating tiger meat, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
grunting and grinning, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
swinging from vines, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
pounding their chests— </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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I pound my chest but of my own accord. </div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">11.</em></div>
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I said to Joe Frazier, </div>
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first thing, get a good house </div>
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in case you get crippled </div>
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so you and your family </div>
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can sleep somewhere. Always </div>
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keep one good Cadillac. </div>
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And watch how you dress </div>
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with that cowboy hat, </div>
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pink suits, white shoes— </div>
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that’s how pimps dress, </div>
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or kids, and you a champ, </div>
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or wish you were, ‘cause </div>
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I can whip you in the ring </div>
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or whip you in the street. </div>
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Now back to clothes, </div>
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wear dark clothes, suits, </div>
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black suits, like you the best </div>
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at what you do, like you </div>
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President of the World. </div>
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Dress like that. </div>
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Put them yellow pants away. </div>
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We dinosaurs gotta </div>
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look good, gotta sound </div>
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good, gotta be good, </div>
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the greatest, that’s what </div>
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I told Joe Frazier, </div>
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and he said to me, </div>
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we both bad niggers. </div>
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We don’t do no crawlin’. </div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">12.</em></div>
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They called me “the fistic pariah.” </div>
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They said I didn’t love my country, </div>
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called me a race-hater, called me out </div>
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of my name, waited for me </div>
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to come out on a stretcher, shot at me, </div>
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hexed me, cursed me, wished me </div>
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all manner of ill will, </div>
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told me I was finished. </div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here I am,</em></div>
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like the song says, </div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">come and take me,</em></div>
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<br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></div>
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“The People’s Champ,” </div>
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myself, </div>
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Muhammad. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Ali, of course, was also a poet himself:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ding! Ali comes out to meet Frazier<br />But Frazier starts to retreat<br />If Frazier goes back any further<br />He'll wind up in a ringside seat </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ali swings to the left<br />Ali swings to the right<br />Look at the kid<br />Carry the fight </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Frazier keeps backing<br />But there's not enough room<br />It's a matter of time<br />Then Ali lowers the boom </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now Ali lands to the right<br />What a beautiful swing!<br />And deposits Frazier<br />Clean out of the ring </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Frazier's still rising<br />But the referee wears a frown<br />For he can't start counting<br />Till Frazier comes down </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Now Frazier disappears from view<br />The crowd is getting frantic<br />But our radar stations have picked him up<br />He's somewhere over the Atlantic </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Who would have thought that<br />When they came to the fight<br />That they would have witnessed<br />The launching of a coloured satellite! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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His poetry tended to be full of bragadaccio, a dressed up trash-talk; the dozens, but with class and verve. Maybe next month I'll take a look at an Ali biography for one of my books.</div>
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