REMINDER: TOMORROW
23 April 2021: Show us your Friday! See you then!
IN A WEEK: Glimpse at YOUR Day
We'd love to see your Friday, 23 April 2021. Have a great weekend!
A Poetry Challenge? Well, What Do I Win...?
Today's B's Cancer-Free Day. This year's sucked far too many gritty-surfaced balls for a typical boohoo-ass weepy card.
This choice took a full 15 minutes from a man. Imagine the sacrifice.
To which I added a late night fever dream as follows:
If we Only Believed
What They say on Fox News
Then this card would be racist
T'ward Asian folk, too
With N-words for woodpiles
And nonsense from 'Q'
With some 'secret'
That COVID's from Kalamazoo
Let's thank Buddha for reading skills
Allah for forks
And those thinkers, that THINK
Not to re-elect dorks
You're still here! Shake them both!
Just be sure to have fun
Cuz You're immunized, dear
In the year Twenty-one
...to which B complained I'd given her an IMMUNIZATION card, not a Let's Relive ALL THE GODDAM SURGERY AND CHEMO OF 2016-2018 card.
*headwindow*
This choice took a full 15 minutes from a man. Imagine the sacrifice.
To which I added a late night fever dream as follows:
If we Only Believed
What They say on Fox News
Then this card would be racist
T'ward Asian folk, too
With N-words for woodpiles
And nonsense from 'Q'
With some 'secret'
That COVID's from Kalamazoo
Let's thank Buddha for reading skills
Allah for forks
And those thinkers, that THINK
Not to re-elect dorks
You're still here! Shake them both!
Just be sure to have fun
Cuz You're immunized, dear
In the year Twenty-one
...to which B complained I'd given her an IMMUNIZATION card, not a Let's Relive ALL THE GODDAM SURGERY AND CHEMO OF 2016-2018 card.
*headwindow*
Sympathy - Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!
La Cigale et la fourmi de Jean de La Fontaine
I decided not to do Rimbaud because I was too shy about my French. So I did this parable instead. I also was pretty shy about how I'm looking lately, so audio only! (Also, I realise now that I missed a tiny bit of the poem, but I was doing it from memory so that's my excuse!!)
La cigale ayant chanté
Tout l’été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue :
Pas un seul petit morceau
De mouche ou de vermisseau.
Elle alla crier famine
Chez la fourmi sa voisine,
La priant de lui prêter
Quelque grain pour subsister
Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle.
« Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle,
Avant l’août, foi d’animal,
Intérêt et principal. »
La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse :
C’est là son moindre défaut.
« Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ?
Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse.
— Nuit et jour à tout venant
Je chantais, ne vous déplaise.
— Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise :
Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »
The cicada (cricket) having sung
All summer long,
Found herself most destitute
When the north wind blew :
Not even one little morsel
Of fly or worm.
She went to plea her famish
To her neighbor the ant,
Begging her to lend her
A little grain so she’d survive
Until the new season.
“I shall pay you, she told her,
Before the harvest, animal’s oath,
Interest and principal.”
The ant is not a lender :
This is the least of her faults.
“What were you doing during the warm season ?
She asked this borrower.
— Night and day, to anyone
I sang, please you if it may.
— You sang ? I’m delighted :
Well, dance now.”
Poetry Challenge
I didn't have much poetry in my education, mostly only humorous ones in Primary School. I had thought to choose something from Christina Rossetti that I read later in life (out of school) and liked, but what poetry can trump one that even after 20+ years of learning it I can simply just recite it without reading (meh, except for the author name LOL). Excuse any accents I may have @.@
．
Two Witches
By Alexander Resnikoff
There was a witch
The witch had an itch
The itch was so itchy it
Gave her a twitch.
Another witch
Admired the twitch
So she started twitching
Though she had no itch.
Now both of them twitch
So it’s hard to tell which
Witch has the itch and
Which witch has the twitch.
．
Two Witches
By Alexander Resnikoff
There was a witch
The witch had an itch
The itch was so itchy it
Gave her a twitch.
Another witch
Admired the twitch
So she started twitching
Though she had no itch.
Now both of them twitch
So it’s hard to tell which
Witch has the itch and
Which witch has the twitch.
Poetry Reading - A Love Story In Reverse
Poetry... the stuff that every teenager thinks they can write, because nobody else really understands... The stuff you discover years later, in a folder at the bottom of a box in a cupboard somewhere, when you're looking for something else... The stuff you then unceremoniously burn in the back yard, because you dare not throw it out in the garbage or paper recycling bin, in case someone sees it, reads it & thinks not only what a whiney teenager you were, but also what a bloody awful poet!!
Thankfully, there are some people out there who are actually pretty good at it - John Cooper Clarke, for one. Here's a reading of his poem A Love Story In Reverse, from his book Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt. A warning: Having come to prominence in post-punk Britain, he's not afraid to drop the occasional 'blue' word or phrase, so if strong language offends, or you have impressionable children anywhere around, please skip to someone reading something else... though probably not Rochester, or Sylvia Plath... & maybe Robbie Burns too... unsurprisingly 3 of my other favourite poets!!
Thankfully, there are some people out there who are actually pretty good at it - John Cooper Clarke, for one. Here's a reading of his poem A Love Story In Reverse, from his book Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt. A warning: Having come to prominence in post-punk Britain, he's not afraid to drop the occasional 'blue' word or phrase, so if strong language offends, or you have impressionable children anywhere around, please skip to someone reading something else... though probably not Rochester, or Sylvia Plath... & maybe Robbie Burns too... unsurprisingly 3 of my other favourite poets!!
REMINDER: ONE DAY!
Remember! Tomorrow is our poetry challenge. I am excited to hear what poems you have to share!
ONE WEEK: Poetry Challenge
10 April 2021: Please post video or audio of you reading/reciting your favourite poem. Can be posted early or late!
APRIL 2021: Poetry Challenge & 23 April
Happy April! I hope you're doing well over a year into our pandemic history, and perhaps wherever you are is turning a corner.
Thank you to everyone who participated in last month's glimpse and challenge; I loved getting a sneak peek into your fridges as well as your days.
April's monthly challenge will be 10 April 2021. On this day, please post a video or an audio clip of you reading/reciting your favourite poem in honour of international poetry month! I'll probably be doing a poem by Arthur Rimbaud, my favourite poet of all time. The poem can be in your native language or any other language, and remember that it can be posted before or late.
April's glimpse at your day will be Friday, 23 April 2021. The day was chosen by a random number generator. What will you be doing that Friday? I have no idea! Remember you can post other glimpses, even earlier ones.
As always reminder to follow. Thanks for participating!
