Poems and other uses of the language

Often, life is right in front of me, jumping up and down, waving her hands about one thing in particular. (yes, life if female — that is, life is filled with new life, life is unpredictable, life is stubborn, life is beautiful, life often has a plan for my life that is different that I had planned…) During National Poetry Month (April), life seems to shout about our use of language. Some may call it synchronicity — the more I focus on language the more language is hard to ignore — others may say, ‘once an English teacher, always an English teacher.’ Add in forced isolation and I’m seeing books I forgot I owned and needed to share some of the good stuff I find. Here are some fun, insightful poems and other observations as I wander 765 Alton and the internet.

ABC
by Robert Pinsky

Any body can die, evidently. Few
Go happily, irradiating joy,

Knowledge, love. Many
Need oblivion, painkillers,
Quickest respite.

Sweet time unafflicted,
Various world:
X=your zenith.

For the young who want to

by Marge Piercy

Talent is what they say
you have after the novel
is published and favorably
reviewed. Beforehand what
you have is a tedious
delusion, a hobby like knitting.

Work is what you have done
after the play is produced
and the audience claps.
Before that friends keep asking
when you are planning to go
out and get a job.

Genius is what they know you
had after the third volume
of remarkable poems. Earlier
they accuse you of withdrawing,
ask why you don’t have a baby,
call you a bum.

The reason people want M.F.A.’s,
take workshops with fancy names
when all you can really
learn is a few techniques,
typing instructions and some-
body else’s mannerisms

is that every artist lacks
a license to hang on the wall
like your optician, your vet
proving you may be a clumsy sadist
whose fillings fall into the stew
but you’re certified a dentist.

The real writer is one
who really writes. Talent
is an invention like phlogiston
after the fact of fire.
Work is its own cure. You have to
like it better than being loved.

Note: In Fooling with Words, Piercy explains ‘phlogiston’ was a pre-nineteenth-century explanation for why things burned: people said things burned because they contained phlogiston.
Fooling with Words is also a captivating Bill Moyers film and great use of an hour

—–

More Than a Handshake
by Aram Kabodian

In the old country
Your handshake
Was your identity.

Men shook hands
With strength and conviction,
A bond and a test.

Our grandfathers squeezed
With a death grip
And a wink.

That first handshake
Is hard to forget,
More difficult to repeat.

Firm grips were earned.
Long, back-breaking days
Out there doin’ what had to be done.

More than a mere greeting,
That hand extended
Was a challenge;

Look your grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather
In the eye
And wink.

Feb. ‘99

—–

More Language I’ve noticed lately

Here’s a post-4/20 thought. Remember this song…

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

Coincidence?

——

Ways people communicate with me these days: I need to check my phone messages, email, text messages, Facebook page, Facebook messenger, Marco Polo, and Twitter. There’s zoom, facetime, google hangouts, …does anyone skype? Some people need to check snapchat and instagram too (I’m only a lurker there). I used to check Slack but that was another life. Others are in online forums. I’m sure that I’m missing some newfangled method…Doxy or Fango or Lettermo or ToxicTok. I almost never forget to daily check our mailbox in front of our house.

what will we be like after the isolation?


If you can’t handle the use of the f-word, skip this video; if you’re okay with…enjoy a few laughs.

One of my favorites videos we've made "CUTE HOUSE" -Dress Up Gang -Frankie Quinones – Brent Weinbach

Posted by Donny Divanian on Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Weird Al is still out there doing his literary magic.

Here’s a link to one of the books I’m reading; it’s a book of insightful essays by an author I’ve come to love (Brian Doyle).


Here’s someone who knows how to use the language: Colbert.

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