Lazy Sunday
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Oct 16, 2011 at 4:27am
It's raining outside, apparently no one showed up for the Occupy Istanbul protests (they're protested-out here, I reckon), and I don't feel like writing about politics. Shall we have a poetry contest instead? Prize for best poem about the sea, best poem about a cat, best poem about a king. Have at it!
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Nov '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Today's Song is dedicated to you Claire.
Wilco's brand new One Sunday Morning.
At more than a dozen minutes
Its length may deserve a warning.
But if one is working on some prose
in order to impress our Ed. way out east.
Then listening to a band master new material
Might be inspiring, at the very least.
The lyrics may be raw and full of pain.
But if you ignore Jeff Tweedy's words
The instruments' light and playful run through the chords
Sounds like a chat amongst the birds.
Nov '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Ailurophagia
.
The King and his cat
They sailed out to sea
Debating the problems of evil and good.
Different ideas did
Each of them have
For what should determine the meaning of "should".
.
The King said that God
Decided the matter:
Forbidding what's wrong, and declaring what's right.
The cat said that God
Just saw moral truth:
Distinguishing it with His Perfect Sight.
.
"If God said 'eat you' "
Said King to his cat
"That would be right, by divine decree!".
"I beg to differ"
The cat did reply
"God doesn't approve of such perversity."
.
"But perverse says whom?"
The King did rebut
"An absolute standard is needed to judge!"
"Can God declare one?"
The cat did object
"Or is that assertion a fallacious fudge?"
.
"But what can't God do?"
The King interposed
"Omnipotence: that is his greatest delight!"
"I'm not so sure"
The cat criticized
"No level of power causes might to make right".
.
The King took offense
At the cat's attitude
And felt God was whispering words in his ear.
The boat it returned
And weighted just the same
But only the King stepped back out onto the pier...
.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 5:33amNov '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Sorry, I didn't realize there were categories. So how about a true story instead.
A Daughter's Logic
A pink roll of yarn
Has been sought after for weeks.
For it must surely be followed by,
The kitty she seeks.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 5:37amMar '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
I trekked to the sea,
Where I chanced to spy the king.
Who had brought his cat.
Re: Lazy Sunday
Gridiron battle at noon
Blitzing my linebacker and soon
With a sure-handed wing
And some mis-direction bling
If we win instead of coach I'll be King
(sorry Claire I couldn't figure out how to work a cat into the game)
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 7:16amJan '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
A tired old bitty
was renting her kitty
When along came the king
Who extruded his thing
But vigilant C O C
Buried this poem at sea.
Jun '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
If lyrics are poetry, this was the most popular piece of poetry in Flyover America last week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDvBmWOf8m0
Mar '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
Kitty Triolet
Your food’s on a timer, I have no control
Dear cat I’m asleep it’s a quarter to three
I bet if you check there is food in your bowl
Your food’s on a timer, I have no control
My lack of sleep is taking its toll
I’m so very tired, why can’t you see
Your food’s on a timer, I have no control
Dear cat I’m asleep it’s a quarter to three
Sep '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Nickey-too
Little did I know when he came into view
that ours would be a daily grind
of purrs and destructive claws brand new—
a couch, a chair—most anything he can find.
Seeming to know just what I love,
he insists that I forget.
Bumping up against me—part rub, part shove.
I’m helpless in his grip.
He comes when called, lets me kiss his face,
sweetly disinclined to bite or scratch.
“Come home to me,” I say, as he readies to race
outside the door and become wild out back.
What an interesting, enduring love we share,
though his manner would suggest that he does not care.
(Nickey and Pseudodionysius could be twins, btw.)
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 8:54amJun '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Sailing into Oblivion
On a red-sea of debt, the deck slippery and wet,
The ship of state sails, while the taxpayer bails.
Its engines the victim of regulatory dictum,
Churn at half speed, while the passengers bleed.
It’s the barrel of pork, which turned ship into cork
The flotsam of whim, more prone to sink than swim.
In the city a mob tries to gull, the terminally dull,
With an incoherent wheeze for financial ease.
Defecating and filthy louts, fill the air with shouts;
What does it all mean this riotous scene?
Is it the ungrateful request of the unjustly blessed?
Or political theatre for a master courting disaster?
He who’s grown into fool, from messiah of cool.
It’s the politics of spend if the economy is to mend
But the people are done with this vinegared tun.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 9:22amMay '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Will a riddle do?
I am named for the city gracing my mouth
I am mentioned in both Crusoe and Monte Cristo
I am home to the remains of a once great global power
What spot of sea am I?
Mar '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
The sea. The sea. I love to see the sea.
When I hear her waves a-crashin
It makes me have to pee.
Aug '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
There once was a cat in the palace,
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 10:07amWho lapped wine from the king's golden chalice.
Though the king was quite wroth,
He could not blame God,
For an act that was mere feline malice!
Aug '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Lazy Sunday
in honor of PseudoD, Ricochet's very own marmalade cat
My marmalade cat sprawls out on the radiator,
adrowse in a warm spot of sunshine.
He lolls. He lounges languidly,
like the naked men in
Buonarroti’s Holy Family.
He stretches; spikes of paler belly-fur
catch the light and glow like alabaster.
Of all life’s pleasures, he knows,
this is the Ultimate It.
Leaders of men and public icons prate
of World Peace and Public Works and Art.
But their innermost springs of being long only to be
a marmalade cat
draped over the radiator,
asleep
in a warm spot of sunshine.
____________________________________________
PS: In case you're wondering, there really are a bunch of naked men lounging around in Michelangelo's Holy Family. No clue why they're there. But they look relaxed.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 10:28amRe: Lazy Sunday
You guys are so great.
Aug '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
What about a contest for the best ode to Saddam Hussein's missing buttock?
Mar '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
Sunrise
The wind is low
As is the Sun
Slanting bright in my eye.
The Gulf is calm
Gentle waves wash in
As the ocean heaves a sigh.
A serpentine weave goes out to sea
Like a contrail of a ghost ship
Made by shoals or wind or current's tricky bend.
Giant pelicans in silhoette like swans
Rest midway to the horizon, waking up.
They preen themselves and put their feathers to the mend.
The gulls, of course, are everywhere.
Like tough street bullies, with a lot of zeal
They harass a family of loons,
Snowbirds just arrived from northern winter,
Fish divers working for their meal.
Gulls dive on loon to grab his catch
But loon is well-fitted for his task,
He simply dives again and dines below
Where seagull cannot go.
Further out near the fishing boats
A pod of dolphins, like anti-loons,
Dive into the air to take a breath.
The beach awakes, a pod of humans comes walking,
Doing what humans do - talking.
Aug '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
Robert Mitze: Sunrise
The wind is low
As is the Sun
Slanting bright in my eye.
The Gulf is calm
Gentle waves wash in
As the ocean heaves a sigh.
A serpentine weave goes out to sea
Like a contrail of a ghost ship
Made by shoals or wind or current's tricky bend.
Giant pelicans in silhoette like swans
Rest midway to the horizon, waking up.
They preen themselves and put their feathers to the mend.
The gulls, of course, are everywhere.
Like tough street bullies, with a lot of zeal
They harass a family of loons,
Snowbirds just arrived from northern winter,
Fish divers working for their meal.
Gulls dive on loon to grab his catch
But loon is well-fitted for his task,
He simply dives again and dines below
Where seagull cannot go.
Further out near the fishing boats
A pod of dolphins, like anti-loons,
Dive into the air to take a breath.
The beach awakes, a pod of humans comes walking,
Doing what humans do - talking.
Beautiful -- and a funny ending, too.
I had no idea that loons spent their winters in the Gulf. But I'm glad to know it now.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 11:31amAug '10
Re: Lazy Sunday
And now for a view of the sea from more northern climes:
Before an October Storm
The sea is still quiet, but restive,
a heaving sheet of silk.
The silt rises up in the water,
turning it into thin milk.
The clouds roll with rain:
in the light of their shade
far out -- too far out to reach --
the sea glows
impossible jade.
.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 8:00pmMar '11
Re: Lazy Sunday
Okay, Midge, here goes. I've tried to stick to the original topic requirements as closely as possible......
There once was cat from Nantucket
Who’d heard a king’s statue lost a buttock:
The booty was sold
On Ebay, we’re told
A fate fit for a tyrant.