-Waiting at the Terminal-
Poem-a-day entry number two. This is a pantoum poem. In pantoums, the words from lines two and four of every stanza repeat as lines one and three of the next stanza. Although the words should repeat exactly, punctuation is often shifted to change the meaning in unexpected ways. Enjoy! — -Waiting at the Terminal- I know it is a beginning because I hold my elbows different. Rub the scaly bits, and I can’t stop. Because I hold my elbows, I have so many squirmy bits and– I can’t stop having to do something. I have so many squirmy relatives. Can’t look, but having to. Do something! There is nothing to do. Relatives can’t look, but the pinewood lies open. There is nothing to do; it feels like Velcro. The pinewood lies. Open some rum or a window. It feels like...
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For poetry month, I’m writing a poem a day. I can’t promise anything about the quality. Here’s my first one. — -Throwback- “Time travel is not possible” Steve said, while the secondhand on his wrist tisk-tisked and proved that cans rust, or at the very least buds do not stay curled masses. But, in fact, they open up like Bob at the AA meeting. But Steve is being profound. You can tell by the way he swirls his solo cup as if it were punctuation. If he sloshes enough beer onto his hand it will freeze, no one will move and he will be correct. “We would know already” He has some example about Persian rugs and calculators. At this point I skip to where Steve has left, and I pick up his crumb-ridden Hors d’oeuvre plate. It makes a satisfying...
Read MoreQoheleth Chapter Seven
Translation from the Lilly Pad Bible Commentary by K.D. Frogg: 1 Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side? 2 Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide. 3 So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it. I know they’re wrong, wait and see. 4 Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me. 5 Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished on the morning star? 6 Somebody thought of that and someone believed it. 7 Look what it’s done so far. 8 What’s so amazing that keeps us star gazing and what do we think we might see? 9 Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers and me. All of us...
Read MoreQoheleth Chapter Six
Translation from the Anchor Bible commentary by R.B.Y. Scott: 1 One misfortune which I have observed under the sun, and which bears heavily on men [is this]– 2 a man to whom God grants riches, possessions, and an honored place [in the community], so that he lacks nothing that heart could desire, but whom God has not given the power to enjoy it– rather a stranger enjoys it instead. This is a hollow mockery and a sore affliction. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years and is prominent all his life, but does not find happiness– I declare that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 Though its coming is futile and it departs in darkness, though its name is hidden in darkness and it has no burial place; 5 thought it never saw the sun nor knew...
Read More-Notes From Any Committee-
But our memories are like our hands. Jammed in pockets, fidgety. Empty more often than …where did I put my pen? Phalanges protrude only so far from our palms. We can’t reach so, we ball our crocuses until our wrists turn blotchy. We unclench snow. It is like we had to scratch a thaw and instead we fondled distractedly all along. There, on the table is the frenetic Sun: Like a one-dimensional trope in a poem that mentions seasons. It has said only half a sent… and the chairs squeak, they all lean back and didder. Some folded, some grab handkerchiefs, adjust glasses, pick noses. The meeting is over. Mittens are warmer, but they say gloves give you more motion. The wind applauds and slaps. We have made progress: I found my pen. 0-1 Share...
Read MoreQoheleth Chapter Five
Translation from the Anchor Bible commentary by R.B.Y. Scott: 1 Be circumspect when you go to the house of God. Approach in order to learn, rather than to offer a sacrifice like that of fools who know nothing except how to do wrong. 2 Do not speak impetuously, nor think of uttering a hurried word before God. Since God is in heaven and you are on earth, let your words be few. 3 “A dream follows on much busyness, and a fool’s speech on too much talk.” 4 When you make a vow to God, do not be slow in paying it, for God has no liking for fools. Pay what you vow to pay. 5 It is better that you make no vow, than that you make a vow and fail to keep it. 6 Do not allow your tongue to put you in the wrong; and do not say to the messenger [who comes to collect it], “It was...
Read MoreQoheleth Chapter Four
Translation from the Anchor Bible commentary by R.B.Y. Scott: 1 Next I turned to consider all the acts of oppression which are done under the sun; I witnessed the tears of the oppressed who have no one to comfort them; their oppressors have power in their hands, but they themselves have no avenger. 2 I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 Better off than either is he who has not yet been, and has not witnessed the evil that is done under the sun. 4 I saw that all a man’s toil and skill is expended through the desire to surpass his neighbor; this, too is an empty thing and a clutching at the wind. 5 [They say] “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.” 6 I say, “Better on handful of peace, than to...
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