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  #101  
Unread 07-21-2017, 06:39 AM
Martin Parker Martin Parker is offline
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With your constant splitting head
How come you read so much in bed?

Or is it done to hide your stress
At waiting till I detumesce?
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  #102  
Unread 07-22-2017, 11:01 AM
Erik Olson Erik Olson is offline
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***Poem omitted for submission purposes***

Last edited by Erik Olson; 07-22-2017 at 01:22 PM.
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  #103  
Unread 07-22-2017, 11:15 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Beautiful Eric.
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  #104  
Unread 07-22-2017, 12:30 PM
Aaron Poochigian Aaron Poochigian is offline
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Yes, Erik, "Awash" is excellent. Send it out. It's ready.
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  #105  
Unread 07-22-2017, 01:00 PM
Erik Olson Erik Olson is offline
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Jim,
thank you. Cheers.


Aaron,
yes, I reckon so. Thanks.

P.S. Sending it out there, I suppose I best omit it here. Who knew that this thread would burgeon so? Thanks for starting it, by the way.

Last edited by Erik Olson; 07-22-2017 at 01:24 PM.
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  #106  
Unread 07-24-2017, 02:28 PM
Jan D. Hodge Jan D. Hodge is offline
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To paraphrase the Bard, "I were but little depressed if I could say how much." Is not perhaps the real depression for a writer being unable to write? And might not poetry itself be the best therapy?

What a remarkable thread to come across while recovering from last week's heart surgery (a series of examinations culminated in placement of a pacemaker). And what a range of responses to the initial challenge, from the epigrammitic wit of "Resumé" (be it Parker's or Roger/Bob's or several others here) to the agonizing lines of Anne or Silken (or again several others here). Obviously craft itself is no substitute for emotional honesty, but when the two are wed the result is incredibly moving.

Since a few have offered poems not by themselves, I'll nominate what I find perhaps the most depressing poem I know, Randall Jarrell's "90 North." A child's nightmare of a polar bear standing at the North Pole leads to an excruciating discovery:

. . . . . . . .I reached my North and it had meaning.
. . . . . . . .Here at the actual pole of my existence,
. . . . . . . .Where all that I have done is meaningless,
. . . . . . . .Where I die or live by accident alone—

. . . . . . . .Where, living or dying, I am still alone;
. . . . . . . .Here where North, the night, the berg of death
. . . . . . . .Crowd me out of the ignorant darkness,
. . . . . . . .I see at last that all the knowledge

. . . . . . . .I wrung from darkness—that the darkness flung me—
. . . . . . . .Is worthless as ignorance; nothing comes from nothing,
. . . . . . . .The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness
. . . . . . . .And we call it wisdom. It is pain.

My talent, being far more modest than his, turned to epigram to write my own epitaph years ago:

. . . . . . . . . . . .Fee fie foe fum
. . . . . . . . . . . .So my time to go has come.
. . . . . . . . . . . .Foe fum fee fie
. . . . . . . . . . . .Comes a time we all must die.
. . . . . . . . . . . .Fie foe fum fee
. . . . . . . . . . . .Sighs the world a sigh for me?
. . . . . . . . . . . .Fum fee fie foe
. . . . . . . . . . . .Don’t be silly. Hell no.

(What fun to go out on a spondee.)
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  #107  
Unread 07-24-2017, 04:58 PM
John Isbell John Isbell is offline
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I love those Randall Jarrell lines. Thanks for posting them, Jan.
I also hope your surgery went well.
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  #108  
Unread 07-24-2017, 09:24 PM
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Douglas G. Brown Douglas G. Brown is offline
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Now, if we're going to write own epitaphs;

Beneath this stone, my ashes lie;
How tragic that I had to die.
Say anything you want of me,
But find another place to pee.
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  #109  
Unread 07-24-2017, 11:55 PM
Aaron Poochigian Aaron Poochigian is offline
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Well done, Douglas. Yours reminds me of some of my favorite Ancient Greek epitaphs.
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  #110  
Unread 07-25-2017, 07:05 AM
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Douglas G. Brown Douglas G. Brown is offline
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Thanks, Aaron. Please share some of them with us.
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