[Mary Meriam]

If there were a password-protected Deep End, I'm pretty sure I'd be much more Sphere-active. But I don't think invitation-only or Poet in Residence is the way to go with a PPDE.

Thanks, Nemo, for your cinematic (or possibly sit-com) essay on the State of the Sphere. Fabulous.

[John Whitworth]

I am the Poet in Residence. Poet Laureate manque. That ought to have a little dingus on it.

And you Ann of course.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Jayne Osborn

D & A is a fun place. We all get on well with one another and there's never any unpleasantness like ad hom remarks.

That's very true, Jayne. And perhaps rather odd, since of all the forums, that is the one where we are, literally, most in competition with one another. But what we actually get in D & A is helpful advice as to how we might improve a phrase here or there, or correct the metre without changing the sense, which for me is what "workshopping" should be - none of that "This poem is awful, and if I'd written it, it would be completely different and much better" stuff that, alas, sometimes pollutes the non-Amusement forums. I exaggerate, of course, but I'm sure you recognize the phenomenon.

Originally Posted by Jayne Osborn

I regret some of the things I've done in my life (who doesn't?) but harking back to the past is a pointless exercise.

As the man said, Jayne, even nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

[Norman Ball]

"As the man said, Jayne, even nostalgia isn't what it used to be."


Yes indeed. Nostalgia feels so recycled nowadays.

As for that Nemo, man can he write on both sides of the ledger. Well said.

[John Whitworth]

What you say is very true, Brian. Drills and Amusements is the jewel in the crown, partly because of you.

[Terese Coe]

I often swing over to D&A for amusement and diversion, commodies becoming scarcer by the moment in this rapidly deteriorating world political picture. So D&A wit is all the more valuable, and John, Annie, Brian, and the crew are much appreciated!

And yes, Nemo, you have your finger on the pulse and I agree. I could add something, but it would be of interest mainly to other college instructors as well as teachers and psychologists (ie about certain media and computer games and their seemingly debilitating consequences for verbal expression in those who are at it many hours of the day), but it may or may not be relevant to the Sphere.

[R. S. Gwynn]

I'm with Terese on this one. Maybe light verse/parody doesn't involve as much ego and doesn't invite ad hom comments.

[Mary Meriam]

Of Two Minds

This is your superego calling,
Who finds your conduct quite appalling.
do da dirty do da sin
dump da pussy in da bin

To raise us from the primal swamp
We must curtail the instinct’s romp.
why dont we do it in da road
up ya bum ya moral code

A sense of civic duty needs
To govern all our words and deeds.
when da neighbour make me sick
whack him with a great big stick

A man is not a mindless clam:
‘I cogitate, therefore I am.’
you da boring fart dat reasons
me da id thing for all seasons


Basil Ransome-Davies

[Susan McLean]

Kudos to Basil. Thanks for that, Mary.

Susan

[Julie Steiner]

Yes, wonderful!

The following also seems relevant--to me, if to no one else. Below is a link to an image of Apollo (the civilized, cultured superego), sedately playing his cithara, while the satyr Marsyas (the rude and nude id) gets down with the aulos flutes thrown away by Athena (the central figure). When Apollo and Marsyas had a music contest judged by the Muses, Apollo was in danger of losing until he changed the rules: according to one version of the myth, he required each competitor to play his instrument upside down; according to another version, he required each competitor to sing while accompanying himself on his instrument. Either way, after Apollo rigged the competition to favor his own way of making music, he won the right to have Marsyas flayed alive...which is clearly a metaphor for the overly harsh and dismissive critique we sometimes see on the Met boards.

(Warning: nudie picture)
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythol...rsyasNAMA.html

M. A. Griffiths wrote the following poem after receiving one too many critiques (in another online workshop) advising her to trim all her "unnecessary" modifiers, regardless of what this did to the meter and flow of the piece:

Marsyas

My song was ripped and flayed
when they cried ‘strip it bare’.
Behold its keening bones;
the muscles bleed elsewhere.