Our man in a place called Bangkok
Owns an old grandfather clock.
Each day at dawn
He takes Pimms on the lawn
To the chimes of that grandfather clock!
Our man in a place called Bangkok
Owns an old grandfather clock.
His mistress Dawn
Thinks the chimes forlorn
So she doesn’t like that clock!
In June 2017, I wrote a post entitled “Its My Blog and I’ll Swear If I Like”, https://newauthoronline.com/2017/06/27/its-my-blog-and-ill-swear-if-i-like/. In that article I argued that everyone has a right to run their blogs as they wish, including utilising swear words in posts. I also stated that swearing has a place in literature, for instance a gangster novel in which none of the characters swear would be wholly unbelievable.
I am, as pointed out in the above piece, no plaster saint myself and will on occasions swear in my personal life. However this is a rarity and when I swear it is, almost always under my breath and its not something of which I am proud.
I was reminded of my 2017 post by this article on the blog of the poet Giles L. Turnbull, http://gilesturnbullpoet.com/2018/04/01/i-swear-that-be-poetry/, in which he discusses the use of swearing in poetry. The article makes for interesting reading but utilises several four letter words, consequently anyone who would find this offensive may wish to avoid clicking on the above link.
As Giles points out, Shakespeare and Larkin (amongst others) employ swear words, for example Larkin’s “This Be The Verse” is famous (infamous)? For beginning with “They f . . k you up your mum and dad, they may not mean to, but they do”, and (in the case of Philip Larkin) the use of the “f” word is wholly justified (there would not be a meaningful poem where he to have written “they mess you up your mum and dad”. However I remain of the view that the sprinkling of poetry (or any other writing) with expletives for no reason other than shock value serves no useful purpose and I personally find such utilisation offensive.
Kevin
There was a young lady from Bangkok
Who did my poetry mock.
So I brought down a curse
In the form of a verse
While drunk on spirits and hock!
Let nature inspire you…
Our rock garden at the Farmstead is singing. The columbine were so glorious this season they inspired me to write “The Choral Debut,” a haiku (Japanese-inspired, non-rhyming three-line: 5-7-5 syllable poem). I hope The Choral Debut inspires you to get outdoors and let nature sing its songs to you.
The Choral Debut
HAIKU by Bette A. Stevens
Rising with the sun
Pristine perennials join
The choral début
I enjoy designing posters to go with my poems and often use photos I have taken. As a former teacher (now retired) in grades four through eight, I’ve learned that kids of all ages love writing poetry and like me, they enjoy illustrating their poems too. It’s simple and it’s so much fun to tell a story in the three short lines of Haiku. Of course, you can write as many stanzas as you wish. I invite you to give…
View original post 129 more words
I know a young lady from Thailand
Who said “your wish is my command”.
When I ordered “iron all my clothes”
She punched me on the nose.
Her language I do not understand …!
There was a young lady from Bangkok
Who lost a little white sock.
I discovered the shoe
Of a girl called Lou
But I never found that sock …
Children play
On another hot day,
Their faces
Carrying traces
Of yet another icecream.
As girls pass by
Displaying sunkissed thigh
And young men dream
But not of icecream
I think on
The tinder dry
Heather
And wonder whether
We are too far gone
An insightful quotation.
It was 1871 when Swiss philosopher Henry Frèderic Amiel pondered on the nature of democracy in his “Journal Intime”. It is impressive how Amiel in few clear words nails effectively the problems implied by a representation where one is worth one despite merit, experience, education etc. and foresees the processes that will shape the world as we know it. Of course, he could not predict how the impact of modern means of communications would have made the development of those processes more dangerous and faster with the consequences we know worldwide, however, his intuition has become astonishingly and bitterly true.
“The masses will always be below the average. Besides, the age of majority will be lowered, the barriers of sex will be swept away, and democracy will finally make itself absurd by handing over the decision of all that is greatest to all that is most incapable. Such…
View original post 105 more words
There was a young lady from Bangkok
Who did my front door unlock.
It was after midnight
And by the star’s bright light
We drank a bottle of Hock.
K Morris - Poet 