Dunc 2010

[Roge]

Hi Dunc.

Just managed to have a quick read through and enjoyed the thread very much. Love your wit and skill. Quite jealous really.

Keep it up for the down hill run to the end of the mad month.

Cheers

Roge

[Dunc]

Mari - Thanks for your kind words.

Roge - I've missed your stalwart Kiwi presence from these shenanigans! Glad you found things to enjoy. And down hill may well be the word for the run to the line.

I appreciate your dropping in. Regards / Dunc

[Dunc]

19 April 2010



THE RAPTURE

Forgotten heirs who leap to claim the houses,
‘presumed dead’ probates all the latest style,
and in their millions, new left-over spouses
throw clothing for the poor in monstrous piles.

Our politics recovers hints of reason
once real evangelists are hard to find,
and social workers must extend the season
for suicidal preachers left behind.

A short recession due to lost consumers
is fixed by all the slightly-used we buy.
The international mean IQ’s a boomer,
its greatest single leap since Princess Di.

So life resumes. Not too far down the track,
we’ll legislate to stop ’em coming back.

.

[Dunc]

20 April 2010



OBITUARY

The late Vatican
didn’t blaze with love of truth
or the truth of love
but was just
old men in dresses
tending a great vanity.

.

[Hydro]

I love the wry satire in these last two Dunc (well, and plenty of others). 'Obituary' is darkly hilarious, evocative, and true.

[Dunc]

Hydro - Kind of you to drop in again. Thanks for the kind words.

Regards / Dunc

[Dunc]

21 April 2010



NOTHINGNESS

We may be in error to think that nothingness
is just non-existence. Perhaps another kind
of absolute absence is here inside our space.

Perhaps our galaxy swings not on the pivot
of an obsessive and omnivorous mass
but on its opposite, the purest sort of void;

and perhaps the middle of this resplendent earth
is not the molten rock and the distressed iron
of our volcanic dreams, but a colossal null.

If now we contemplate self-examination,
what might we hope to gain more than we fear to lose?
Best that we think the best of the heart of our heart.

Humans are small creatures. Perhaps we are dust motes
radiant in the beams of a glitterball star.

.

[Salli Shepherd]

Dunc. Most people just have lint in their navels. You get the Universe.

The international mean IQ’s a boomer,
its greatest single leap since Princess Di.

- Ha.

Loved Obituary, The Rapture and Medici had me laughing out loud.

Thanks for them.

-s

[Dave Wiseman]

19 April 2010



THE RAPTURE

Forgotten heirs who leap to claim the houses,
‘presumed dead’ probates all the latest style,
and in their millions, new left-over spouses
throw clothing for the poor in monstrous piles.

Our politics recovers hints of reason
once real evangelists are hard to find,
and social workers must extend the season
for suicidal preachers left behind.

A short recession due to lost consumers
is fixed by all the slightly-used we buy.
The international mean IQ’s a boomer,
its greatest single leap since Princess Di.

So life resumes. Not too far down the track,
we’ll legislate to stop ’em coming back.

.

Oh Hell Yeah!
We're plumb overrun with the end-times prophets around here. This is a great send-up, with the added bonus of a snippy little bit of politics tossed in. Good stuff.

[Jee Leong]

Hi Dunc,

Love that "Obituary" ends with the word "vanity." "Nothing" has so much to recommend it, the distressed iron, for instance. And this wonderful line: "Best that we think the best of the heart of our heart."

Jee

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

"THE RAPTURE" is a pointed commentary, with a great eye for detail and wry turns of phrase, and the same could be said for the much shorter "OBITUARY".

"NOTHINGNESS" is certainly more than nothing. I've tried a couple of things in this vein in the past, and it is more difficult to pull off than one might think.

Keep up the great work.

BrianIs AtYou

[Dunc]

Salli - I've had some great crits in my time but Most people just have lint in their navels. You get the Universe. pips them all. Wunderbar!

Dave - Glad to be of service. I know what you mean.

Jee - As always, I appreciate your views. Especially your kind ones.

Brian - Thanks for your comments. Glad you called.


Plenas gracias, folks. Regards / Dunc

[Dunc]

22 April 2010



IMAGINED FRAGMENTS:
9. From Timothy and Joséphine


...............ridiculous that the steamer sails
in just a couple of hours. I’m sure there won’t be war.

One day we meet again, Doc,
when your silences stop banging like a drum,
when your secrets no more drill at my teeth.
Then we will drink to this, and say it was love.
She laughed that dark alto laugh.

Thank you, Fifi, and good luck.
I’m sure you’ll conquer your ignorance
and become a mixture of beauty and science.
As you gain confidence, when you speak English
your accent won’t vary with your discomfort.

They heard the taxi horn outside.

Fifi, you’ll be
a singular memory. He blinked,
paid the waiter, walked to the polished doors,
looked back at her, and left.

At once she gestured to Gaston.
Un télégramme que je dois envoyer
à cet homme à Berlin. From her frilled handbag
she took a paper and a gold coin
of large denomination

.

[Roge]

20 April 2010



OBITUARY

The late Vatican
didn’t blaze with love of truth
or the truth of love
but was just
old men in dresses
tending a great vanity.

.

Oh, there is such poetic fodder in the Vatican at the moment. It is one area where my muse has gained a brief pulse but too late for this round of madness.

Well done - again.

Cheers

Roge

[RobynD]

Hey, Dunc, quick fly-by- loved Obituary, very astute observation. And Nothingness- these parts-

but on its opposite, the purest sort of void;

and perhaps the middle of this resplendent earth
is not the molten rock and the distressed iron

Best that we think the best of the heart of our heart.

Humans are small creatures. Perhaps we are dust motes
radiant in the beams of a glitterball star.

This latest, too, although at the moment I can't recall who Timothy and Josephine are, but the dialogue, the character they reveal, is intriguing. I know I know the story---