Tapestries and Strange Imaginings

[Janet]

Hi Tony- great combination of humor and depth. Your Tokyo-Kyoto diamond is impressive and I loved your wit in the Siri-cookie monster poem. The voice and concept in Poet in Space: Pre-flight check is right on- loved it

[Tony Hoffman]

Thanks, Howard, Arlene, John, Jee, Larry, Janet. Jee and Janet, actually the inspiration for Poet in Space was that someone claimed at a poetry reading that I had spent time -aboard the International Space Station! I'm ready---at least to write additional segments of the adventure. Howard, Shadowfax has outrun Nazgul--I think he can handle a few raptors.

[Tony Hoffman]

I did not find the notebook, but I now have a new one, and I have been churning out scads/oodles/a plethora (or maybe two plethoras) of raw material, aka gibberish. Some of it is slowly congealing into poems.

[Tony Hoffman]

<This Message Contains No Content>

Hi there! Reset your password immediately
or you will be permanently locked out
of your account. Please verify your address?
(Sending you a cookbook.) Lose half your weight,
your sagging skin. (It’s a cookbook!) Have you had
these symptoms? Print them before they expire.
Klondike diezophrenia om metatarsal bushbaby
It’s here!!! Free trial available! Shocking secrets revealed!
These hidden cameras watch you from everywhere!
Plebian nipple schizoid twang runcible teutonic
This website has your town’s residents “rattled”—
Action required! You may not be protected.
Our call center is awaiting your response.
Don’t hesitate! Ends tomorrow.
beebread saxophonist, silvery kabob catcall
Need a reverse mortgage? Quick decision.
Bushwoolies are intelligent!!! Free video!
sloth Kaiser stroboscopic broccoli planetoid samovar
A Nigerian astronaut is stranded aboard the Soyuz
and only you can bring him home.
You will be rewarded handsomely
if you could help me secure the funds.
I hope you can be trusted?
Blenny schizomycetes vee sidetrack Shaolin
Introvert reactor grower stiffen. Raschig irrelevancy
The Trump says “I credit my fortune to
this brain pill” (Dr. Oz recommended)
past-life regression and free Turkish coffee
sustainably farmed vanilla and cage-free eggs—
You will be amazed at her ESP.
Hum scuffle plankton wattle largesse nyet
Roquefort dork pheromone opprobrium dogwood
22 celebrities suffer this bizarre addiction—
you won’t believe who #7 is!

[Janet]

All looks pretty familiar although the way you put it is much more entertaining (and stops to make me think). The plebeian schizoid tang made me laugh. Funny how we're bombarded like this and sometimes don't even realize how much of it we actually absorb.

[5th column]

This Message: I normally see long poems and think "Oh no.." but this held me in its nonsensical grip from start to finish. It's like abstract art and I really enjoyed it. Not least "Klondike diezophrenia om metatarsal bushbaby" - Where does that kind of thing come from!?

[Dunc]

Tony

R Train — A formidable musing. The trainwheels clack in time to the Monty Python Galaxy Song.

Preflight Check — I enjoyed the run-up but I was expecting not less than a haiku as the fruits of our bard's inspiration.

No Content — Delightful reading! "past-life regression and free Turkish coffee" indeed.

Glad I dropped in.

Regards / Dunc

[beeswax]

Musings While Riding the Train What’s amazing is not that fact that we are located in a complex and mysterious cosmos – it’s that most of us rarely think about it. I enjoyed these musings for that reason -- gave me the heeby jeebies for a moment, sitting here as I am in my safe wee corner. Same with Message Contains no content -- after a while it’s wallpaper – unless you have more time to waste after an hour on facebook. That’s another good thing about NaPo – you got to cut down on the ‘time-wasters’ in order to immerse yourself in pomes, be they pseudo poems or great poems, they’ve got to be better than Dr. Oz and the latest celebrity endorsements. Your poems made me think today. That’s good.

[Tony Hoffman]

Thanks a lot, Janet, 5th, Dunc, Bees--glad you enjoyed them. 5th, although I copied much of the gibberish from the text of spam emails (I don't know how they generate that stuff), now that I look at it, "Klondike diezophrenia om metatarsal bushbaby" was entirely my creation.

[Tony Hoffman]

And now for something completely different...(and I thought America's problems were weird):

Boaty McBoatface*

Boaty McBoatface
Ready to sail to the arctic for fortune and fame.
Dude, where’s my name?
Drydocked in limbo
Forced to submit to a moniker picked by the Crown.
(Big Boaty frown!)

All the flying saucers
Where do they all come from?
All the flying saucers
Where do they all belong?

Joseph E. Johnson
Puts on his jackboots and stomps on the popular will
(Royalist shill.)
Scuttles poor Boaty
down to the depths with the plankton, the krill and the kelp—
Boaty needs help!

All the flying saucers
Where do they all come from?
All the flying saucers
Where do they all belong?

Boaty McBoatface
died through an edict that claims her identity’s null.
(Boatface, boat skull.)
Soon she’ll resurface
bearing a government-vetted, more dignified name—
one not so lame.

Ah, look at all the flying saucers
Ah, look at all the flying saucers

*sung to the tune of Eleanor Rigby

[5th column]

Boaty McB to the tune of Eleanor Rigby was awesome. I've been following this story due to its importance to the country. Forget the EU vote, this is what it's all about! Personally I think it'll forever be known as Boaty McBoatface no matter what they call it officially. It'll go down in history, hopefully not the ocean too!

As for the poem - "Drydocked in limbo" was particularly notable

[bop]

Tony,
I really enjoyed Boatyard McBoatface and your genius idea of arranging it to the tune of Elanor Rigby. I'd read an article about the survey ship and the public poll to choose its name. The poem sums up the snootiness of the government lackeys who appear to have scuppered the brilliant and most popular name. What also struck me, having seen a picture of the ship, is that it looks as if it should be called Boatyard McBoatface!
Best wishes,
bop

[Emilio]

Tony, I was happy to see a Boaty McBoatface poem, I remember seeing this in the international news not too long ago, and I remember thinking the name was creative and brilliant! I had no idea the government was thinking of quashing the popular vote though, that truly is sad. In any case, the poem put a smile on my face! One thing that came to my ear when reading, consider at S1L6 converting either Boaty or frown to McBoaty or McFrown. I enjoyed this,

Best,

[Tony Hoffman]

Thanks a lot, 5th, Bop, Emilio--glad you enjoyed Boaty McBoatface. Emilio, Boaty McFrown it is!

Tony

[Tony Hoffman]

Flying over Greenland

We’ve all but stopped the sun in its descent
winging westward this far north
vaulting the tip of this tall, cold land
over a milky expanse, broken at last
by stark outcroppings—like humanity’s
first glimpse of Pluto.
We’re over Greenland in the pink hour
when shadows of short, steep peaks
stretch forever, at least until engulfed
by gray mist, which yields at last
to a coastline cut by jagged fjords.