Béla's Who Am I Kidding Thread (now Image-Friendly!)

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

Clever sonnet with some combinations of words that are fresh and unexpected.

Number 2's first line has one of those words that my inner censor avoids, since I always think I'll pronounce it incorrectly and look like I have a surfeit of silliness. I just looked up the pronunciation again now, and I'm like what?

That said, be careful out there.

BrianIs AtYou

[lauriene]

Cool start. I like how you incorporated 'fucker' in April 2. The sonnet is the best coronavirus sonnet I've ever read and probably ever will read. I mean that.

[M]

Bela! As always, good to see you here.

Very appropriate kick-off poem. I love "

algorithmic ghouls"!

And this:

perhaps a passing respite may be called
from iambs scribbled hastily, fair fuel
for hope the anchor's buttressed,

Absolutely.


Abundance of Caution is also fun:

grain oozed stale
from the cracked black
base of the fridge.

Love reading that out loud.

I'm excited to see what the month will bring (at least here in the world of poetry).

M.

[Gabrielle]

Hey Bela, nice work on number 2. I can almost feel that 'grain oozing' and the 'cracked black base' Great sounds!

[Barbara Jean]

I like April 1 very much. Let us hope we are not too scant for sure! I wish I could do meter so effortlessly.

[cookala]

and he's off!!! and to an awesome start, too, Bela! Your coronavirus sonnet is superlative. I loved these bits from the 2 - and sanity (though never too secure) / now dangles on an optic fiber's flash and or lost in streaming algorithmic ghouls and the cracked black / base of the fridge. / Familiar fucker. yummy stuff, keep it going!

[Bela]

Emilio, Sorella, 5th, Brian, lauriene, M, Gabrielle, Barbara Jean and cookala, thanks a million for stopping by and commenting. Great to see you all, and great to reawaken some dormant neurons. This exercise is really helping me claw my way back to some sort of grip in this craziness.

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hey Bela,

April 1 a topical sonnet to kick us off with. "sanity ... now dangles on an optic fibre's flash". Let's hope not, as I'm hot-spotting off my phone with a dodgy signal. Love "algorithmic ghouls" and the play on colloquy (the Mac chat client, no?), the sounds in general and the message of hope. Sonnets may save the day! Well-turned.

Abundance of caution - A familiar fucker indeed. Why won't it keep its distance? Love the description of "dull / grain oozed stale / from the cracked black / base of the fridge".

Great to finally be reading your poems. Here's to 28 more. Happy NaPo-ing!

-Matt

[Bela]

Many thanks, Matt. I'll make a quick offering to the Gods of Electrons for the health of your phone signal - can't imagine being disconnected in these circumstances.

[David John]

Hi Bela!

April 1 was a great read, beautifully crafted.

Amen to this:

and sanity (though never too secure)
now dangles on an optic fiber's flash


So glad to see you participating too. Thanks again, for setting up my re-entry!

[Bela]

Many thanks, Dave!

[Bela]

April 3

Word from my father

Pat does my shopping,
otherwise
my life is unchanged


so seeds still patter, pock the snow
at wingtip gusts. They're out of reach
but books are stacked in range
and most unread

so coffee's thinned to decaf,
still there's cream

still tethered to a rivulet
of frozen spit, the tendril of
a hissing hulk, a squatter

still thirty feet, enough to stretch
from coffeepot
to books still stacked
in range

so seeds still pock
the squatter splits

each wheeze
a breath of God

this space
may shrink but once.

[lauriene]

Brilliant, Bela!
Some things never change, hey? Reminds me my ex's grandfather who lived in an old house in the middle of buttfuck nowhere well into elderly age. This really encapsulates the unchangeable old codger mentality. The 'so' vehicle you've chosen to drive this is spot on to the troubled father/son relationship, the exasperation is apparent. Me likes!

[JFN]

Bela, a fine response to our current circumstances in your first. The idea of sanity and decent broadband (fibre-optic) being so closely linked is an all too real one now isn't it?

I love the tone at the end of Abundance of Caution. Great fun.

The repetition in this last poem works so well to not only highlight the routine they are stuck in, but also to steadily reduce the space they are stuck in. The epigraph made me grin too.

Keep well,

John

[Jee Leong]

The last poem tells the story of a life in objects. Nice.