Matt's "Some more of me poetry" Pam Ayres tribute thread (IFT)

[Jee Leong]

Matt, "Arse Poetica" is nicely done. Every reversal something different, climaxing in that topsy-turvy mermaid. "Chronic Ghazal" rings the changes on the qaafiyaa. The ending is inevitable and right.

[romac1]

Hey, some good poems in here, Sometimes is quite striking. And I really enjoyed Song as well. Arse Poetica is certainly an interesting concept! And I thought the Chronic Ghazal was well done: spot-on sarcasm in "I’m choosing this? I could just think it gone?/ You’ve rumbled me: I get a kick from sickness".

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Jee & Rob

Many thanks for your visitations!

Here's today's. After which I need to catch up with some fluffing ...

-Matt

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

......UK coronavirus peak at least two weeks away, chief scientist says
.......................................................Guardian headline

Let me be ignorant. Let no one speak
of death tolls now, or if they do please tweak

the figures ever downward. Not one squeak
of how those microbes spread, or drifting, leak

into the air. If You must wreak, then wreak
what must be wreaked elsewhere. Just let me sneak

through this unscathed. Lord, things are looking bleak.
Grant me the strength I need to not be weak

or old. Oh let me not be past my peak
until the peak has passed. That’s all I seek.

[prokopton]

How could they know, back then, laying down this killer track, serious
in their serious afros and too-wide lapels, the bass-player tight
to the groove, the drummer all hi-hat and syncopated rhythms,
the singer pouring his voice into the microphone, conjuring something

indefinably special from the mediocre lyrics, and Mike at the mixing desk
stroking the dials, putting a shimmer on the sound, and all of them intent
on making this right, knowing they had something here, something real –
how could that know that all these years later I would be listening,

or almost listening, annoyed and on hold in a helpline queue, impatient
to be connected to the broadband engineer who’d tell me that sorry,
my broadband still wasn’t coming anytime soon. Also, this paperback
here in front of me, this fat fantasy novel, no masterpiece maybe,

but still, all those years of effort, the author wedding
her word processor, grimacing through gone-cold coffees, honing the intricate rules
of her fantasy universe and inventing runic languages, how could she know,
as she pushed her cat off of the keyboard for what will have felt like

the hundredth time, ploughing through her thirteenth draft, underlining
typos, untangling knots in minor plot twists, or distracted
by something happening on the street outside her window –
how could she know that I would keep her book permanently on my desk

beneath my computer monitor, raising it up to that sweet spot,
marginally closer to eye-level than the two old house bricks
I’d been using before.
All lives are like this, I think, from a distance.

It's really all about the cat.
From a Distance resonates for me, as often I have felt the juxtaposition
of things of unequal importance and wondered if there wasn't some cosmic
connection, even as i felt myself shaking my head in denial, but, what if?
Goes in the book as a cat pome, Matt. Live with it, add it to the resume,
you're on the list!

Goffe

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Thanks Geoff!

To be fair, it was a bit of a cheek calling that a kitty ditty, so to make up for that I thought should write a proper one.

Mono-rhyme again. It's hard to stop once you've started ...

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Cats aren’t a virtue,
Cats are a vice,

They’re sadists with songbirds,
They’re monsters to mice,

They’ll shit in your garden,
They won’t take advice,

Cats are catastrophes,
I’d rather have lice.

Yet offer me kittens
I’d say yes in trice!

Kittens are tenderer,
Kittens are nice,

Slow-cooked in a curry
And served up with rice.

[Scrow]

Hi Matt,

Prayer before the peak - as always, clever, interesting, funny-wry. With more than a touch of mockery, in my reading. I particularly like the use of 'tweak'. Data, of course, is only as good as its methodology and can be sliced many ways.

Cats - I assume you're writing about farmed kittens, not the wild variety. And I agree with you that lice make amazing pets. Particularly those that live in eyebrows. Mine's called Ferdinand. She does tricks and everything.
(Although apparently body lice are a declining species now (I promise I read something about that and am not making it up) due to, presumably, fashion for hairlessness, ergonomic design thinking and waxing)

Chronic Ghazal - is very good. I have no idea what it must be like to suffer from chronic illness, but the ghazal form embeds an idea of frustration, guilt, against both the illness and societal perceptions of the illness. The images in there - the 'bricks' of sickness which recur at the end, the 'iterative arithmetic', where there's a kind of body-count of minutes. And in the centre of it, a reflection on a potential positive (I agree, mostly work sucks) which is negated by the irony of N's 'getting a kick from' lines which are an indictment of how people/society and individuals, can perceive the chronically ill. Which is why we need empathy, which is why this is a great poem.

Sarah

[prokopton]

Cats aren’t a virtue,
Cats are a vice,
..
Kittens are nice,

Slow-cooked in a curry
And served up with rice.

Ouch. Okay, but tell us how you really feel!

Great rhythm, nice rhymes, clever structure, vivid images.
If this is your kitty ditty Matt, nice job!
Thanks for that.

G.

[Dunc]

Matt

Chronic ghazal ─ Loud and clear, the sense of burden and distance. One should never assume who N is, they say, but one can imagine.

Prayer before the peak with the rhythm and rhyme of incantation while throwing the mushrooms and the bayleaves in the hazel fire or whatever it was the Government Doctor said. I was much taken with your final couplet too.

Cats ─ LOL, ya got me!

Great work once again.

Regards / Dunc

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

oeGff, thanks again! This was partly in response to Sorella's poem:

If I were not a coward
craving to be liked
I'd be someone that glowered
at cats, I'd not be psyched

waaay out by all this doting
on silky furs and mieows!

Dunc, many thanks for your repeat visits, which are always a pleasure.

This morning I have been mostly cutting things up.

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

It's called the gizzard age. Males are termites
hardened by their diet and lack of teeth.
Keratin scales cover their women.
They live using their long tongues, and emit

a noxious-smelling hysterical crying in children.
Weaning in the thorax between the mother's back,
the young mature, weighing tongues when
they are months of age. Not being attached

to the stomach is key. Physical characteristics
include strong front legs, deafness
and heavy deforestation. Typically mating
once each is sharp, they mark their location

with excessive anxiety and a pine cone.
Saliva is sticky, a spray of tube-lipped nectar
from nocturnal glands near the sternum.
The tongue is life, hunting a variety of ailments

through insect tunnels, burrow riding, and poaching
various species of ants. They ingest small stones.

[Sorella]

Matt,
Oh, do I hear my name below? Must check out that poem, but first of all I called to admire the Pangolin poem today. The detail and dense dystopian atmosphere created-- a feat, this one.

Will be back!
Happy Easter Monday, if possible-- eek.

[Sorella]

Hahahaha! Finally a soul mate!

Cats are catastrophes,
I’d rather have lice.

Imagine doing that after fGeof has accepted your cat-mention poem as kitty-ditty stuff! A courageous act!

[Gabrielle]

Hi Matt,
Hope you had some joy over Easter
I also struggle with chronic pain and health issues (though not as challenging as yours I think), so very pleased that you borrowed 'dick' for your ghazal. Though 'dick' may be something of an understatement The form works brilliantly for this subject. Really clever, tongue-in-cheek exploration of what it's like to live this way. Thank you for sharing this.

More tongue-in-cheek in the face of the horrible in Prayer. Very much appreciated.

Heehee, Cats made me chuckle. I love cats (along with most animals) but they are total dicks (heehee)

Pangolin is wonderful. Some excellent line breaks that heighten and add to the meaning... 'emit/ a noxious-smelling hysterical crying in children.' is one of my favourites. Another favourite line is 'The tongue is life, hunting a variety of ailments'

Keep up the good fight!