Relax, Larry is here to ease your soul.

[Dunc]

Larry

The Day After Masks ─ wonderfully exact similes, oddly funny, effortlessly twisted. And the victory of defeat, of uninvolvement, of looking on.

The Hunger ─ The anger, the moral hunger, the incompatible pair in harness, and a ride over rough terrain. Much power.

To Lead the Blind ─ Perfectly toned, but interesting in its variation from what I might call your usual range of tones. And the ending loops with the title.

It's never dull here!

Regards / Dunc

[larryrap]

Hi Dunc, thanks for returning. Your comments are always interesting and often revealing.

[larryrap]

21st - Google Earth Slumming

1.

My friend leads me through the village of his youth
in Spain: here’s the window to his room
where he stayed three months every summer.
The blurred man who happened to stand there is his uncle
who passed away last year. This is where the women would meet
to slap laundry. These are the fields, the ancient stone walls,
and the two-hour jog to the river that ends in Lisbon.
My friend shares none of my pangs of regret:
he visits here often between renderings and PowerPoint jobs.
It’s always present; not a tile has gone missing.

2.

I decide to check my town’s official Sister Cities: diligent centers
in Poland, France, England, Brazil, Romania, China, Peru.
So many allies, almost closer than blood! Yet even here
I find myself dodging the centers, clicking further
down roads where the pavement falters and fences run amok,
where in-between spaces grow random and wild.
Here I find peace, unmoored and skipped-over.
I seek nothing, and am adopted
by no one at all.

[Mike M]

Larry, thank you for this powerful thread. I am captivated by the note about the poem left by the visiting spaceships (I've been reading Ted Chiang stories). I love "I hope never to discover / the limits of my strength." I felt seen by the last stanza of "I read your letter twice."

[shadygrove]

Ooh, I only just got here and only read to page three so far, which is the point at which you hit your stride. Song of the Well and Perfect Song are both fantastic. (Who is Xiu Xiu? Not the band?!) And "new capture of my current face" is a stunning line; the biggest thing I hate about Zoom is the constant new captures of my current face. I'll be back for more. So glad you are here.

[Jee Leong]

Hi, Larry. "The Day After Masks" is a vivid attempt to capture the feeling that we all are/will be having. I don't know if my innermost dream is to be a pair of eyes, but the poem convinces me that it's certainly yours. "The Hunger" is as depressing as intended. Madhouse morality indeed. "Google Earth Slumming" make excellent use of its two-part structure. The parts are clearly differentiated and yet resonate together. The river that ends in Lisbon—I've always thought of rivers ending in the sea, but you've changed my eyes.

[Cameron Clark]

Larry this poem is certainly a keeper for you to revise. "Here I find peace, unmoored and skipped-over" feels to me like the thematic heart of the piece. The idea felt both startlingly new and yet as I read it so old. That, I think, is part of its magnitism for me. And the two-part structure is of course very well developed.

[Donner]

Hi, Larry,

"Triple Feature" - "Larry, Hurry Home" has N speaking to himself, listing his fears, sort of in a paranoid way; "I Read Your Letter Twice" has N seeing himself through someone else's words, at first laughing off the list of faults, then wearing them like a locket albatross; "The Other Child" looks the other way, very telling of how we don't want to see the unpleasant side of life, how we protect ourselves from it. All interesting and introspective.

"The Day After Masks" - none of that happened. The difference between anticipation of what's going to be running up against the reality, which could serve as the basis for several scenarios. Even with permission, N still feels "naked" and unprotected without the ubiquitous worldwide talisman masks have become. This one is a favorite, especially S2, well done.

"The Hunger" - "The lonely shooter" takes out his frustration and vengeance and impotence, and then what? The hunger only grows. It seems we're all living in a madhouse.

"To Lead the Blind" - This combines a "Pied Piper" theme and the anticipation vs. realty from "The Day After Masks", which makes it another favorite. At least N isn't alone in his bewilderment. Could that be a comfort?

"21st - Google Earth Slumming" - I've always been fascinated by Google Earth, how it captures a static moment, so what you see is real, but really isn't like The blurred man who happened to stand there is his uncle / who passed away last year. Where it can be eternally a sunny day. The two sections play off each other very well; in the first, N's friend visits his childhood village often, longing for the familiar, and even shares it; in the second, N explores "Sister Cities" he's never been to, but still finds a connection.

Such good work, as always.

Donna

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hi Larry,

The Day after Masks -- does a great job of conveying that feeling (not that we've stopped using masks, but I've had analogous ones as things open up after closing down). The "it wasn't like ... / it was like ..." stucture of the first two stanzas is really effective. I love "peels his clothes of as lies". "The discomfort of walking through a hostile city" speaks to me of what I've felt walking among large (or even small) groups of people again. The new normal is not the old normal and is going to take some getting used to.

The Hunger "no pretense, no urge to justify, / no plan -" could be written about Britain -- the whole poem could. I love. "The lonely shooter / distracted by vengeance / can only do so much". Though as a former madhouse occupant, I feel it's my duty to protest the slur by association, and point you to the "peace and honesty" quote in the epigraph. It really is the sane you have to worry about.

Google Earth Slumming is a great conceit. I vicariously enjoy the N's vicarious enjoyment of the tour of Spain, and ghosts real and metaphorical caught by Google, and empathise with the N's desire to find quieter spaces in the second. The close of the second part somehow had me thinking of a line from Betjemen: "by roads "not adopted", by woodlanded ways".

-Matt

[larryrap]

Oh my, loads of magnanimous comments by people I adore and look up to. I feel very honored and fortunate. Thanks you Mike, Shadygrove, Jee, Cameron, Donna, and Matt.

Matt - I actually thought of you and how I'm probably being insensitive, but decided not to self-censor. I suspect I'll never win most-considerate man of the year, but I do feel sorry when I genuinely cause offense - it's not intended, for whatever that counts.

[larryrap]

22nd - The Third Wave

The old gods had finally faded away,
edged like elderly parents past sickness
towards an afterlife of ill-defined shame.

We cheered when the new guard strode in -
buttoned and shaved, waving notepads,
surrounded by teams of white-smocked PHDs.

This kept us running until exhaustion intervened
like an unreported side-effect. Then came the mob,
in great erratic spasms, as befits a grand betrayal.

Like tourists stranded on a storm-struck resort
we were left to sift through the wreckage:
minced kilometers of machinery and wire.

But the old gods hadn’t died, after all.
Witnesses were emerging from the hills
babbling, shaken by these signs:

bovine shadows rendered in mold,
dreams too twisted to retain,
elbows poking, enormous, from the ground.

I'm recruited to reconstruct their roar,
the stink of their mane,
their breath on our backs.

Will I waver this time
before my knife-hand descends
to make a dowry of my son?

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hi Larry,

Sorry, that comment was intended to have a humorous tone. No offence taken or harm done. Besides "madhouse morality" could as much be the morality of the institution as of the occupants. It was more that the usage in the poem seems at odds with the epigraph, which seems to depict the outside "sane" world as immoral, treacherous and violent in contrast with the asylum of the state mental hospital. That said, it's true my lot do tend to get associated with a lot of nasty stuff done by people who are, at least technically, sane, which does have real-world repercussions.

The Third Wave: I think this is excellent, probably my favourite of yours this month. I can read the first three stanzas as mapping the transition from religion to science, and from science to the current right-wing populism and fake news. Love the old gods like "elderly parents past sickness, towards an afterlife of ill-defined shame", the "minced kilometers of machinery and wire" and how the poem turns reports of the old gods, the "babbling witnesses, shaken by signs", and "bovine shadows rendered in mold". And the close, echoing the story of Abraham and Isaac. The return of the old gods comes not without its costs.

Matt

[cookala]

heya Larry. I am exceedingly far behind in fluffery this year, hence my late appearance. I've only read this last page so far, got a super late start here today and I need to p="spread the fluff"
The Day After Masks - yes, this is something I wonder about frequently and if that day will ever come. it's scary to think it might not, but it's possible. that, and that we have lost our "innocence" for lack of a better word, but you get my drift. the poem does a super job of capturing that. I realize it has too many lines but it sorta kinda has the structure of a sevenling with the 3 yay 3 nay and summary.
The Hunger - this is very strong, and shows how we see vindication but to what end? we have become so wound up in ourselves that we have forgotten to look at the other side of things, and act blindly out of frustration and accomplish very little as far as healing goes. people have become reactionary without thought of consequences, and that, to me, is a very scary thing.
To Lead the Blind - what dreams may come, and how different from actual reality they actually are. what we think we are and what we really are can sometimes be 2 different things, how we blindly deceive ourselves
Google Earth Slumming - wow, I so strongly can relate to part 2, I feel that way myself. this is my fave so far in the ones I've read. love the conceit. this is a wonderful piece and is worthy of a 2nd look post napo. so much to like in this.
The Third Wave - yet another very strong poem. I like the conceit here muchly, how science and religion have always been at odds over creation. Nice echo at the close, too, and N's questioning of sacrifice.

you are on fire! I will try to return to read the rest asap. got my 2nd Pfizer shot Saturday 24th, just hoping it doesn't knock me on my ass again.

[larryrap]

Hi cookala, no sweat, we keep tabs on each other
Here's for you:

[larryrap]

23rd -Side Effects

For cookala

[In the near-future the world population will split into vaccine nations, each one with its unique vaccine-induced powers and vices.]

On a warm summer morning
it's not hard to believe
that the dark and the bright of the world
have embraced.
Then I think of my Pfizer sister
battling sleet in uphill New York -

Old friend,
chosen daughter of our tribe -
feel our synchronized hearts
beat in common progression,
hear our antibodies march
to the anthem of one blood.

Moderna, CoronaVac, Covaxin,
WIBP, CoviVac, Sputnik V,
Oxford–AstraZeneca, Convidecia,
Johnson & Johnson, EpiVacCorona,
RBD-Dimer,
they have their paths to follow. We have our.

We are the tribe of conscientious dreamers,
a billion shoulders strong -
prone to loneliness, tired of waiting
for the slow, savage world.
May our kinship stay with you when daylight keels over,
may our love warm your mornings like a galaxy of suns.