Xix xix xix

[Jee Leong]

Hi, Dunc. Your last two poems remind me so much of the Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, which I watched in three big gulps. The use of the stars to see the universe better for what it is. The question of what the aliens will do with us once we're found. Have you seen it? The script is clumsy, the acting uneven, but the plot is gripping, and it may send me to the original novel.

[Sorella]

Oh, bravo for science popularized with personal comments and sneaky rhymes! As usual you are unusual.

Double-sniggered at this:
"...in toto/ she said, “Sure as my middle name’s Swan/..."

Way to rhyme photo and on, Dunc!


Amazing to think that they might simply not care about us after we're gone, in the rest of the universe?! But, but ...!

Your thread should be awarded a special prize for Enlightenment by Entertainment.

Sorella

Two left for you! Wow!

[Donner]

Hi, Dunc,

"Last Chapter" - Houston, we have a problem. At first I thought A1 was AI and I said to myself, I knew they'd eradicate us, but then I saw it was A1 and A2. Which I don't have a reference to. Still, they find the vessel that I assume is the last-ditch attempt for human life to escape and they find no life, no cause of death, just a history book. Isn't that how we've learned about our ancestors as they died long before we came along? The scariest thing is that A2 doesn't find the cube valuable enough to want to take it with him/it/they, that it doesn't matter. And that's our biggest fear, that we won't be remembered after we're gone.

Always a pleasure reading your work,
Donna

[Dunc]

Jee ─ Thanks for the pointers. No, I'm not a Netflixian, as it happens, but should it cross my path ...

Karin ─ Always a pleasure to have you drop by!

Donna ─ Yes, if humans can't manage to care about humans, I'm not sure why anyone / anything else will.

Thank you for dropping in, good people!

Regards / Dunc

[Dunc]

  



2024 Apr 29

Me and Gough

I once met Gough Whitlam.
Only a mug would belittle’m.
Six foot four (his wife just a whisker shorter)
and the delight of every reporter,
being our most visionary Prime Minister.
(The Right could imagine little more sinister
and liked to portray him as from the comics –
admittedly his Achilles’ heel was economics.)

Anyway, he and I stood glass in hand among the pines and greenery
celebrating Norfolk Island’s Captain Cook Bi-centenary,
quite a crowd in Island terms, rather,
and it turned out he knew my wife’s late father,
the sort of moment he was meant for
and he requested that she be sent for:
many other dignitaries were thus kept waiting
so I give him a very high rating.

His political end was somewhat abyssal.
You may have heard of The Dismissal.




  

[Dunc]

  


2024 April 30



April the Last

Thirty in thirty
can make you shirty

but twenty times thirty is six hundred
so no surprise my head is dundered.



  

[Louisa Lander]

Hello Dunc. I very much enjoyed your warm portrait of Gough. Someone - can't remember who, described him as being " born to the purple". This is reflected in your piece.

Lou.

[larryrap]

Genius take-downs of human folly. The Anzac poem is thoughtful and wry. I thank you and beg for mercy on behalf of the entire English language.

From your fellow dunderhead

[cookala]

heya Dunc! so here we are again, at the end of it, the dreaded month now with the dreaded end for a year, God willing. napo is the poet's Schrodinger! and I have been tardy getting here to fluff, but now I will play "ketchup" for the last 13 or so
An Evening - ah yes, hormones and instant attraction combined make for evolution soup! about D though, hmmmm...
Lament - damn that damn Lucretius! how dare he! thank you for making me lol
Trakl in Autumn (1) - sigh. love the peace, tranquility and beauty. nice trans
Trakl in Autumn (2) - well, this is a bit disturbed in mood, the image/wording of the asters is beautiful.
From the Waste Paper Basket - o gosh, love the humor in these. you're a master of switching out letters to rhyme - makes me chuckle every time. and yeah, Columbia. def in bad taste, but still humorous
Train Window - a panoramic view of the country, and I love that name of Woy Woy Creek! it's a train ride I'd love to take
Upon My Oath - ha! so much for oaths!
Unfixity - so true! so much of what I was taught in school about our forefathers and explorers is now turning out to be completely untrue. oh! the sham(e) of it!
Anzac Day 2024 - your thread would be incomplete without a nod to Anzac, and a worthy one, too. you honor the day with your remembrances, here we honor 911 for the same exact reason. never forget!
In Secret - aha, Wordle! it can be quite addictive, and a great way to massage the gray matter. I approve!
To Henrietta Leavitt (1868-1921) - what a cool tribute to Henrietta! Polaris surely approves! it never ceases to amaze and please me how brilliant people can be. it takes a passion!
Last Chapter - that's an interesting conceit, one I think we should all worry about and it made me remember Voyager and that phonograph record, which is a similar, and we've never gotten a response to Voyager from the aliens either, though one wonders about that with all the frequent sightings now being recorded. I, for one, fear what they'll do to us and hope they'll come in peace because we are totally vulnerable to them in all ways, they are so superior to us.
Me and Gough - a thoroughly enjoyable read, Gough sounds like he was a man of the people
April the Last - *sigh* exactly. up is down and down is up, it's the end of napo month, we whackos are kerplunked, and I don't care if that clunks.
so my dear, it's time to put on our dancing shoes, a talisker for you and a dirty martini for me, and away we go...

[Sorella]

Dunc,
Oh! I am about to read the last poems from Dunc this April.
(sob)
Well, at least they were very Duncian!

Gough -- such an endearing portrait of a man with the common touch. From a personal viewpoint too. I loved it!

And then a short and sweetly irreverent goodbye.
OK, dunder is a word. Very suitable indeed, and congratulations, Dunc, on twenty finished NaPos!

A joy for all of us, and something tells me a bit of fun for you, too, most of the time (or a very good imitation on your part!)

Enjoy the Taliskers lined up for you by many in the Hole! And your annual dance with the Queen!

I will try to get done by midnight here now!

Sorella

[Jee Leong]

Hi, Dunc. Has it been 20? I don't see any sign of the head dundering. You're an inspiration!

[SP Singer]

For the last time this NaPo:

The Last Chapter--not having much idea who A1 or A2 are, or how they make their decisions either--refusing to jump to the conclusion that any life form is so, so advanced at any point in time-- it's quite possible neither is in the best position to know if there's anything at all of value in that book. And for my small money, a shirty but not dunderheaded Dunc, thinks there just might be a thing or two....okay just one, at least....more?

Thanks for the personal intro to this decent politician your way, if only there were more Goughs.

Come back ready to get even shirtier next year, though still not dundered, unless its for poetic show. Thank You Dunc, SP

[Dunc]

Louisa, larry, cookie, Karin, Jee, SP

Thanks for your kind remarks and for your company through the trials and adventures of NaPo '24.

Regards / Dunc