Comments on: In praise of memorizing poetry

By: anothermouse

anothermouse — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

how nice to muse on these matters.
try living in the confines of a euro state such as brit.
you may not think out loud.
these words you use with freedom in the US would have you written off as an “islamophobe” here. especially by your friends who once walked the highway of rebel-youth by your side.
immediate arrest if any such words were used in a public place (such as the town-hall.)
you go to the counter when your name is called aloud, you will have a 50/50 chance of arriving at the counter-window to be confronted by a femail clad in black muslin. whose face you must guess the features of, who has been indoctrinated into the religion of hate and god-fear you all talk of.
but this is reality. a pakistan origin second generation 18 year old, fresh from university with a degree in social science or some such PC-rich subject.
they have your personal details on the computer, they know you are scared that if you say one word that they do not like, you are exposed to being marked as “Non-compliant” or “mentally unstable” or that greatest of all crimes “islamophobia”
I kid you not.
it is too late in the uk.
all are brainwashed, all are afraid, all would rather take what they can grab from the system, to make them feel “they have a life,” can run a jap 4×4, keep their mortgage payments up.
reality BITES!
you can no longer chose.
their beast is publically quiet.
the asian drug and crime gangs operate with impunity as they have for years, the money helps fuel the indoctrination and “radicals” (surely a term invented by pc-types,) occassionaly the authorities make a high profile action usually following some murders or gang torture ….
policing by news headlines, … god help you if you need a cop when you are walking in a lonely place at night.
the religious rallies of our “friends” go largely unreported, it takes many years before the authorities take action against some ex-mudjahadeen type that lives on state-benefits whilst blatantly preaching there jihate jewhate jihad. (check out abu hamza)
somewhere your list of PC mentions “green” types who think the planet would be better off depopulated.
think on it, .. wouldn’t the world be a better place if certain believers could just “discorporate?”
hey, but we are just sitting watching tv news, the birdflu passing through Turkey on it’s way to “western” europe.
I think the world might de-populate very quickly and very unexpectedly with this disease , should it take an unchecked course.
they don’t have enough tamiflu, and it may not work, unfortunately this disease does not discriminate even as much as AIDS does, .. we could be in for a bumpy ride.
Thank your god, or plato, or whoever, that you live in the usa, and you can speak freely and move unhindered amongst your own people.
here it’s a bit more crowded, no-one wants to be the “long blade of wheat” (the one that gets chopped first) love to you all….

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

As a poet, I realize the power of poetry and the way in which a particular poem touches a person.This verse by Robert Herrick means a great deal to me.

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a -flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.”

By: M.J.

M.J. — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

“The Second Coming” kept coming back to you as well? Same with me. Not only that, but a couple of years after 9/11 I became aware in a conversation with a friend that he had been having flashbacks to the same poem too. The nightmarish images dovetail only too well with the reality of the past few years.

By: Loyal Achates

Loyal Achates — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

I was always fond of Charles Bukowski:

poetry readings have to be some of the saddest
damned things ever,
the gathering of the clansmen and clanladies,
week after week, month after month, year
after year,
getting old together,
reading on to tiny gatherings,
still hoping their genius will be
discovered,
making tapes together, discs together,
sweating for applause
they read basically to and for
each other,
they can't find a New York publisher
or one
within miles,
but they read on and on
in the poetry holes of America,
never daunted,
never considering the possibility that
their talent might be
thin, almost invisible,
they read on and on
before their mothers, their sisters, their husbands,
their wives, their friends, the other poets
and the handful of idiots who have wandered
in
from nowhere.

I am ashamed for them,
I am ashamed that they have to bolster each other,
I am ashamed for their lisping egos,
their lack of guts.

if these are our creators,
please, please give me something else:

a drunken plumber at a bowling alley,
a prelim boy in a four rounder,
a jock guiding his horse through along the
rail,
a bartender on last call,
a waitress pouring me a coffee,
a drunk sleeping in a deserted doorway,
a dog munching a dry bone,
an elephant's fart in a circus tent,
a 6 p.m. freeway crush,
the mailman telling a dirty joke

anything
anything
but
these

That and 'Jabberwocky' are, at minimum, what children should be taught at school. One poem to remind them that poetry makes no sense, and the other to enforce that it's worthless anyway.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

This is exactly how people at my church talk about Biblical verses!

By: Mark Haffner

Mark Haffner — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:57:48 +0000

Hello — I am a middle school teacher who is starting a “WMBIGFY” program in my small class of 6-8 combined. I made up tha acronym; it stands for “Weekly Memorization Because It’s Good For You.” Last week I had them memorize the Gettysburg Address for President’s Day, and it was so good for them I wanted to keep doing it. So I typed in “Good Old Fashioned Poetry Memorization” and this blog was near the top of the list. My question for you is — what five poems would be at the top of your list to memorize? If you want to put ten (or 110) in your list that would be fine . . .