Day: August 25, 2014

Limericks…. must they always be humorous?

Jamuary 2014 :wisteroa by gate

I am studying poetic form.I am describing a few ideas of my interest in the next paragraph.
By choosing a limerick form I am being playful because normally I’d not choose a limerick to refer to anxiety and such emotions.And the playing itself can be therapeutic.It indicates I am like an actor on a stage having a joke with the audience.And the placement of “sure” in the last limerick is an acknowledgement that I have Celtic blood.I have kissed the Blarney stone.The Irish speak lovely English.

Do we pick a form first or the content first?

http://www.criticalreading.com/poetry.html

In general the limerick is a humorous form.That i s,both historically and by the shape and brevity.Yet I am trying to write some miserable limericks.I am finding it harder than I expected.The first one certainly has come out with more than a hint of fun

AS BROAD AS IT’S WIDE

I once had therapeutic depression

The counsellor wept through my session

So I gave my advice

As broad as it’s wise.

Depression sure beats going fishin’

OR depressed deadbeats sure love fishing

[sure here is USA]

ANXIOUS

I feel very anxious today

Would I do better to worry or to pray?

I’ll trust in the dark

in the big bush by the park.

Till a man comes along feeling gay.

I see the very nature of the form almost makes it compulsory to be funny.It’s lines 4 and 5 I think
This limerick is very naughty as “trust the darkness” is a mystical/spiritual expression… it is not related to hiding in the dark to watch for a man to come by.Even if the agent in the poem is feeling blue,the author is joking thereby.

NEW FRIEND

I hate my new friend already

I thought he would make me more steady

But I feel giddy and wild

When he charms with such guile.

Sure,doesn’t love make one feel somewhat heady

Poetry from WW1 which was not published..see it and find out why

My little dry home in the wet

I’ve a little wet home in a trench

And the rainstorms continually drench

There’s the sky overhead, clay or mud for a bed

And stone we use as a bench

Bully beef and hard biscuits we chew

It seems years since we tasted a stew

Shells crackle and scare, yet no place can compare

With my little wet home in the trench

I saw my girl coming down the road

How I came to write this:I was reading an article about how to dress better and saw this expression,sheer pantyhose which amused me so I began to write.

ballet-to-the-people-checks-her-playlist-10001

I saw my girl coming down the road,
In real high heels,but how she strode
She was wearing those sheer pantyhose
And the raindrops bounced right off her nose.
Her hair curled up and looked real neat
As did her unbare narrow feet.

She always likes to be covered up
Except in bed ,as tea she sups..
She never wears a dressing gown
Unless she’s going into town.
Those sheer, sheer pantyhose
Give me a tickle in my nose..

Her hair is long and golden brown,
And when she thinks she has no frown.
She’s so slim but has a bust
and has a bottom as one must.
Her hipbones stick up when she lies.
They’ve pricked me, more than  once or twice.

She hates to leave her legs quite bare
Even when the sun is there..
So she shopped for sheerer pantyhose
She shopped ,should she wear other clothes?
Shall we shout the old refrain:
Sheer pantyhose are such a pain.

For when I take her in a wood,
They’re torn by brambles,splashed by mud.
But as old Freudian research shows
What women want no man knows.
But if you like me are short of money
Leave those pantyhose off, honey.

All I need are long bare legs,
As from her lips she dangles fags.
She snorts with laughter like a horse
But now this verse is far too coarse.
Her strange blue eyes glance back at me,
As I chase her round the maple tree.

Oh,my girl,you baffle me
Reading Wittgentein , as he
Seems real tough to grasp…
Like trying to digest a wasp.
Come my dear to sing and play
because it’s now a summer’s day.
We’re only here for a  little blink!
Wow, she has  just sent me a wink!
I think and think and so I am
A really happy,lucky man.

Amen

Beguin

.Try a new poet

Mike's avatarFugitive Fragments

hair pinkearmuffs

 

 

 

 

The way your freckles danced and winked
at my droll teenage wit
and how your yellow hair ensnared
one eyebrow raised to quiz
Remember how your tingling spine
synced to a Hendrix riff
you played me Chopin’s Polonaise
with graceful flicking wrist
Those warm pink silly earmuffs
gave winter walks a hue
bikini blue was cheeky you
though you blushed de rigueur
Your warm palm always on my knee
when driving Dad’s old car
soft leather seats whose creases kept
our secrets after dark
Now time has made it safe for me
to resurrect your ghost
to once again see yellow strands
across your bright eyes float
and watch those freckles flashing their
old Morse code of young hope

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Can Self Help Help?

photo02251

 

Judging by the fact that Waterstone’s told me they have so few computer books  because Self Help sells better,it made me think.With Self Help the implication is that some knowledge we lack can be imparted to us and that we can use it to cure our anxiety attacks etc,

On the other hand, no serious reading person who lives in the era since Freud made his “discoveries” can be totally ignorant of the fact that Freud believed we may only know  a small amount about ourselves either because we repress or deny or because our minds can only be conscious of a few things… and must forget a lot to cope.. or for much deeper reasons as in traumatic events,war,etc
I think self help can have some effect as in learning to relax the muscles all over the body; as in learning it’s ok to have bad feelings ; that bad feelings will not harm us and will dissipate after a while… but if we want to know more about ourselves others may see in us emotions,dispositions,deeds we are unaware of.As I wrote recently,if we are brave we can discuss our problem with a friend.. see how they view it.
I feel if somebody has no friends they are going to find life very hard.I found last week a few familiar voices on the phone helped me to get through the recent  hard days…Though some folk are more introverted than others… and we need peace and quiet…
If it’s true our neuroses have hidden causes then self help might not work.Judging by the numerous books it seems perhaps it doesn’t!If it does,why so many more books every month
I like these books

Intimacy and Solitude by Stephanie Dowrick.[ and her later writings]
Any book that teaches simple relaxation.
How to meditate by Lawrence Leshan.
Phantasy in every day life by Julia Segal.

I do not like books which use positive affirmations, positive thinking,dwelling in cloud cuckoo land,raising your self esteem, religious tracts disguised as help,and especially books promising that you only have to pray and you will get all your desires fulfilled; after all Jesus prayed before being crucified… prayer may be a very good thing but people must find their own way into it.. and the consequences may be different from when a child asks for a certain toy for Christmas.We are not children and if God is there it’s not to make me rich or give you sexual magnetism and confidence and  make you boss of Google.

And cerebral people like myself need reminding that knowing something is not enough.. we must experience  our emotions around the issues like we do in grieving a loss