Stan woke up later than usual owing to the comfort of   sleeping in his  dear wife’s soft cotton nightgown.He had slept better  despite the police calling to question him about a nude woman found wandering in the town centre.
Women have better clothes than men,Emile, he remarked to the cat which was stretched out on  the Guardian.I don’t know why I buy that paper.You could sleep on a bath towel or the Sun
After having a shower,Stan dcided to take another look at Mary’s clothes.He found a  long denim skirt in indigo  which he fancied would match his new T shirt.
Of course I shall only wear while I do the housework he told Emile.After all in Scotland I could wear a kilt.Can you get a denim kilt he wondered.He decided to wear underpants but not to wear Mary’s silk petticoat.She might get angry with him.
There is a certain logic in wearing a denim skirt as it  much cooler than trousers and allows easy movement.But of course one must wear decent underpants in case the wind blows under it and reveals all.That’s  why women are always buying packs of pants.So Stan was thinking. and he remembered his  old espadrilles which would look good.He stood in front  of the mirror and imagined he looked quite fetching.

The doorbell rang and on the step was the Vicar of Knittingham South.
Hello,madam, he said.
I’m a man,Stan muttered mournfully.
Yes,dear,of course you are.May I speak to your  husband?
I  am the husband,Stan screeched.
Oh,I see.You are gay then, I assume.
Stan pointed to his beard and said,I am a man. Didn’t you hear me?
Please forgive me, the Vicar said.Some old ladies get quite hairy and  with the skirt I thought it was rude to mention your beard.How do you find the skirt,by the way?
Well, it’s quite nice having air on the legs  and it’s definitely cooler than shorts.
But a cotton dress would be even better.Are you married?
Yes,said the Vicar but my wife is very intolerant of anything unusual.She’d be furious  if I wore her clothes.
My wife doesn’t know,Stan told him.I bet she’d be angry too because  she’d have to iron it again.
Why don’t you wash and iron it before she comes home, the Vicar demanded.
Well, just between the  two  of us I am afraid of  irons, telephones,and   making a mistake in a recipe.Also  eye tests and blue litmus paper and crisps
I’m afraid of dentists, fogs ,dogs and sausages the Vicar admitted.And doctors and fierce women.
The two men stood  pondering.
Come inside, said Stan after a few minutes.Let’s have a coffee.
They sat on the patio drinking  their coffee and saw a wren fly past into the weigelia.That’s the first I’ve seen recently.said Stan.
Emile was asleep in a woven wastepaper basket in the kitchen by the door
Anyway, why did you call,Stan asked the Vicar.We never got to that
I can’t remember, the dear old man admitted.I’ll have to come back tonight.
Oh,dear,I think I’d better put some trousers on, Stan whispered.My legs are cold

His  article about Muslim women was a tactical gambit designed  to gain the votes of right wing people and frightened people when he makes his leadership bid

His article was meant to be funny but unless you went to Eton you won’t get it or letterboxes aka better locks on

He wrote this while drunk and  regretted it but cannot apologise

He wants to create more trouble in the UK as he thinks we have not got enough yet

He lost self control and wrote it  while  in a bad temper with his sister in law who is from Afghanistan,as it happens.

He  may have a hight IQ but he is basically a bit backward except for dragging women into his cave.They seem to like him

It is a secret code to tell Trump he likes what he is doing.

He is trying to help M & S as they don’t sell Muslim clothes so the Muslims have to change to our clothes.OMG I hope not! Thin leggings and crop tops and  choppped locks don’t look so good on most women.On the other hand Marks sell long trenchcoats and long cardigans, also maxi dresses with sleeves so  that might help.
Especially if  men wore them.Make men cover up.I’d prefer not to see BJ’s face myself.

IIf you hate yourself, why do you think someone else will like you?
If  your life is full and creative, you   have no time to spend looking for someone else

I’m all alone and up a tree
Why won’t someone rescue me?
I came up here to see the view
I want you to come up too
I have no ladder nor a rope
I just  have a telescope
For you see   a spy
Watching ladies as they fry
The sun is hotter,more intense
I tell the ladies :No offence
But if I get more close to one
I am frightened and I run
Yet I long for a soul mate
And to share a box of dates
Call  me silly, call me crazed
I am feeling fine yet dazed

Let your lips meet gently,

the top one resting against the lower,

touching with tenderness

your own skin to skin.

Forefinger propped on chin,

I let the others dangle,

like leaves on a branch;

how softly gravity tugs them downwards.

Let heart beat quietly,slowly

as the blood circulates

carrying its music,

a river,

following the path of least resistance.

How the blood vessels receive willingly this flow,

touching it kindly as with tiny open fingers,

helping and being helped.

How the hair on the head

floats

on the breeze,

like tentacles of an octopus

waving goodbye.

Top eyelid loves the lower one;

as we blink they touch

like lovers kissing swiftly

behind a tree.

and how the light comes in

we see a world.

[mine may not be yours,]

but the blink of my eyelid

sends waves through the air,

so we’re all touching and being touched,

lips kissing each other,

kiss all living creatures.

skin to skin.

air to air.

And inside us,the rich darkness

of creative night

transforms,in turn,

these touches

into dreams.

After my dad died when I was a  little girl my mother was in a bad way with five children to care for and money to earn
I only realised recently, when you lose one parent, you lose another because the mother left behind alone is not the same as she was when she had a loving husband.So when a friend’s husband dies, your friend is not the same person as before.So in a way you suffer two losses
But when we look at Syria, how can we complain?

‘s

I had a very interesting experience.I suffered from an illness nobody seemed to understand so it was ” the menopause”, ME, psychological or psychosomatic etc

After about 10 years I had some blood tests.My thryoid was  underactive [  4 years lying on the bed!] Ironically my previous blood tests showed this but the doctor “forgot” to tell me.
What I think is very interesting is after I got treatment I didn’t think I felt any difference but I believed that the  Super Fiendish Su Doku puzzles in the newspaper were being deliberately made easier.I   went shopping and did other activities presumably meaning I had more energy.I began going to an Art Class……. the world seemed different but it was me who was different.That makes one think.

http://karenrager.tripod.com/essays/postmodernpoetry.html

Extracts

1

Following World War II, with the bombing of Japan, the cohesive center disappeared for Americans. People began to move outward from the cities and into newly created suburbs. Women did not wish to return to the world of housekeeping after tasting the freedom of war-time employment. Minorities also felt the impact of a newly found freedom. We split the atom, the center of everything, and in so doing we created chaos. The Contemporary Poets reflect this chaos.

2

It is interesting to note that Modern Poetry laments loss and fragmentation, while Post-Modern Poetry celebrates it. There are notions of whole fragments that don’t link to any conclusion. Anne Lauderbach suggests that as our lives are made up of strings of fragments, so is post-modern poetry. Coherence is the falsehood. If we insist on neatness we will leave out something of significance – too neat is false, you experience nothing. Fragments create variety (Lauderbach).

In interpreting Modern Poetry it is not necessary to understand the poets exact meaning. It is sufficient that the reader take from a poem what they need to take, which may not be what the writer intended. But that is okay because the reader takes the feeling, they get in touch with the emotion. To paraphrase John Ashbery, “You, the reader, add the flowers to the field with your interpretation” (Mitchell). The poet creates an openness, an empty field and the reader connects with the emotion and fills the field with fragments, creating a whole. The Modern Poets are teaching us to see the world in different ways than we are used to. Readers have to learn to dance to the new music.

Finally, modern poetry creates a mythology of human psyche and culture by delving into how language works, as well as exploring subject and content. A poem is not a puzzle to be solved but an experience, an event to take part in. The modern poets created metapoems, which are poems about how poems and language operate. They have no fixed center, it is “a hymn to possibility” as John Ashbery says. The modern poet, Anne Lauderbach says, “Depart from the tune – breaking the form is the form. We explore the world through forms” (Lauderbach). By breaking traditional form and exploring the complexities of language itself, the contemporary poet embarks on an adventure of self-discovery, forging new roads into the inner workings of individuals and their societies.

Works Cited

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “a song in the front yard.” Norton Anthology of American Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 2780-2781.

Eliot, T.S. “The Wasteland.” Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. 2nd Edition, Ed. Ellmann, Richard and O’Clair, Robert. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. 491-504. Lauderbach, Anne. Notes from Lauderbach’s lecture at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, 1/30/01 Mitchell, Susan. 2001. LIT 3021 Modern Poetry. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. December 2002