Cook now,whine later.
Look now-divine pater.
Cook cow,combine later
Cook bow bow,dine Asiator
Cook,how ? Swine  vacator.
Freeze now,fine potato.
Ease now.dine tomato.
Freeze now,cubes with water
Breeze now,fine later
Cook now.knees up later.
Book vows to be read later.

Is there a nutmeg in the house,the caterpillar cried.

I’ve been upstairs and locked the door,what else might I try?

According to E.L. Doctorow in a 2009 interview: “The first lines of a book are very crucial. They give you the voice. They imply the kind of texture the text will have. And, in effect, they are the acorn from which the oak grows. They Predict. You can find the entire book in that first line.”

What  to wear in bed’s  a mystery.
The cat has died and will not keep me warm
Where  is my love who wrote my history?
Where the comforts which like  bees did swarm?

When  with a lover, skin is quite enough
But  now alone I feel the need for gowns
My little  skin is tender and less tough
And on my face I wear  ambiguous frowns

Still this  small problem should not worry me
As on my bed I  dream indignantly
For who will be and who is not to be?
I answer God with polite yet piercing plea

Still clothing  helps to comfort   my  dark pain
But no-one knows, as all they see is vain

No,despair,I shall not let you win
I’l fight you with my being and disdain
No,despair, you are a deadly sin
I’ll write you out  on paper with my pen

Oh,despair, be not my constant friend.
I look for others  brighter and more gay
To you no card or present will I send
You must not  seek my company today.

Oh,despair,I cannot  hide from you
I fly into your blackness  like a bird
Yet now it is a golden light I see,
Consoling and so warm  it clothes my words

Despair,my friend I’ll fear no more your deeps.
You open up a door while I still weep

Happiness is compulsory at this time
Xmas parties,alcohol and drugs
Inebriated,I can never rhyme
I sit and watch the mating of the slugs

But surely nothing mates in winter  cold
For slugs don’t have a coat like humans do
Perhaps ,despite appearance, they are bold
Need no injections to prevent the deadly flu.

On balance would you rather be a slug
That lives a  life of freedom in the grass
Or do you live  because you write and blog
And  in the evening play a double bass.?

A slug can’t   sing a song nor speak  kind words
This comparison is  foolish and absurd

FormForAll – Poetic Devices: Image, Symbol, Metaphor, Allegory

“The tenor is the idea being expressed or the subject of the comparison; the vehicle is the image by which the idea is conveyed or the subject communicated. When Shakespeare writes in Sonnet LXXIII –

              That time of year thou mayst in me behold
              When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
              Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
              Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

the tenor is old age, the vehicle is the season of late fall or early winter, understood through a group of images unusually complex in their implications.”

http://www.dwildepress.net/critica/mystic5.html

“Life is not simple. Dante depicts himself realizing, in the year 1300 at the age of 35, that his life has become so complicated he is lost. The Divine Comedy begins with these famous words:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
Che la diritta via era smarrita.

In H.R. Huse’s translation:

In the middle of the journey of our life
I came to my senses in a dark forest
For I had lost the straight path.

The metaphors in this sentence are easy for us here on the confusing Earth to grasp. Life is like a journey, path or way that we travel, and it can become so uncertain that at times we may actually feel lost – the “dark forest” clearly represents that feeling of lostness, the sense that you don’t know where you are, and you’re not sure how to get back to familiar or appropriate places. In Dante’s image, the path itself is uncertain. Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing?”

The shops now closed, we see  bright Xmas lights
Joy to children and adults alike
For many are the savage ,evil sights
We’ve seen upon our screens in these dark nights

Yet  France and Britain warred a hundred years
Our soldiers ravished  women left alone.
A hundred years of terror laid out bare
Joan’s sister raped and klled  despite her groans

Even Joan was not safe from  such men
She did no wrong ,defending  bitter France
But churchmen got her tried by word and pen.
And burned  through her Christ’s body in their trance.

God needs not more  human sacrifice
Humans kill ;it is our “virtuous ” vice.

My husband sleeps in the bath
Why?
Someone said he was a drip.

My husband sleeps on the floor
Why?
He doesn’t like wakening up by  my boyfriend.

my husband wears a cap in bed
Do you mean a sheath?
Don’t be ridiculous.His head is much too wide.

My husband never goes to bed.
How do you feel
I can’t.

My wife likes tea in bed
And do you?
No,it’s too wet.

My wife is  very cold
Do you mean frigid?
No, she likes to cuddle me
So why complain?
Her under-active thyroid means she always 3 degrees under.
Wow, she must be clever.
She passed  for normal at school.
I say!
Did you know her?
Not biblically
I meant  sectually
What sect was she in?
Jehova’s Wits.
That is  too  boastful
She used ro be very modest when  she was a God botherer
What went wrong
She bothered him too much

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/22/comedy

A Catholic and a Methodist were walking though the town looking for a coffee shop/
We can get   cheap coffee in the church hall,the Methodist said.
I don’t like cheap coffee, the Catholic said.
How about salvation?,his friend asked
Free?
Yea,bring your partner and a friend, it’s three for two  in Advent.
But we’ve already been saved by faith and good works.
Forget the good works.We are saved by Faith alone.It’s now Daylight Saving Time too.
I wish you had told me that  last week, the Carholic remarked.I just agreed my mother in law could move in with us
From where
Holloway.
What’s the address.
It’s the prison
Why is she there?
She  stole some  horse whips
I thought you said,whores ‘ whips.
It was a Freudian slip.
She stole that as well?
Yes and got 5 years in jail
What a heavy sentence.
Well, she  wore the slip with no dress  as well after killing the hoese
Have you  any animals in your home?
We have six cats.
Buy them some flak jackets.
She could strangle them.
Is that a crime?
We’ll soon find out!
Can’t you hide them?
In a 2 bedroom flat?
Is there a loft?
Yes,but there are two horses  up there.
Why keep horses in a flat?
It seemed a good idea at the time.
What   time was that?
Window box planting time.
You must be mad.
Yes , it is seassonally effective disorder
Does it work for you?
No,but it pulls the horses.
What an ass.
Where?
That man  over there?
I didn’t know you were gay.
I;m not but my therapist reckons I will be soon.
That’s very queer.
What is?
The fact  that we never had the coffee.
We’ll have to change to Colombian Bean Time.
And so they prayed for us

http://www.openculture.com/2016/12/how-to-understand-a-picasso-a-video-primer.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

http://www.funeralplan.com/griefsupport/spouse.html

The way I experienced you
If that is the aptest word,if not it will do.
It felt as if you pushed me violently
through the window
Then blamed me for the broken glass.
Which cut your toe,alas
Those open sandals are dangerous BTW
Today and yesterday
You didn’t look out at me bleeding on the ground
Nor looked round
Well.why would you?
Who?
The action is inconsistent with looking at the harm you caused
When you should have paused
Because you had done nothing at all
You were off the wall
In your own mind
Blind
And it was cruel of me to mention it
Draw attention to it
That was why I have this scar on my face…
No more embraced
Why are women fooled by holy men?
Again and again.
Well,it’s still the best disguise
To surprise
The unwily, the naive, the dumb.
And the numb.
Even God might be evil in some way
Some days.
Though he’s not a man.
Nor a courtesan
Just a fierce light in the mind
Burning yet kind
Designed
To be free.

Click to access SZTAJER.pdf

Excerpt:

For example, in the metaphor “Time is money” we deal with abstract notion of the time concept using more specific concept from the field of finance and the practice of everyday life. As a rule, target domains are more abstract in comparison to source domains. Thanks to that, abstract conceptual domains are anchored in empirical experience, becoming more comprehensible and understandable. In other words, a metaphor can have a cognitive function as well: “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”.
However, the process of creating metaphors is not limited to understanding or explaining some fields of experience. Metaphor can transform experience, totally changing the nature of its character. It is a tool used for creating some aspects of the reality, especially those which are dependant on language and thoughts, as it takes place in the social and cultural world.
The ubiquity of metaphors is due to the fact that they are unavoidable. Some very abstract domains may be described only metaphorically.

The fundamental role of metaphor in religious discourse is visible when we realize that religious language function is not only description of reality that is the subject of religion. Religious language has a range of psychological and social functions.
Using religious language is an important medium of religious commitment. Furthermore, religious man acts with a language. The linguistic action is not limited to communication only but comprises “creating” certain things – social phenomena – and regulating human behavior, maintaining a reality of religious world view, construction of some definitions of situations, induction of emotional states, the sense of community, etc.
We have to admit that religious language basically does not function separately from the context of religious life, especially the ritual, but it is a form of religious action itself. It can be seen clearly in the case of symbol, metaphor, and myth that are interrelated with a system of ritual actions, and only in this context can be fully understandable.
Not all metaphors occurring in religious discourse can be described using the wellknown term of “live metaphors”. This is because metaphors are subjected to conventionalization, which often happens through reduction of ambiguity to one of meanings. As a result of this process, a metaphorical character of religious expressions is partially erased, and this can be changed only with renewal of religious language, which introduces new metaphors or enables us to understand the old ones in a different way. Without the renewal, religious language may become a relict that ceases to mean anything at all. Metaphors are not understood beyond a social and cultural context – in fact it is quite the opposite – their meaning is shaped in relation to cultural models; thus it is limited to some community sharing similar experience.13
The Christian metaphor “God is our Father” would not be comprehensible in a matriarchal society.

My fingers trailing in the river
I see the sun reflecting ripples fly
Would you like to be forever
In this   gliding boat until we die?
Or will you forsake  your illusions
To tell the truth and not a wild ,cold lie?

The sun is ideal as a  poet’s symbol
The god of fire and love and life.
The mighty one can make us tremble
Or burn the vision out our eyes.
Retinal tender, silky cobwebs
May not last until we  come to die

Many love the moon’s reflection;
Her silver crescent slender as a bone
And for many she’s perfection
While for others she’s a  smiling crone
In the gliding boat I still look upward
Silent,trembling,aching,all alone

A wonderful word is parallelogram
Its sides can be longer or shorter than.
There’s enough space inside
It’s as broad as its wide
So there’s no need to send me a telegram

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/dec/13/guardian-weekly-letters-castro-energy-hubris

Beauty
Is common
Does not last
Attracts predators and friends
Perceive