Off season Poetry appreciation.

[Paddo Colt 61]

The erudition in the poem is one thing - there are references to Milton and Paradise lost, the Bible, Jewish scripture, gardening and heresy - the Manicheans were proscribed heretics. But the idea that this is a conversation with himself is so clever. He's constantly watching the other fellow in the garden and at mealtime where he mimics the other's affable small talk. We learn things about him too. He has french pornography of the time and he lusts after the girls washing themselves outside the walls. He's envious the other monk who is the real deal and of the Abbott who gets the whole melon and he thinks that holiness is a matter of form rather than substance. He's a misfit and there have been plenty in the Catholic church. In any religion really.

[Andrew Walker]

I have a limerick in honour of PC

There was a man named PC
who liked to drink his own pee
he was an old fart
who thought he was smart
dismissing others constantly

[Paddo Colt 61]

There was a young man from Australia
Who painted his arse like a Daliah
The colours were true to the red, white and blue
but the smell of the thing was a failure.

If ya can't beat 'em..........

[Andrew Walker]

There was a young man from Australia
Who painted his arse like a Daliah
The colours were true to the red, white and blue
but the smell of the thing was a failure.

If ya can't beat 'em..........

LOL a good effort on your part PC

[Andrew Walker]

Just to show I can poke fun at myself


There was a man called Andrew Walker
someone on here labelled him a stalker
he likes to make the most
of his every post
Mr Walker is just a good talker

[eddie]

LOL a good effort on your part PC

He nicked it from the film Breaker Morant.

[eddie]

As I was walking down the stair
I saw a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today..........
Oh how I wish he'd go away

[Andrew Walker]

He nicked it from the film Breaker Morant.

Shame on the former English teacher Resorting to plagiarism this is a disgrace.

[mightyrooster]

He nicked it from the film Breaker Morant.

Lol….Paddo sprung. Detention for him.

[zac]

i read a lot but poetry not so much but often wonder if i'm missing out a bit. i've always liked this one by brecht -

the solution

after the uprising of the 17th june
the secretary of the writers' union
had leaflets distributed in the stalinallee
stating that the people
had forfeited the confidence of the government
and could win it back only
by redoubled efforts. would it not be easier
in that case for the government
to dissolve the people
and elect another?

he's talking about an event that happened in communist east germany but it's a sentiment that holds very true in democracies.

[milanja]

Not long obviously
Heard this one when I was a boy and never forgot it/

One dark Day in the middle of the Night.
Two Dead men got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other .
Drew a sword and shot another.

This was written at a bus stop, and same as you I have never forgotten it:

1,1 was a racehorse
2,2,was 1,2
1,1,1,1 race
2,2,1,1,2

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE= Zac: i read a lot but poetry not so much but often wonder if i'm missing out a bit. i've always liked this one by brecht -

the solution

Written in 1953, a mere 7 years after Germany's defeat, and during a period of civil unrest in East Germany. No doubt that reconstruction period was hard, you need to remember that the Soviet Union was devastated - 30 million dead and infrastructure in ruin made it quite reasonable that whatever could be commandeered from Nations that had taken part in the invasion should be and, of course, those citizens who had voted for fascism would pay a price for being sheeple. Their situation wasn't made any easier by US propaganda which inferred that everyone in the US had a dream kitchen when in reality, the Tennessee Valley Authority had only a few years before electrified large parts of the country.

Re the Poetry. A few of you will be reporting to my office for corporal punishment after school. MR has been well behaved but some others need to reflect on their anti intellectual inclinations. Looking at you '08.

[Paddo Colt 61]

[QUOTE=Andrew Walker; Agreed but, in saying that I think PC is of the belief that this is not the case and that it cannot be seen nor interpreted in a different manner than his own. I do though welcome PC to correct me on this should that not be the case.

Is there any other way to interpret it? Here's one that's nebulous. Written by that old right wing loon Les Murray whom Howard commissioned to write the ridiculous preamble to the Constitution that never eventuated - the stuff about being a "Nation of mates" or some such drivel. Anyone want to have a shot at meaning?

[B]“An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow” [/B]

• A rumor quickly travels around various Sydney establishments: bars, cafes, and a gentlemen's sporting and social club. At the Stock Exchange, stock brokers are suddenly distracted from their usual business. Men leave a Greek restaurant and head towards Martin Place, where there's a man crying uncontrollably.
  
  The spectacle of the crying man is already causing traffic jams. People are flooding to the square to see him, nervously excited about what's going on. They're running through the streets towards the man, shouting out the news that there's somebody crying uncontrollably.
  
  We surround the man but are afraid to get close to him. He does nothing but cry, openly and without shame. He doesn't cry like a child nor like the wind; he cries like a man. He doesn't shout about what's wrong nor bang on his chest, and his weeping isn't even very loud.
  
  The purity of the man's crying seems to hold back the crowd from intruding. His sorrow forms a kind of star of empty space around him in the middle of the day. Police officers, who at first tried to grab him, now find themselves in awe, staring at the man and longing to cry themselves, much like children long for the sight of a rainbow.
  
  In the future, people will claim that the man was protected by a halo or some sort of force field, but these things don't exist. Others will claim that they were totally appalled and would have put an end to things, but they weren't actually there. In the moment, even the most macho men among us are shocked into silence, and become filled with a surprising sense of peace and good will. Other people in the area, who just moments earlier seemed happy, suddenly start screaming. The only ones comfortable getting close to the crying man are young children, people exuding a sense of inner peace, and the city animals like dogs and pigeons.
  
  A man near me says that the whole thing is completely silly and pretends to vomit in disgust. Then I watch a woman have a near-religious experience as she touches the man and then starts weeping uncontrollably herself.
  
  Other people do the same thing and also start weeping, some because they feel a sense of being accepted. Others try not to weep because they're scared of being accepted. The weeping man, meanwhile, doesn't need anyone to do anything; he ignores everyone around him, indifferent as the earth itself. His face continues to contort with tears, but he has no words or messages to offer the crowd, only his utter sadness. His pain is pure and tough, strong as the earth and as imposing as the sea.
  
  When the man finally stops crying, he gets up and walks through the crowd while drying the tears from his face. He carries the dignified air of someone who has completed the task that they set out to do.
  
  He avoids the people who try to follow him and runs off down a nearby street.

[/LIST]

[A Country Member]

Either, the end of the drought or the plight of Australia’s First Nations people.

[Paddo Colt 61]

Fair start Count though some reasoning for the observation might be helpful. Language used usually provides clues as to meaning. I'm not claiming to have anything definitive btw.