Twelves #2

How did I get this bug, what will it do to me?
What is your provenance, curious malady?
Can I escape from your dactylic manacles
Or must I spend my life scribbling aimlessly,
Cursing aloud at your mind-crushing power that
Forces me on like that martinet sergeant who
Drives his platoon through a barbarous wilderness?
"March or die, Legionnaires! Onward to Zinderneuf!"
Candidly, Pestilence, I'm thinkin' mutiny.
Call for the matador, ticklesome fantasy.
Maddening waste of time, obstinate melody,
Come to a halt or I swear I'll put period.
Holding mechanical pencil at ready, I
Steel myself manfully, then put it down.

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infinite_dwarf

16 years 10 months ago

Perry

Muse gone into overload? For the 'halt' command (which was brilliant, btw) did you mean I'll put "a" period instead? I liked your dactylic manacles - very powerful description. ~Jess K. ----------------------- "Flying so high, trying to remember How many cigarettes did I bring along? When I get down, I'll jump in a taxi-cab Driving through London-town to cry you a song..." - Jethro Tull

Skumpfsklub

16 years 3 months ago

Nah, I was indulging myself in a kind of solitaire,

starting with a known-to-be-dangerous form, filling in the boxes, and watching how long it takes to get rolling, how long it takes to get silly, then how long it takes to find a more-or-less-graceful exit. Dactylic tetrameter has a weird, narcotic, fascinating effect that seems harmless enough. No, I'm not addicted to buffoonery. I can quit anytime I want to. Really! I can! Stop laughing! This one achieved an unusual degree of silliness, so I posted it, augmenting with additional silliness in the 'hint box' comment. I didn't want 'put a period' there at L12. It is the more common usage, I agree, and probably what is most expected there. The abrupt 'put period' had the advantage of meeting exactly the form's requirement. After I'd posted it, I noticed that 'put period' also carries a slightly greater connotative load (that doesn't matter in this poem) than did the more colloquial alternatives. See? Even silliness has its uses. You spot sillinesses. ------------ My muse is a promiscuous bitch; right now she's most fascinated with the qualifications, quantizations and problems of rules-formations that might lead to a finished ruleset that reflects reasonably accurately the operational capabilities of 'spent cavalry' in pursuit battles of the Napoleonic wars. (It's a wonder she lets me spend any time here at all). In a few hours, she'll want something else, probably more work on that metaphysical thing. Frickin' nag, and way too flighty. Oh, yeah, she'll prob'ly some more pornography, too, but that seems to be number three or number four on her to-do list most days. (shrugs) It's not like I have any craving to do productive labor, so I have no great complaint. And when she takes a break, so do I. Perry

Skumpfsklub

16 years 3 months ago

I seek triple digits

Skumpfsklub

16 years 3 months ago

Why write another faux

Why write another faux comment, you ask? Because the poems I'm doin' that for today have not been visited a hundred times yet---and their 'visits' include a substantial number of 'visits' engendered by my returns to the pieces, and some spurious 'visits' that appear to be artifacts of bugs in the program. So, get used it: I keep recommenting until I feel that the poem has had enough exposure to lend value to the numbers.