Poetics and Ruminations

New Year's Wishes 2012

Jean and I wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year which will be celebrated in San Francisco and elsewhere by bohemians who will strip naked for the Hippy Nude Year;

 

by the Indians of the Southwest who will gather the fruits of the forest (such as they are in those parts) for the Hopi Nut Year;

 

by large, newlywed African water mammals for the Hippo Née Year;

 

by people making unhappy health discoveries for the Herpes Node year;

 

by old-time Hollywood comic actors drinking holiday libations for the Harpo Nog Year;

 

by Jewish Broadway actors trying to avoid being too corny during the Hammy Nerd Year;

 

by ordinary farm nags celebrating the Homey Neigh Year;

 

by acceding Quakers celebrating the Humble Nod Year;

 

by whales with the sniffles celebrating the Humpy Nose Year;

 

by wives celebrating the demise of their spouses in the Hubby Noose Year;

 

by panhandlers trying to avoid fleas during the Hobo Nit Year;

 

by rats living in foreign-made cars during the Honda Gnaw Year;

 

by Japanese actresses playing viragos for the Harpy Noh Year;

 

by bored African birds for the Hoopoe Ennui Year;

 

by cross-breeding frogs and salamanders for the Hoppy Newt Year;

 

and by everyone else during the Hoopla Now! Year.

Christmas Day, from the Anonymous Middle English (sort of), A Carol

 

Image by Christopher Cameron Turco 

Listen to Lewis Turco read his poem, "Christmas Day"

 

 

Xmas Workout Plan

I have no idea where he found this, but it was sent to me by my friend since boyhood Pierre Bennerup of Sunny Border Nurseries in Kensington, CT. Best advice I've had this season. Thanks, Pierre!

An Old Poet's Reply to Keats' "When I Have Fears"

Listen to the author read his poem "An Od Poet's Reply"

I have no fears that I may cease to be

Because my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,

Producing high-piled books – how many a tree

Has gone to make this pile? It’s been a drain

On Nature. Did I join the human race

Willingly? I was not asked to dance,

To join this moiling throng whose flailings trace

Their fleeting shadows on the face of chance.

 

When I was young, fair creature of an hour,

I thought my sands would not too likely pour

Through my glass longer than they did through your

Narrow throat. But time will soon devour

My work as well – it causes me no grief.

Far from it; it will be a great relief.

 

Lewis Turco

Copyrght © 2012 by Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry; all rights reserved by the author.

Friday, December 14, 2012

 

 

Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut

 

Listen to the author read his poem, "Friday,December 14, 2012"

 

There is little we can do −

Twenty children have been shot dead.

The killer shot his mother, too.

There is little we can do. 

There are words, but far too few

And little more that may be said − 

There is nothing we can do:

Twenty children have been shot dead.

 

Lewis Turco

All rights reserved.

 

Nomination for U. S. Secretary of State

          U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice has done what I said on my Facebook page a while back that I thought she ought to do: withdraw her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Now I want to suggest something else. The only viable candidate the Republicans had as a candidate for their presidential nomination was Jon Huntsman. He is intelligent, experienced, and capable of rational thought, unlike all the other sorry candidates. He was the first to be dumped from consideration.

          I think Huntsman would make an excellent Secretary of State. Even that "heroic" Senator John McCain couldn't vote against his confirmation. There's nothing unusual about putting a member of the opposition party into an administration. During his first administration Obama made an exceedingly conservative Republican congressional representative Secretary of the Army. Nominating Huntsman would very likely convince some of the more moderate Republicans in the Congress that it’s possible to compromise with Democrats now and again.

COMMENTS:

Robert Schechter Why should Obama tap a Republican for the job rather than gilding the resume of another Democrat, unless possibly to avoid doing anything to create a competitor to run for the nomination against Hillary? What bipartisan reciprocity did he get for keeping Gates on? But if he wants a Republican, Chuck Hegel may be a good choice.

Lewis Turco  But why not the best Republican? Huntsman is a very good man. There's nothing unusual about putting a member of the opposition party into an administration. During his first administration Obama made an exceedingly conservative Republican Representative Secretary of the Army.

Marcus Bales He would, but the Clintons, who want Hillary elected in 2016, won't stand for a validated and newly-internationally-experienced Huntsman as the Republican opposition.

Robert Schechter Well, if I thought Hunstman was definitely the best person for the job, I'd be fine with it. But I just don't think he is clearly better than some Democratic choices that are also available, so why go out of your way to burnish Huntsman's standing and turn him into perhaps the only plausible Republican candidate in 2016? Best to keep it all in the family. Kerry would be perfect, but for the opening it would give Brown to try to get back in the Senate.

Lewis Turco I said Huntsman was intelligent and rational. He's unlikely to stand again for the Republican nomination in 2016. 

Tad Richards I agree with Lew on the last point. No way the Repubs are going to nominate Hunstman, and an important role in the Obama administration won't burnish his reoutation with their base.

Robert Schechter You're probably right, though maybe the Repubs will be looking for the un-Romney in four years. Regardless, serving as Sec of State could really help advance the career and stature of a Democrat, to the greater good of the party (witness the Repubs, who have no real statesmen now), so I don't think Obama should give up that opportunity. Again, I don't think Huntsman is so wonderful that he should get the appointment based on no one else being as good.

Tad Richards I don't think a president's main job is to provide a showcase for his successor. it's to pass his program, and since there are any number of qualified people for a job like secretary of state, I'd be find with selecting Hunstman if I thought it would help. but it wouldn't. Because a secretary of state isn't much involved in arm-twisting with Congress, and if a Repub like Huntsman joined the Obama administration, he'd immediately be branded as a traitor.

Lewis Turco As Powell was. He's another Republican I could live with.

Donna Lynn M Nope. Enough. Chuck Hagel Sec of Def is enough. Huntsman is a "blow in the wind" guy. Better than the rest, but not good enough for SoS.

Lewis Turco: If Kerry is appointed, there's a very good chance that the Republican former senator from Massachusetts, whom Warren defeated, will be elected again.

Shakespeare Gnomes, Second Selection

SHAKESPEARE GNOMES

Six Tailgaters, Second Selection

Listen to the author read his Shakespeare Gnomes 2

Attraction

 

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her womanhood, for I am merely male.

 

Daydreams

 

O what men dare do! What men may do!

It’s fun to think what women may do too!

 

Owlishness

 

Few should be woo’d and were not made to woo,

It matters not a whit, to wit, nor who.

 

Falstaff’s Callgirl

 

I follow him to serve my turn upon him–

The others do not even care to con him.

 

Genomic Imperative

 

Asses are made to bear, and so are you

Made to bare your ass to quite a few.

 

Pursuit

 

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below

The waistline where I most would like to go.

 

Wesli Court

 

From Trinacria, No. 8, Fall 2012, p. 30; copyright, all rights reserved.

 

 

Uncle Wesli's New Mother Goose #34

MOLLY OCKETT

 

Molly Ockett had a locket

And she kept it in her pocket.

Once she stuck it in a socket…,

Here lies frizzled Molly Ockett.

 

© Wesli Court 2012, all rights reserved.

 

"Carrier," a Poemoir

            After a Google search, I wrote to Paul Ament-Gjenvick, Archivist & Curator of the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives, Atlanta, Georgia, “What happened to the Our Navy archives for the Korean War era? I served from 1952-1956 and you have nothing on-line.” On the 26^th of November 2012 I received this reply:

“Dear Mr. Turco,

          “Thank you for contacting the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives regarding our collection of Our Navy Magazine back issues, specifically during the Korean War era.  While we attempt to collect as many issues of Our Navy as we can, we are limited to what is available or to the collections donated to us.  In this case, we lack the monetary resources to purchase the missing issues on the open market.  We also haven't received any contributions in kind of back issues of Our Navy for this time period.”

          The reason I had contacted the Archive was that one of my early poems, “Carrier,” had been written, and published in Our Navy, while I was serving as a member of the commissioning crew aboard the aircraft carrier U. S. S. Hornet (CVA12) somewhere around December 8^th, 1953, during our maiden voyage. I had no copy of the periodical, and no record of the publication date, and I was trying to recover that information. This is the poem, such as it is:

 CARRIER

Grey on grey.

         (The steel hull

         shoulders its bulk effortlessly

         through pendulous water-mounds,

         determinedly making its way

         towards the horizon

         which rises and falls slowly,

         as though in respiration.)

 

A metallic gargoyle;

   ponderous, austere,

An itinerant catacomb;

   a wallowing labyrinth.

 

         (The overcast sky

         blends its tactile protoplasm

         with the sea…

         and the ship becomes

         a diminishing Atlas

         as it moves away—,

         its heels seemingly melting

         into the primordial mud

         of the ocean bottom

         under the impossible weight

         of the heavens.)

         Subsequently, I had published rather regularly in Our Navy, and I had begun to notice other sailors publishing there, too. In fact, a poetry column had been established in the magazine. I was trying to discover how many other Navy poets had also appeared in Our Navy. It was no secret aboard ship what I had been doing when I was off watch, for on the 24^th of June, 1954, the Hornet crossed the Equator; Charge 4 of the subpoena I was given to appear at the Court of Neptunus Rex was, ‘Scribbling poetic doggerel on Navy time."” I kept on doing that for the rest of my life.

Lewis Turco

The Import of Important and Importantly

 

          What is the difference between the words “important” and “importantly”? No one seems to know anymore, and everything is “more importantly” this or that, and not “more important” than that or this. The difference is that “important” is an adjective, and “importantly” is an adverb. Adjectives modify substantives, that is, nouns or pronouns: “He was an important person.” Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs: “He spoke more importantly than was necessary.” “It was not important that he speak more importantly.”

important |imˈpôrtnt|

adjective

of great significance or value; likely to have a profound effect on success, survival, or well-being : important habitats for wildlife | it is important to avoid monosyllabic answers | [ sentence adverb ] the speech had passion and, more important, compassion.

• (of a person) having high rank or status.

• (of an artist or artistic work) significantly original and influential.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from medieval Latin important- ‘being of consequence,’ from the verb importare (see import).

 

importantly |imˈpôrtnt-lē|

adverb

1 [ sentence adverb ] used to emphasize a significant point or matter: a nondrinking, nonsmoking, and, importantly, nonpolitical sportsman.

2 in a manner designed to draw attention to one's importance: Kruger strutted forward importantly.

         If we are going to keep both words, we ought to distinguish between their usages. Otherwise, it’s important that we just dump one or, perhaps more importantly, the other.