Saturday, May 19, 2007

This Is Why I'm Not a Poet

I love to play with language and ideas, but normally the language and the ideas take over for me, and I can't back away to make an artistic piece out of it. This also gets in the way of my fiction, but I have ways of dealing with it there.

So here's a poem that occurred to me while I worked yesterday. Keep in mind that I haven't followed the actual ode form--there's neither strophe, antistrophe, nor epode. I haven't chosen the Pindaric, Homerian, or Irregular form. These are just thoughts so far, with some wordplay involved. And it's probably too polemic to be a poem in any case, but I thought that loathing would be a fun, ironic twist to an ode. So here it is:

Ode to George W. Bush

The dimmest of bulbs, the dullest of knives,
I must admire his brass balls
(or is it brainless conviction?)
as he and the knaves on his staff
send wave after wave of braver men
and women to needless, deadly tasks. Only the dumbest
dullards would praise the knob who wastes
the lives of noble soldiers to prove he’s a man. A lost cause,
but he can’t think his way
from here to there, from A to B,
from C to shining C-.
In the best of all ends
we hope to see that he’s
at least as well
hung as Saddam was.


Yeah, and it's probably a bit too juvenile, too. But it makes me laugh. Plus, I just had to write it down, because it was distracting me. Now I can move on to my satiric short story about the invasion of Iowa.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm down with the sentiment.

Though, I believe that you can expect a visit from the Secret Service shortly ;-) I have heard the men in black coats are very nice. I think they will let you off if you tell them you are moving to a red state, although Oklahoma City had a particularly nasty experience with another midwestern visitor, so maybe not

Liz said...

I gotta say, I honestly like your ode. Tricky sounds and meanings. Clever response to our least clever president.

Jason said...

BP (Sorry, haven't found a new name yet): Did you know "Oklahoma" is from the Choktaw words for "red people?" Could be red necks or red states, but I'm in trouble either way.

Liz: I appreciate that. You've studied some serious stuff, so I know you know some things. Doesn't keep you from being too kind, tough =).