Layer masks to the rescue again. I wrote this in 1999. Again, I find some themes return to me some years later, and I am not disappointed in this. As a rule, I like metered poetry better than I do free verse. I think this is largely because I feel like anyone can (and does) write free verse; it takes a little bit of ingenuity to write a poem with meter, and more to use rhyme. Working the expectations of the reader is an art form. In reading, we can anticipate the words to come; it's this anticipation that can make poetry so impressive, and doubly with rhyme. We find ourselves jarred when an expected rhyme doesn't occur, for example. Or when we know what is to come, the anticipating heightens the impact.
So I guess I don't consider this particularly good, but it has some good memories attached to it, and I remember exactly how I imagined it. Incidentally, I wrote this in July; so the snow bit at the end is really a bit of a fabrication, and one that I felt made the poem better (at least at the time; I'm more or less ambivalent now).
Oh, and as an added bonus, here is what my backyard looks like today:
Say hello to the Nor'easter. The birds are out in force devouring almost everything they can find in the feeder. And so is the squirrel, whom I must now shoo away. Toodles poodles.
1 comment:
Toodles poodles? All I have to say is Hail...
As for meanness you would fit right in here-as long as your meanness is of the back-stabbing school as opposed to the in-your-face style (which is what we in my family excel at).
The weirdness is mostly in reference to the 1990 fact book and related rant.
Also have you never heard the word snarky before? It is the straight male's version of catty-sharp and sarcastic.
This is just like your ignorance of the lumberjack sketch, isn't it? I'll bet your childhood consisted of being tucked safely in bed at night like normal people, while my brothers and I stayed up until three in the morning watching the likes of Benny Hill.
You know we always thought it would be very cool to be able to preempt a Benny Hinn broadcast with Benny Hill.
Your grass is very nice-obviously you don't get idiots in golf carts riding over it too frequently.
My yard looks like crap, a vast expanse of crap. I am hoping to plant grass this year-once the last of the snow is gone that is. Of course that is assuming I'll find the will to get around to it.
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