Linguistically Speaking : topic:Poems

The Purist

si1ja — 2008-12-11T15:41:00Z

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, "He never bungles!"
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
"You mean," he said, "a crocodile."

-- Ogden Nash

Reflections on Ice-Breaking

si1ja — 2008-12-11T11:52:00Z

Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

-- Ogden Nash

Mrs Darwin

si1ja — 2007-10-27T09:29:00Z

7 April 1852.
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him -
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.

From: Carol Ann Duffy, The World's Wife (1999)

For D & C, who got married on Saturday

barbara... — 2007-07-10T07:56:00Z

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment; Love is not Love,
Which alters when it alteration find
Or bends with the remover to remove

Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark
Which looks on tempests, but is never shaken
It is the star to ev'ry wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be take

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
But bears it out, even to the edge of doom

If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

(D & C asked me to read this during the church service, which I loved. I'd almost forgotten how much I love to read English aloud).

Herzstück

si1ja — 2007-07-07T08:01:00Z

EINS Darf ich Ihnen mein Herz zu Füssen legen.
ZWEI Wenn Sie mir meinen Fussboden nicht schmutzig machen.
EINS Mein Herz ist rein.
ZWEI Das werden wir ja sehen.
EINS Ich kriege es nicht heraus.
ZWEI Wollen Sie, dass ich Ihnen helfe.
EINS Wenn es Ihnen nichts ausmacht.
ZWEI Es ist mir ein Vergnügen. Ich kriege es auch nicht heraus.
EINS heult.
ZWEI Ich werde es Ihnen herausoperieren. Wozu habe ich ein Taschenmesser. Das werden wir gleich haben. Arbeiten und nicht verzweifeln. So, das hätten wir. Aber das ist ja ein Ziegelstein. Ihr Herz ist ein Ziegelstein.
EINS Aber es schlägt nur für Sie.

Heiner Müller, "Herzstück"

This Moment

si1ja — 2007-07-05T08:22:00Z

A neighbourhood.
At dusk.

Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.

Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.

But not yet.

One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.

A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.

Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.

Eavan Boland (* 1944, Dublin), "This Moment".

Sturmlied

si1ja — 2007-05-09T21:07:00Z

O herrliche Fahrt im Windeshauch
Hinauf und hinab und zurück!
Nur kämpfend, und unterlieg ich auch,
Ist Leben Glück.

Aus: Ricarda Octavia Huch (1864-1947), "Sturmlied"