'shopping the Ode

 Oh Poetry


how facile your written record
churning and remixing words
carving chimeric sentences from stodgy fact

ignored by some enslaved to authenticity
who enlist the uncorrupted pixel
to certify the truth from fiction

or so they think ...
 
Oh Photoshop

delivering us from not quite realized perfection
de blemishing the de facto
showing us how it all should be

replacing boring skies with blood red sunset
removing wrinkles from the clothes and clothed
disappearing those who no longer claim our favor

walking us in swanky shoes so that our fat will fade away
buying us that chichi bag so that our pimples disappear
slathering after shave so that our macho abs will hypnotize

you are so mischievous and clever
conjuring the funny inappropriate
mixing metaphors

A Chimpanzee God of Wine
The Duckling with the Pearl Earring
Mona Lisa wearing Michael Jackson glasses

and yet ...

Oh Authenticity

taunt me to peel back the veneer
of Wordshopped worship of illusion
confront the fear of imperfection

dare me to drink your unvarnished veracity
to relish your forthright phrase its solid tenacity
to embrace your primal skin its tactile reality

zits and all

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on Self and Other: Embracing Paradoxes

This is not a poem, nor is it written by a human... it is the output of GPT4 when I first asked it to write odes to A) Umwelt; B) Umgebung; C) Innerwelt and then to reflect on the paradoxes and dualities of self-other in that regard: Reflections on Self and Other: Embracing Paradoxes In the intricate tapestry of existence, a dance unfolds between the realms of self and other, where dualities and paradoxes intertwine. Within the realm of Umwelt, individual perceptions shape our understanding of the world. Each of us holds a unique lens through which we interpret our surroundings, yet within these boundaries, we feel an inherent yearning for connection with others. It is the paradox of embracing our own distinctiveness while recognizing the shared humanity that binds us. Umgebung, the stage upon which life plays out, encompasses diverse landscapes and environments. Mountains, rivers, cities, and forests create a multitude of Umgebungen, each offering a distinct backdrop for our individua...
Read more

Moving the Bones - Rick Barot

 During our hiatus as an active weekly group, generating running multi-voice poems, I was struck with this particular one from Poem-a-Day which moved me and I thought to share it here: Moving the Bones Rick Barot There are too many ancestors, so we are gathering their bones. The poor ones, their graves broken by the roots of trees. The ones whose headstones have been weathe...
Read more

What a Stone Feels

<this is the first assignment I wrote for the Paul Kingsnorth - " Rewild Your Words " online course we took in December which is how our Poetry/Writing Sunday Salon got started. I'm CC:ing the other participants so they can see by example how to post their own work to this blog via e-mail> On my property there are many river-stones that were almost surely brought here by previous humans.   I could have closed my eyes, my ears, my nose and groped around until I found them, channeling Helen Keller perhaps... but I did not... I sought out a particularly apt stone for this purpose, with my eyes and my memory.  I have hefted these stones before and even know what they smell and taste like.    I passed over the pile brought in for the purpose of facing a wall, each about fist-sized... not too large to throw effectively but too large for a sling or slingshot.   I avoided the ones marking the good-dogs grave near the entrance to the property....
Read more