the 'he said/she said

butters

High on a Hill
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/they said' thread


basically, take one line from a poet's write and build your own from it. anything goes, and be sure to credit the original author. :cool:
 
From Allan Ginsberg:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness
But they mostly had an interesting time getting there
Not only the sex, drugs, music, mysticism, and rejection slips
But the manic cross-country drives and roadside fucks and stolen chickens
And lying naked under the Northern Lights chanting weather spells
And police cars sinking into the geyser mud at Jellystone
And guitars set afire because amyl nitrate
And falling into sewers but escaping the giant alligators
And a jellyfish sting off Miami Beach
These are a few of my favorite things.
 
"I see the boys of summer in their ruin"
Dylan Thomas from “Collected Poems 1934-1953”


Pitching Perfidy

I see the boys of summer in their ruin,
spoilt by blinded generations
worshipping at the ticket booths
or in board rooms. Names like “saints”
or “cardinals” don’t fool me, no religion here
just the holy sacramental steroids.
Bulging necks shake swollen heads,
deny, deny, deny. “Who? Me?”
As if the batter’s helmet-halo held
their reputation safe but unnatural
bulk, aggressive acts and seemingly
super powers are the evidence and
the verdict is guilty.
 
And The Moon And The Stars And The World by Charles Bukowski

Long walks at night
are asking for trouble,
especially in the depths
of Winter. Not only to
the detriment of health
from the cold weather,
but slipping back into bed
and facing the wrath
of your wife's freezing ire!
 
from Camera Eulogia by Michelle Mitchell-Foust (Poetry, November 2016)

Herodotus says the king made a bowl to leave behind
His name? Dunno.
History ran long. Happens.
Let's talk about you.

Ya want some immortality?-sure ya do.
And I maybe I help you there,
'cause I'm fucking Herodotus.
You know its gonna take more than oral don't you?
Babe, oral history's for suckers.
That mole on your nose'll be the size of a nickel on the retell.
So how about we spread the papyrus
and let's see what words are fit to print?

Ya wanna to think about it?
'Cause plenty others got this figured out already.
Maybe you think about that bowl.
You know the bowl, left behind
by the king that lost his name.
When he pissed me off.
The bowl was nothing before me and
now that chamber pot's gonna outlive the pyramids, see that?

Ya don't fuck with historians sweet-cheeks.
----------------------

(preemptive apologies to Mitchell-Foust; her poem was actually pretty good. I've had a weird day.)
 
Pretty Woman

You mind I join you, Sugar Man,
alone at the bar loitering?
It's cold outside, the winter's ice
and no birds sing.

You have a bad day, Sugar Man?
It's Friday, payday, have some fun,
your pockets stuffed with paper bills
more than Washingtons?

My name is Jane, a working stiff,
wink, wink, well, you know what I mean,
so why not come, my Sugar Man?
Come and see about me.

I met a pretty woman once.
She looked an awful lot like you.
Her hair was long, her skin was tight,
nails were polished too.

My heart said she was heaven sent,
my want hard as a bone;
she spoke a language without words
and made sweet moan

as she did me, her nectar sweet
upon my tongue the whole night through.
She made me feel, if just a while,
that love is true.

We sat together in my room,
and there she cried, I wondered why?
She had no money for her child
was her reply.

And there we slept the night away
and there I dream'd--For love of Christ!
the strangest dream I ever dream'd
my entire life.

I saw a ghost that made a moan
without a tongue and then he said,
"Pretty woman took all of me
and then she fled."

And then it opened up its ribs,
and there a ghost child made of clay,
and I awoke and found me where
she walked away.


Italicized lines from:
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci"
by John Keats
 
I suppose in a way it is, Annie, in that the narrative loosely follows Keats' ballad.

As you used more than one line I actually went and looked up if a Glosa had to be the first few consecutive lines and there seemed to be conflicting rules depending what I read!
 
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