Challenge: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously

[Tzara]

In his 1957 book Syntactic Structures, the noted MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky introduced the sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" as an example of a sentence that was syntactically correct but semantically meaningless in support of his ideas of an innate grammar in the human species.

The challenge is to write a poem using all five words of Chomsky's sentence and to write the poem as quickly as you can. You are allowed to use the sentence as is, but the poem must contain more than simply the sentence alone. "Quickly" depends, of course, on length, complexity, whether you try to rhyme or employ a form, etc., so there is no time limit on the composition time--just write it as quickly as you can. Please include the composition time as part of your submission.

Here is an example, from the poet John Hollander:

Coiled Alizarine
for Noam Chomsky

Curiously deep, the slumber of crimson thoughts:
While breathless, in stodgy viridian
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Source: The Night Mirror (1971)​

This challenge is active until 12:00 PM PDT, 10 July 2019. The author of the post with the shortest composition time will have first option on issuing the next challenge. In case of a tie, the first submitted poem takes precedence.

 

[Tzara]

The Exquisite Corpse Will Drink the New Wine

The crisp, colorless wine
flows into the corpse's eager mouth,
its flushed red lips

surrounded by ragged green skin,
tinged with the envy
death suffers

for the living. The wine sings
of apples, of pears, of
the ideas of taste and touch

so that, furiously, the corpse
drains the glass, pours
another, another, another,

trying to reach the Land
of Drunkeness, where finally
he might find sleep.


Composition time: 9'58"

 

[HarryHill]

Up
furiously

A
liquid
atmosphere,
fairy scents slip,
there in green country,
far from the stink of town
deep in shade, massive old trees,
sung asleep by bird song, bee drone
sweet honey gravid smell fills the air
funny buzzards dance, waltz on hot blacktop
.
I've
come in
sweaty, parched
cold drink and sigh
high speed fan blasting,
smug gardener, mid-year,
rows neat, larder filling fast,
busy jaws grind excess largesse,
winters plans, springs labour, lovely,
colorless green ideas sleep at last
.
​

eta: Timed out on the last challenge with this late addition that would not finish so I morphed it for this new challenge. time is from the op post to mine. 31 min. or 4 days when I started the other

 

[Tzara]

Clerihew

On this sentence, the famous professor Noam Chomsky
Thought deeply, profoundly, quite "Om"-sky
So that nothing in this sentence could be taken spuriously:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.


Composition time: 8'05"

 

[Angeline]

Fiery wet ghosts live stonily
colorless
and vermilion bees sleep
smoky in the green
twilight of ideas even
tide wrapped around
my feet like a cloud,
furiously.

8:17 to 8:25

 

[Tzara]

Waka, Sort Of

New flowers emerge
as if from sleep—their leaves so
furiously green,
petals yet pale. Colorless
as ideas in one's dreams.


Composition time: 18'37"

 

[Angeline]

Transformational Grammar

On colorless afternoons
I could sleep through her lectures,
only the green beyond the window
enlivened me, Seminary Place,
Willie the Silent's iron countenance
compelling by contrast to blah
blah blah underlying structures
blah blah.

Noam's sentence flows
like a river of ideas,
nonsensical, delightful
Jabborwocky awakening
me to the revolution beckoning
furiously from within.

15 minutes (made a minor change to the ending)

 

[Piscator]

With apolgies to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
But with wakening take on hue
Climate change can’t be taken humorously
Onward comrades there’s much to do.


......5 min and it shows

morning after edit

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
But on waking take on stronger hue
Climate crisis must be taken seriously
Onward comrades, we've much more to do.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Those iridescent frogs that leap
into the pond of colorless green,
do their ideas sleep furiously?

One minute and only that long because I had to come back for the words lol

 

[Remec]

Woodrue Welcomes Isley to the Afterlife

Ah, I see we meet once more,
my May Queen, have you brought
new ideas for me or simply
come to lay at my side,
to sleep,
to dream furiously of
our colorless agenda
deep within
the Green,
our special purview?


Time: 8:40ish this morning until 8:53

 

[Tzara]

Not bad, people. Not bad.

I wasn't sure what to expect as responses to this challenge, or even if I would get any responses to the challenge. All are very interesting, so far.

I personally really liked Angie's remembrances of sitting through a class at Rutgers years ago (perhaps the best pure poem posted so far), Remec's evocation of DC Comic's Floronic Man, and Annie's extremely terse offering (which at one minute snags her the pole position for Next Challenge Up).

I thought Piscator's rally to combat climate change worked well (especially in the revision) and Harry's completion/revision of his aborted poem for the last challenge was, well, very Harry. (I hope the crops are doing well. )

I'd like to suggest some sub-challenges. First, given the syllable count of Chomsky's original sentence (12), can you construct a "haiku" (i.e., a verse in 5-7-5 syllable structure) or an American Sentence (simply 17 syllables) that makes poetic sense of the required words? Annie's post is close to that, though way over the syllable limit.

Second, and much more complicated: Can you compose a sestina based on these words? (You'd, of course, have to add one more word.) Or a (gasp!) pentina?

Anyway, nice work, all. Annie leads the "next person up" race by quite a lot; you'll have to time yourself in seconds to beat her.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

 

[Angeline]

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously, nu? Or maybe not.

I dunno... about 2 minutes? I can't figure out if I should include thinking time or just writing/editing time.

And our modest challenge leader didn't mention that his rather carnal corpse and his clerihew are both quite good. I prefer the clerihew: I was impressed by the Chomsky/Om-sky rhyme.

Looking forward to reading more of the Noam poems.

PS. The class was called "Transformational Grammar" and my most vivid memory of it is that incredibly memorable sentence!

 

[Moochienanu]

Start: 0148

In the Parlor of Like Minds

Flourish like a garden
Overflowing with lush, green leaves
Falling as the colorless state of thought
Covers ideas with a film of sleep.
Deny the scavenger it’s furiously burrowing claws
Give respite within your walls.

Finish: 0151

 

[Piscator]

Colorless days end
green ideas invade my dreams
sleep furiously


1.5 min

 

[Piscator]

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously, nu? Or maybe not.

And our modest challenge leader didn't mention that his rather carnal corpse and his clerihew are both quite good. I prefer the clerihew: I was impressed by the Chomsky/Om-sky rhyme.

Looking forward to reading more of the Noam poems.

!

ditto

 

[Tzara]

Idle Thoughts at a Sierra Club Meeting

Sleep itself, dreamless sleep,
should be colorless,
vague, a thing unremembered
in the sudden consciousness of day.

Yet I remember you, how you
furiously argued for social justice,
how I fumbled my "yes, I agree,"
as if I was telling you

instead I want your body.
I know. I shouldn't get ideas
from my sexist, unwelcome dreams.
So call me Ecologist. I still want to fuck you green.


Composition time: 14'54"

 

[Tzara]

Colorless days end
green ideas invade my dreams
sleep furiously


1.5 min

Nice, Piscator, but your L2 is 8 syllables, so you've got a 5-8-5 sequence.

Nice poem, though.

 

[Tzara]

Garden Starts

Furiously green,
the flowers sleep, ideas
so far colorless.


Composition time: 10'39"

 

[Remec]

Deep REM (American sentence)

Furiously colorless ideas often are found in green sleep.

Time: 2 min (give or take)

 

[Piscator]

Nice, Piscator, but your L2 is 8 syllables, so you've got a 5-8-5 sequence.

Nice poem, though.

Thanks Tzara. It is interesting the way Chomsky's "meaningles" sentence is given meaning and context in your challenge.

The time aspect got me. Remove my "my" and it's 5-7-5 and more consistent with the impersonal form of Classical haiku.

Colorless days end
green ideas invade dreams
sleep furiously

And I'll stay out of the wormhole of strict syllable counting in haiku.

 

[HarryHill]

in 3:38 out 2:40

Colorless racists
green leapers
ideas shared
sleep sweet
furiously dream.

 

[butters]

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" 17.31

furiously the poets scribe
seeking green ideas
to render sleep colourless

17.32

 

[butters]

for me, it helps me dream less, and less vividly, if i write it out

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Ideas of green youths,
Drowned in the colorless deep
'Neath waves churned furiously,
Troubles the dreamer's sleep.

(Sorry, forgot to enter the time) 5:47

 

[Meabh]

Hi all, new here, this is fun. Good idea for a challenge.

Here was a kaleidoscope,
Now colourless
It has been a moving spread of jewels on green
But people have ideas
Under the concrete
Hawk moths and harebells
Fade from themselves into permanent, season-less sleep
While around the LED streetlights
Dreamless insects dance furiously,
Desperately, until dead.

3:37