Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Consumer electronics, what impatience
be they alarms, smart phones, pads or scanners!
Where went subtlety, flirtation, elation
as well courtesy, humor & manners?
Outpouring in relentless profusion
steeped in undiscerning commotion
Suspended in a Land of Illusion
pounding away in self promotion
High time now to disengage with forethought
as fear being changed in to a robot!
Phrases swift, glib, bouncy & cheap
cascade in bombastic profusion
pile up in bewildering heap
fueling cacophonous confusion
While the lucid sentence garroted
(amidst clamouring derision)
the cliché-like phrase pours parroted
heard as expression elysian
But who among us pays heed?
Let uptight linguists accede
This verse is about those among of us who routinely ‘report’, i.e. who monopolize what otherwise might pass for participatory conversation, and instead provide a mindless stream of unsolicited, tedious accounts of personal trivia. ‘They’ are those who indulge themselves in such fashion. ‘We’ refers to those among us who pretend to listen rather than speaking up.
Inane silliness they propound
oblivious of how they do bore
running colloquy’s ship aground
prop churning in air, bow stuck ashore
Brusquely do they choose to fail
noticing some snoring
while they sweat every detail
Hot air balloons soaring
We’re dragged through verbiage’s marsh
put-upon minds splashed numb
In knee deep slog, soaked & harsh
our hapless hearts splotched glum
While silently we’re imploring:
“You blabbering, boorish bum
please plug that oozing outpouring
grant us mercy! Try out mum!”
+)
prop = propeller; here: image of a grounded ship
Watch him, in comfy chair, swivel:
Pontificates, pronounces
Spouts such tiresome piles of drivel
ridicules & denounces
Regurgitates like a pup
one which hungrily licks
up the breakfast just thrown up
in never changing fix
You’d think had he his wits
he would’ve called it quits!
Try bring up that with which we won’t deal
we’ll turn slippery like a wriggling eel
disingenuous with zany zeal
skipping away in a fierce tap dance spiel
Try mention what we won’t hear or face
we’ll spout anger quite invective
putting the messenger in their place
unguarded, jaws clenched, reactive
We’re shouting ‘arguments’ deflective
reasoning flawed & defective
then retreat in silence rejective
stuck, adamantly protective
They talk about, talk, talk about & talk
boorishly self absorbed trivia
whether they drive, shop, do rest room & walk
wherever & in Bolivia
Unfazed they are letting it all hang out
where may quietness be found at all?
Excitedly they gush, prattle & spout
letting us overhear every call
Listening less than talking & talking
puzzled by the outside objection
whether they’re eating, sleeping or stalking
love that ring or ting: Got connection!
+)
‘smartphony’ = someone who traded his or her pacifier (a gateway drug) for a smart phone, and being under the illusion that it bestows unique importance & efficiency with few, if any, trade-offs
Between Fantasy and Reality
there is now little or no friction
rather perfect congeniality
Dancing cheek to cheek with swift diction
For who’s got time, awash in verbosity,
to pay much attention to dichotomy?
Are words only something we say
(while of use when pray or prey)
often a chatter game, a play
of silly flatter or flay?
Ain’t sweating meaning for fools
and hassle use dictionary?
Words need not be meaning’s mules
No! to word constabulary!
But words still prove useful tools
when needing to allay
or leading gullible fools
on to a path, astray
Although phrases may stray
do gather up a bouquet
when attempting to sway
someone to love or to pay!
In the early 1920’s through mid 40’s era:
Arm straight at 45 degrees, empty palm down, with jaw jutted upward aligned with arm. Transfixed on Il Duce or Der Fuhrer. Practiced by tens of millions, saluting those fascist unsavory squirts in their black or brown shirts, who stirred up the desperate masses.
In our current era:
Around 90 degrees between upper and lower arm, palm up,
hand slightly rotated inward, head slightly turned with jaw tilted downward.
Transfixed on The Screen. Practiced by billions of distracted, desperate masses some of whom may spend a significant portion of their income on their smarter-than-them phones, which further enrich huge corporations:
“Being stuck on Fantasy’s Screen
like Narcissus focused on his bod
blind to how they fervidly preen
twittering away in ‘nose glued’ plod
So come on, try a detached look:
boorish, self centered banality
living life liking on Facebook
substituting for Reality
In both eras: poses thought beyond cool
Unless one were a ‘nonconformist fool’”
+)
-Il Duce = Benito Mussolini, ruler of Fascist Italy 1922-43
-Der Fuhrer = Adolf Hitler, ruler of Fascist Germany 1934-45
Fumbling yet another glass
over hors d’oeuvre platter
spouting platitudes in mass
Spare me such void natter!
Such vain, self absorbed rattle
in verbiage feckless
midst milling about cattle
dressed in tie & necklace
Voices shrill, blaring
breathlessly ‘reporting’
onslaught unsparing
conversation-thwarting
How did we turn admass?
Why so untoward
when a subject impasse
brings silence awkward?
Time’s up, we may leave
just smile & swoon
Hardly cause to grieve
bye, until soon!
+)
-‘reporting’ = here: boorishly droning on about one’s own most mundane doings