Poem: Narcissism

"They all sound the same," shouts someone in the audience. "It's all one song," replied Neil Young.

It's all about me
Who are we spoofing
When we pretend otherwise?

It's all one story
It's all one poem
It's all one song

Like it or not.

---o0o---

Another random poetry generator

I've always been fascinated by poetry generators. I wrote one in the Prolog language in the 1980's and fiddled around with it forever, never able to get it quite right. This one, Rob's Amazing Poetry Generator, looks at a URL (in this case All This Is That) and comes up with a poem. Well, it's not much of a poem, but what I found fascinating was the way it grabbed snatches of this blog from two and three years ago and attempted to incorporate them into the poem. This actually makes me want to attempt to write another one. For what it's worth, here is what Rob's generator came up with:

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from acorns, manufactured by Jack Brummet at least
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in this blog...

Using the blog about the life of my friend Philip Kendall, it came up with this one:

In hand, over and this was
crawling across this is not jokes, all
of him fight once, although they camped out the
last time. you put them and
did have a guy name. u003d\\\>\
navMessage\\> \u003c/data:name\was
discussing
literacy, with some time with
the teachers loved his death
Milo nicknamed him in LL both
the courage to
Bellingham.
college
girls, and whenever
anyone we decided to
ride a whistle.
I would suggest popcorn,
Story Kevin Curran would respond
with Hobart when Dad pulled up, again,
What are wasting your game.
---o0o---

Poem: The telepath

Either my brain won't transmit
Or it's all hokum—

I've tried over and over
To put the stink-eye

On those who have tresspassed
Against me.

I've stood on the lawn at midnight
Sending invites to the greys

And they kept right on going.
I have sat in meetings

And tried to hypnotize
The speaker as he drones

On about something
That will never really matter.

I have focused
Every electron of thought

On a perceived enemy
And they always survive.

Even when I know precisely
What they are thinking,

I've never actually
Been able to verify

Whether it's telepathy
Or my brain playing tricks with my heart.

Even though I can't transmit or receive
I've been able to mount a shield

Against hoodoo and voodoo
And ill wishes trained on me—

A personal strategic defense initiative,
A bulwark against real

And imagined threats
Beamed my way.
---o0o---

Poem: On seeing the photo of a long lost friend

These pictures open a door

I thought was shut forever.

Behind the door is a friend

Who never got to go grey.

The door creaks open

And I am afraid to look inside.

---o0o---

Poem: Alkyvision

At Stage One, you see round
Out of one eye
And square out of the other—

It's disquieting, but you shake it off
And pour down an encore,
A crooked smile still plastered

On your ragged visage.
At the next stage, it's double trouble—
You see döppelgangers.

At Stage Three, you see triple.
Closing one eye leaves you still seeing double
And the spinning begins.
---o0o---

Poem: Bible Stories 6/Jesus Walks On Water

After Jesus fed the crowd with the loaf of bread and fishes
He owned that audience
They were buzzing for months

About the amazing chef of all chefs
Who fed five thousand people
With a sack of groceries

His hands just started working
Faster and faster piling up hundreds of fish sandwiches
And he kept up with the crowd walking by

Piling up the heroes on the table even faster
And people came back for seconds and thirds
And when he was done there was more than he started with

The miracles were coming fast and furious now
And he needed to ice his wig down
It just didn't work consorting

With these too mortal disciples
After he'd just raised the dead or fed
A stadium with a loaf of bread and some fish

So Jesus sent the disciples ahead in the boat
And told them he'd catch up later
So the disciples started rowing

And singing foilk songs as they oared
The disciples were bobbing around
Working on their tans and telling whoppers

They pulled the corks on a few bottles
And fished for snapper
When a mighty wind rose up

The boat was thrown back and forth
And flung down into the trough of waves
Now the disciples dropped their bottles and poles

And were boohooing and wetting their pants
It was like Hurricane Bertha times seventy-seven
The wind shrieked and the rain came down in a torrent

The boards creaked and splintered
The boat shuddered and shook and was tossed around
The Sea of Galilee like a rubber duck

All of a sudden someone shouts "Look!"
And off in the distance was a smoky apparation
A great big gaslighted man in a purple robe

Was stomping across the water
And the waves parted before him
When the disciples saw Him

They thought it was a spook
Until he got closer to them
And yelled "Courage!"

"Don't be afraid" and Peter doubted him
"If that's you Lord let me come to you on the water"
And Jesus said "that's right baby! Hop in"

And Peter got out of the boat and started trudging
On the water toward Jesus but he saw the wind and was afraid
He forgot about Jesus and started to sink

'Lord, save me!'
And Jesus snatched up his hand and caught him
'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'"

The hands of grace pulled Peter to safety
And it wasn't so long from then
That Peter would deny even knowing Jesus.
---o0o---

Poem: Bible Stories 4/The story of a long long journey

The workers abandoned Babylon's tower
When the languages became such a tangled
Mass of confetti that no one understood anyone
And off in Chaldea was another city called Ur
Where the Euphrates and Tigris merge
Abram lived in Ur and Abram was God's boy
He prayed and tried to do right by The Lamplighter
But the people of Ur prayed to wood idols
They thought could hear their prayers
They did not call on God and lived a wicked life
Breaking the ten commandments was sport in Ur
If they weren’t drunk they were high
Fornication abounded and thievery thrived
No one would tell the truth if a lie was handy
They worshipped scat and had sex with the beasts
They killed they maimed and blinded and amnputated
God did not want Abram's family in such a place
For they too might become wicked
And God said
Gather your family Abram and go out from this place
Far far away to a place I will show you
Where your family will become a great people
And I will bless you and make your name great
Do as I command
And the families of earth
Will obtain a blessing through you
After many years and even more begetting Abram's family
Became the Israelites and Abram's family
Would one day bless the world with Jesus
But Abram was still unsure what the blessing would be
And yet he obeyed God and marched off
To an unknown land with his family
His very old father Terah and his wife Sarai
His brother Nahor and his wife and nephew Lot
Abram took his tents flocks of sheep and herds of cattle
On a long journey to a land
Of which he did not even know the name
He journeyed far up the Euphrates
To the mountains and a country called Mesopotamia
Which means between the rivers
At Haran they stopped there because Terah
Was too old to take one more step
And they stayed until Terah passed on
Abram's brother Mahor stayed in Haran
With his family and children and children's children
Abram and Lot turned toward the southwest
And journeyed past the mountains and the great desert
Until they came into the land of Canaan
Of which God had spoken to Abram
This land would become Israel
Abram and his people did not go
Into the towns to live
But lived in tents in open fields
Where they could find grass for their sheep and cattle
Not far from a city called Shechem Abram set up his tent
Under an oak tree on the plain
The Lord came to Abram, and said
I give this land to your children and to their children
And this shall be their land forever
And Abram built an altar and burned an offering
Letting Big Daddy know I'm with you Chief
All the way to the gates of Hell!
And he worshipped the Lord
Wherever Abram set up his tent he built an altar
And prayed to God because Abram was God's boy.
---o0o---