Late Night Poetry: This is Just to Say

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

Well hello! I see you are also awake at this ungodly hour. (Too bad about that. Warm milk, maybe?)

As you know by now — or you are discovering as we speak — we have a recurring feature here at The Skinny called Late Night Poetry  (our motto: Enough Weirdo Sleep-Disturbing Dreams Already).

Today’s poem is one of the most parodied in poem history. Can you guess what it is? I think I hear you cracking up a little before I even say it. That’s right! I give you: William Carlos’ Williams’ This is Just to Say…

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

And this is the brilliant and perhaps most famous parody of the poem, Kenneth Koch’s “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams”.

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams

by Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Pretty fabu, no? Perhaps I am simply easily amused, but I think it’s hilarious. Actually laughed out loud. (In real life.)

But wait! There’s more! Many, many, many, MANY more. So many, in fact, that there’s at least one Tumblr site devoted to amateur parodies of this poem. Visit here to scroll through, or post your own.

One of my favorites posted at that site is this one:

This is just to say

I have recounted
The butterfly ballots
That were in
Florida.

And which
You probably
Thought
Were cast invalidly.

Forgive me
They were my majority
So sweet
And so close.

by Fiasco de Gama in this post

Posted in Humor | Leave a comment

A fertile imagination

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

Ballard Street is my favorite single panel cartoon. (Yes, I have cartoon favorites by type. What: you don’t?) Whatever cartoonist Jerry Van Amerongen is on, I hope he keeps taking it. He’s zany in the most delightfully offbeat way.

For instance:

Fertile Imagination

 

Posted in Humor | Leave a comment

A song for our times

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

Frog

Dog

Hog

Log

Something about love

Something about chickens

(Thank you! I’m here all week.)

Posted in Humor | Leave a comment

June newsletter

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this year has been zooming by! I feel like I’m in a sci fi movie in which the planet dematerializes behind you as you walk. That’s how this year has gone.

If you missed June, too, here is what happened. (No need to sign up for anything, unless you wanna. You can just:

 

Read the June newsletter

 

 

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment

Late Night Poetry: When You Are Old

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

As perhaps you know by now, we have a recurring feature here at The Skinny called Late Night Poetry  (our motto: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Apparently, Since I’m Not Sleeping Much While I’m Alive).

Tonight’s edition is a twofer! The words of William Butler Yeats, married to the music of composer John Kelley. (Kelley’s setting of this poem is one of the yummiest songs I ever sang with the San Francisco Choral Artists when I was a member. It’s on a great recording of theirs called Music Among Friends. I tried mightily and failed to find a link to that version that you can hear, so this other version will have to do.)

When You Are Old

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

– William Butler Yeats

 


Posted in Music, Musings | Leave a comment

New song applause!

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

Since we last left our heroine, she/me/I’ve written several new Actual Songs. The refining was a bit of a slog, maybe there is still editing to be done, but, you know: they exist.

I’ve been doing this a while, and still, every time a song makes it out complete and perform-able, it feels like a minor miracle. I get a physical thrill, and a sense of accomplishment.

It’s like:

t8zvc

I ROCK! I am the BOMB! I am totally amazing.

And then, almost immediately:

Huh. Maybe… huh. What if that song actually sucks?
Does it fit with my other stuff? Maybe it’s too… you know what I mean. Too… something.

Hmm.

I better write another one.

Nothing’s coming to me. Nothing. Muse! Come back!

Oh, no.

What if that was the last one ever?

And then it’s like:

boohoo

I wonder: am the only completely insane songwriter out there? Surely there are at least two of us.

Posted in Humor, Music | Leave a comment

This is not a song

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

I wish it were, though!

I was trying to write a song (or several, how cool would that have been! ((but one would certainly do, please and thank you, oh Muse)), and instead came up with several definitely-not-song bits of flotsam and jetsam.

This wee poem is one of them. I’d say this lands fairly in the tradition/shadow of the great Shel Silverstein. Not quite nonsense… but then again, not quite not.

Misery

Misery loves company
so I take her on walks
She scowls at small children
and spits when she talks
It’s just in her nature
Not much I can do
But keep her quite close
And steer clear of the zoo

-Elaine Romanelli

Posted in Humor, Music | Leave a comment

Late Night Poetry: Insomniac

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

It’s time once again for Late Night Poetry here at The Skinny (where our motto is: Sleeplessness, Too, Shall Pass, Because if it doesn’t I Suppose Death Results, And That Would Certainly Kill Off A Lot of New Parents, Wouldn’t It?)

And now, for some Maya Angelou. Who could say it better? No one, is who. As you will see:

Insomniac

There are some nights when
sleep plays coy,
aloof and disdainful.
And all the wiles
that I employ to win
its service to my side
are useless as wounded pride,
and much more painful.

Posted in Humor, Musings | Leave a comment

Staying Alive

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

Saw a charming article about centenarians, which is purportedly about odd tricks they used to live long lives… but really it’s just an awe-struck homage to them, because they’re all super cool, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what has kept them going.

They seem happy and healthy, and for the most part it’s not from an eat-your-vegetables approach to life. They drink, eat bacon, smoke,  jump off things, don’t take their vitamins… really, there’s little rule following, it seems. Hard to say what to take away – Except for this one fellow’s comments; ‘the capacity to enjoy learning is what matters’:

Be curious about life
Irving Kahn, 107, is the world’s oldest stockbroker, starting on Wall Street in 1928. He says he’s never had a life-threatening illness, doesn’t take cholesterol or blood-pressure medicine, and maintains a positive attitude people half his age would envy. “I don’t worry about dying,” he said. Instead, he reads three newspapers a day and watches C-Span to keep his mind sharp. He’s read thousands of books, all of them non-fiction — “Mostly I’m interested in what’s on the edges: solar energy, sending vehicles beyond the moon,” he says — and is determined to stay curious about life. “If you’re alive, you might yet find the answer to something,” he explained. “The puzzle you couldn’t solve before. The capacity to enjoy learning is what matters.”

Perhaps we should stop reading so much news about random violence, put down our glowing ADD-inducing devices once in a while,  wander into a library, and see what calls to us.

I think I need to, anyway. Maybe you are neck-deep in happiness, but I am not. I would like to enjoy my life more, worry less about dying, and experience much less stress about work.

Heck, maybe I should try everything they do. Yes! That’s a good plan! I’m hereby I’m starting an Engage Your Curiosity club. We will read from actual books, drink, eat bacon, and jump off things. Membership is now open. : )

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment

May newsletter

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Elaine Romanelli

May day, May day! (Over, Under! What’s you’re vector, Victor?)

Ahem.

So, May. Things happened. You can read about them. No need to sign up for anything. Unless you wanna. If you do, there’s a form for that on the right side bar.  (over there… see it?)   ———>

 

Read the May Newsletter

 

Posted in Musings | Leave a comment