Saturday, March 29, 2014

Poetry Insurance

Blake and Owen have a proud history of having insured great writers.
“What's done cannot be undone.”
by William Shakespeare, in Macbeth
Was originally, “What’s done cannot be unzipped.”
 “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
John Keats 
Was originally written : “ A thing sitting pretty is a joy forever”
Dylan Thomas’s line,
 “Do not go gentle into that good night/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
“No man is an island.
Was originally,
“Do not go gently into that good night tiff, rage against the dying of the light bulb”
This titular line by John Donne
“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
from Milton’s Paradise Lost
Was originally,
“Better to reign in Hell than to serve at Macdonald’s”
 “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
By W.B. Yeats The Second Coming,
Was originally
“Things fall apart; the day care center cannot hold”
“The time has come, the Walrus said / To talk of many things.
from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 
Was originally,
“The time has come, the eager Walrus said/ To shoot the breeze.”





Blake Owen & Republic Best Fire Insurance for Poetry 
Recipient of the Indian Insurance Award 1887
DETAILS OF PRIMARY INSURED
  1. a)  Policy Name:: Radiant Elephant Poetry Insurance

  1. d)  Name:
  2. e)  Address
Claim Form-Part A
To be filled in by the insured
The issue of this Form is not to be taken in as admission of liability
(To be filled in block letters)
(SECTION A)
Middlename
(SECTION B)
Surname
First name
DETAILS OF POETIC HISTORY

a) Have you been hospitalized in the last four years for a poem? Yes No
Date: D D M M Y Y Y Y
c) Explain the incident:
d) Has your poem ever gotten too hot?
iii Do you keep a fire extinguisher 20 feet from readings?

  1. e)  Previously covered by any other Poetry/Health Insurance
  2. f)  If yes, Company Name:
DETAILS OF INSURED PERSON HOSPITALIZED
(SECTION C)
Middle name
Diagnosis: Yes No Don't Know
Surname Male Female c) Age: Years Y Y
DETAILS OF HOSPITALIZATION
a) Name of Hospital where Admitted:
(SECTION D)
b) Room Category occupied: Day Care 3 Poems per Day
Twin sharing 5 or more beds per room
M M Y Y Y Y f) Time: H H M M
 Illness: a) aembic pentameter b) false metaphor - first detected
c) Hospitalizaton due to: poetry stress b) receiving stones from audience  e) other
DateofAdmission: D D M M Y Y Y Y
g) DateofDischarge:



  1. j)  System of Treatment recommended: “Barney: I love you, you love me"



(SECTION E)
ii) Recital Expenses iv) Blood Pressure before and after reading 
Cost vi) Other(Code)
Yes
No
viii) Post-Poetry hospitalization period  (If yes, provide details in annexure)
  1. Poetry Surgery: 200%
  2. implant of simile 400%
  3. implant of alliteration 300%
  4. Poetry SPA with thermal water 400%
  5. Speech coaching in Poem Booth 200%

Doctor’s request for Poetic investigation
(Including CT/MRI/USG/HPE)



Include bills from Poetry Accident
1.
4.
5.

DETAILS OF BANK ACCOUNT



Account Number:



DECLARATION BY THE INSURED (SECTION H)
I hereby declare that the information furnished in this Claim From is true & correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. If I have made any false or untrue statement, any poem written herewithin to this claim in poor verse, my right to claim reimbursement shall be forfeited.
I hereby declare that I have included all the bills/ receipts for the purpose that my treatment of my poetry injury of this claim & that I will not be making any supplementary claim except a slip in alliteration that may impact my pre/post-hospitalization claim, if any.
Date: Place: Signature of the
Insured
D
D
M
M
Y
Y
Y
Y

Signature: ____________________



Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Ski by James Blake Langola




Little ski
Thy winter's play
My thoughtless legs
Have skied today

Am I not a ski like thee?
Or do you pretend 
To be a rider like me?

For I am buckled and outfitted 
In the latest cool
Till some ice sheet
Or rock shall 
Tear my tendon

If skiing is life
Free-winging ripper rush
And the desire of hanging it up is death

Then am I a happy ski
If I carve 


Or if I die.

27/2/14.      Grand Montets

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Trash!

Delete, efface, cancel, expunge
TRASH!
Delete, efface, cancel, expunge
TRASH!

Away I take my time to take it
Away I take time then take it

TRASH!

This is the time it must me taken away
This is the time when we cart it
When we smell a wafting molecular menace

TRASH!

She will come around the bend at  dawn
A 10 ton rear-loading dump truck
That sends mice scattering down the street when they her compressor compress



Under the crushing weight there is no time to decompose
no time to filter out what might not belong
Everything is here: in this mozaic of refuse
The music of Bach flows

It is long after the picnic we took in the heat of Pompei 

Today we trash it
Then sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy the day

.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Jobbik Party looses a precious Tapir



Tapiregerdi was one of the most outspoken members of the Jobbik Party. In Hungary he had free say to put down jews, gypsies, blacks and any ethnic monstrosity other than pure Hungarian.



The Hungarian police supports the Jobbik, and Tapiregerdi (or Tapirmouse in English) was invited to speak in front of many crowds and pocketed lots of money from fundraisers.



One day Tapiregerdi was approached by Ducky Duck and who decided to rat on his old friend: Tapiregerdi was a Jew and the Jobbik was going to hang him sooner or later. Tapiregerdi tried to pay off Ducky Duck and even offered him a bottle of champagne.



But even the best foie gras wouldn't have made Ducky Duck change his mind. 
 On April 8th, 2013, at 10:10 am precisely, Tapiregerdi was denounced by Ducky Duck of being Jewish. "Tapiregerdi a jew!"laughed Captain Rendorsheg, the head of the police and occasional drinking partner.



Big Josephina, better known as Captain Rendorsheg, the head of the Hungarian Police having a discussion with Tapiregedi in March of 2013.



Today, Tapiregerdi has swung 180 degrees: she now denounces the Jobbik Party and is a staunch believer for the rights of Jews, Gypsies and all minorities to reside in Hungary without  discrimination. Tapiregerdi has made many calls to discuss this issue with Big Josephina -his former girlfriend- but she has cut all contact with him.




Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Beasts of the Trenches



Beasts of the Trenches, an homage to the book by Eric Baratay




Here I lie on the battlefield

Injured


I think I saw my Sargent die

One of his legs still has his boot on

Lies not far from my hoofs

I can hear the rats making house calls in his entrails

They do go to the trouble to feed themselves.

Now I remember:

I was galloping when a mortar exploded

It propelled me into the air like a Dove with flattened wings


Suddenly a war dog came to my rescue

It licked my bleeding abdomen


Before me and behind me the wailing of soldiers resounds

They are almost blind in this field where

Fog and smoke mix like a bourbon highball


We, animals, hear loud and clear above the darkened clouds

We can sense the poisoned air

"Nonsense!" I laugh to myself

And I see the clouds of flies approaching 

Signaling my end.



Written by a War Horse, Yser, France, October 22, 1914



Sunday, November 10, 2013

Bêtes de tranchées





Bêtes des tranchées , une hommage au livre de Éric Baratay







Je suis couché sur un champ de bataille


Blessé


Je pense avoir vu mon sergent mourir


Une de ses jambes portant sa botte


Git près des mes sabots


J'entends les rats visiter ses entrailles


Ils se donnent de la peine pour se nourrir.


Maintenant je me souviens:


J'ai galopé sur un obus


Qui m'a propulsé dans l'air comme un pigeon colombin avec ses

ailes Ã©crasées


Soudain un chien de guerre vient me secourir


Il lèche mon ventre ensanglanté


Devant et derrière moi des soldats crient

Ils sont presque aveugles dans ce champ ou

Brouillard et fumée se mélangent



Nous, les animaux, nous entendons les cris bien plus fort


Nous sentons l'air empoisonné


Et nous voyons les nuages de mouches qui approchent


Signalant notre fin.



Écrit par un cheval de guerre, Yser, le 22 octobre 1914.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

My QR Cemetery

Wearing my Pestalozzi smiling brace
It is Time to go visit my beloved at Montparnasse
(Wearing the brace is mandatory)


If you are caught with a tear or a sob
The sentence is particularly harsh
So many call it "Montsourrire"
It's a place where you flash a smile


Weaving through the small cobblestoned alleys
I find myself finally in front of Him
I pull out my smartphone an point it at his stone
I can sense the scanning, beaming
Split lights that gloriously connect me to his site


Every stone now has a QR:
Next to me, behind me
Gracious faces are all smiling
A new poem appears
(He programmed many before passing)
It goes:
"I love you more than a thousand garbage trucks
The great expectation I had
When that noisy rumble and flashing lights that came down 
Our street at sunrise
When tons of trash would be trucked away
Never to be seen again
Pales to the expectation I lived to hear your breath 
to see the flash in your eyes
and the rumble in your soul."


A tear dribbles down my cheek that is about to twitch
Thankfully my smiling brace holds firm
Then the poem is interrupted with a film about apples and compote


There is buffering
I can hear the music coming from my neighbor's QR Stone



It is the Avengers, not the Avengers super heroes but the one with
Emma Peel and John Steed 
Ironically I am holding onto an umbrella and 
wearing kinky black boots

Suddenly I feel elated
floating
full of digital love

Condensation floated out of my mouth that cool November morning 
Then I remember SMOG
The scientific measurement of ghosts
I quickly turn the scanner on me
I need to QR myself, now!