“Evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.” – Thomas Jefferson (1791)
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First Principles: Evils Which Are Not Cured In One Way Tend To Find Another Way To Be Cured
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Tagged Cure, Evil, First Principles, One Way, Other, Thomas Jefferson
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Thought For the Day: Things Turn Out the Best For Those Who Make The Best Of How Things Turn out
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden
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Tagged Best, John Wooden, Make The Best, People, Things, Thought For the Day, Turn Out
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An Elegy To Common Sense
Poem A Day #11 is to be an elegy. The word prompt is ‘black hole’.
Milkwood’s definition of elegy is limited to the following. I would argue that the person who wrote the notecard needs to revisit this. I have taken the broader approach below. But, for now.. the definition given:
“An elegy is a poem of grief and praise. It doesn’t require any specific rhyme or meter.
But then there’s elegiac stanza, a quatrain in iambic pentameter. Short and sweet.
So, Elegiac stanza has that short form, but elegy can be free verse or any structure you choose, so long as it has certain elements…”
“The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace.”
Again, my argument is this artificially confined and I do not agree…
An Elegy To Common Sense by Michael Romani Old hat as a patriot in these times Semi okay with things passing as victimless crimes I am, however, not given to pretense Or, even close to surrendering common sense I've never been one to accept attitude Nor, am I accepting of ill-considered platitudes So, I'll shed the black hole of rejecting a border fence As something just short of entirely dense No borders equal no native country And opening the gates to despotism Here in my beloved land of liberty This is more than progressives versus conservatism It is those proud to be American Versus those who wish us to exist no more It is the many who do and still can Versus the elite who wish servants from the poor A porous border is surely bad enough Now the elite wish to play blindman's bluff While convincing their followers to forget the past And to forget the history of countries that didn't last The cardinal rule of statesmen Is that of securing national defense A primary principle just as much now as then So I, for one of many, support a border fence Legal immigration built this nation And the rule of law remains our destination It isn't immoral or wicked discrimination But what is necessary for the health of our nation I am not prepared to give common sense its elegy I have sworn an oath to protect my country From enemies both foreign and domestic And even unto my death, I will defend it Be the enemy, drug lords, MS 13, or terrorists Or even reckless rich folk playing globalists There is nothing better to quench my patriotic thirst Than to live or die always putting America first (c) February 16, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged America First, American, Attitude, Black Hole, Blindman's Bluff, Border Fence, Borders, Build, Cardinal Rule, Common Sense, Conservative, Country, Death, Defend, Dense, Despotism, Destination, Discrimination, Domestic, Drug Lords, Elegy, Elite, Enemy, Exist, Followers, Foreign, Globalist, Heath, History, Immoral, Legal Immigration, Liberty, Live or Die, Milkwood, MS 13, Nation, National Defense, Oath, Old Hat, Patriot, Patriotic, Platitude, Poem A Day, Poor, Porous Border, Pretense, Primary, Principle, Progressive, Protect, Rule of Law, Secure, Servants, Statesmen, Support, Surrender, Sworn, Terrorist, Thirst, Victimless Crimes
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Leading Toward Significance In Free Verse
Poem A Day #12 is to be written in Free Verse. The word prompt is ‘echo’.
Free Verse is:
From https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/free-verse
and https://literarydevices.net/free-verse/:
“Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition. Poets use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, and rhythms to get the required effects for the piece. Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman explored the possibilities of nonmetrical poetry in the 19th century. Since the early 20th century, the majority of published lyric poetry has been written in free verse. See the work of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound.”
“Features of Free Verse
– Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm.
– They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; they do not have any set rules.
– Based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases, as compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry.
– Called vers libre, which is a French word meaning ‘free verse.'”
Leading Toward Significance (In Free Verse) by Michael Romani Mankind's early history to no mystery is a loving memory Of an animal of seeming near insignificance grasping Toward that something greater that we might become Two Million years ago on an East African hilltop Mothers cuddled babies while other played games Echoing much like today, yet, little different than chimps 70,000 years ago or so, homo sapiens formed cultures Nurturing the thought of a cognitive revolution Kick starting into an agricultural then science evolution A human handprint left 30,000 years ago on a wall A lone somebody calling out that he or she was there Never knowing if anyone would ever see or really care Homo sapiens clung to its closely guarded secret That it was not so set apart from others in the family A single hominid's two daughters one chimp one human That is said to be by many to be the skeleton in our closet The disturbing secret leaking, flowing from time's faucet That civilized and uncivilized is separated by a single thread (c) February 16, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Agriculture, Animal, Baby, Chimp, Civil, Closet, Cognitive Revolution, Culture, Early History, East Africa, Free Verse, Games, Great, Handprint, Hominid, Homo Sapiens, Human, Lead, Mankind, Memory, Milkwood, Mother, Mystery, Poem, Poem A Day, Poetry, Science, Secret, Separated, Signature, Significance, Skeleton, Thread, Time, Uncivil, Vers Libre
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First Principles: National Defense Is A Cardinal Duty of All Statesmen
“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” – John Adams (1815)
How has the Left Wing of the Democratic Party missed this essential facet of running a government? For a nation to be viable, it must be defended and its borders secure. If you don’t understand this proposition in the United States and you’re a Democrat or other backer of a no borders policy… but you then insist that Russia should be held accountable for taking the Crimea from the Ukraine, you may be a hypocrite. That many Russians didn’t get into Crimea by sheer luck and happenstance. Or, put another way, why does the Left never seem to learn from history,… ever? (Even when it’s ongoing history that all should be well aware of by now…)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Cardinal, Duty, First Principles, John Adams, National Defense, Statesman
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Thought For the Day: Blessed Be the Longing That Brought You Here And Quickens Your Soul With Wonder
“Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.”
– John O’Donohue from “For Longing,” in To Bless the Space Between Us
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Tagged Blessed, Brought, Courage, Desire, Disturb, Here, John O'Donohu, Listen, Longing, Quicken, Safe, Settle, Soul, Thought For the Day, To Bless The Space Between Us, Voice, Wonder
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Kyrielle of Empowerment
The Milkwood Poem A Day #10 is the Kyrielle. The word prompt for day 10 is ‘element’.
“Kyrielle is a French form inspired by a Christian devotional tradition, the Kyrie.”
“Like that call-and-response liturgical form, the kyrielle poem has a refrain that repeats as the last line of each stanza.”
“There are at least two stanzas, but as many more as you like.”
“There are four lines per stanza (quatrains), and 8 syllables per line.”
“The rhyme scheme is
aabB, ccbB, ddbB…
or you could go with a variation like
abaB, cbcB, dbdB…
where the capital B is the refrain.”
“Another variation is the Kyrielle Sonnet, where there are four stanzas, the fourth being only two lines long (a rhyming couplet), and its second line being the refrain– or, the fourth stanza could be two refrains, A (first line of entire poem) and then B (refrain).”
“This link has some samples of each: http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/repeat/kyrielle.html”
Kyrielle of Empowerment by Michael Romani The four horsemen have long ridden Taking their coup wholly unbidden Spending time in a mass huddle Humanity has overcome trouble Of the three that have cost the most The horseman of war has played host Rebuilding new life from the rubble Humanity has overcome trouble God's will starves a hungry nation As famine leads desperation Malnourishment's daily double Humanity has overcome trouble Plague was seen as part of God's plan Calamities claiming poor man Our efforts to cure are redoubled Humanity has overcome trouble We have reached our finest hour With elements all empowered Troubles grown small yet we grumble Humanity has overcome trouble (c) February 15, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Calamity, Coup, Desparation, Effort, Element, Empower, Famine, Finest Hour, Four Horsemen, France, God's Plan, God's Will, Grumble, Humanity, Hunger, Kyrie, Kyrielle, Liturgical, Malnourishment, New Life, Overcome, Photograph, Plague, Poem, Poetry, Quatrain, Rebuild, Rubble, Starve, Trouble, War
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Curtain-Fall Triversen
Poem of the Day #9 is the Triversen form.
From https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/triversen/:
“The Triversen, (triple verse sentence), is a sentence broken into three lines. It has also been referred to as a “verset”, a surge of language in one breath.”
“The Triversen was originated by William Carlos Williams as a “native American” poetic form of the 20th century. According to Lewis Turco in his Book of Forms, it is “one of the most innovative things done to modern free-verse.” It introduced the “variable foot” to free verse. The “variable foot” is a phrase or portion of a sentence contained within a line.”
Curtain-Fall Triversen by Michael Romani As dance ends, she comes to rest Remembering well The curtain-falls That he was the one Who showed her first The dancer's-call She unlaces her dancing shoes Thinking as well The curtain-falls All the times they once had Together dancing Memory-calls She had thought him an imposition In her mind That now recalls That all he did, he truly did for her And it occurs As curtain-falls That she had been unfair In pushing him away She does recall All the love he showed her Day after day Until the curtain-fall How alarmed he had seemed As all that he had dreamed Walked-away And that she had been all to him Until her whim Had washed him away (c) February 15, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Alarm, Call, Curtain-Fall, Dance, Dancer, Dancing, Day, Dream, He, Imposition, Love, Memory, Milkwood, Poeetry, Poem, Pushed Away, Recall, She, Shoes, Show, Think, Times, Together, Triversen, Unfair, Walked Away, Wash Away, Whim, William Carlos Williams
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First Principles: American Colonies Had Long Been Stopped From Abolishing Slavery Or Even Limiting It By Great Britain
“…. (A) disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed.” – Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Dean Woodward (1773)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Abolish, Benjamin Franklin, Disposition, First Principles, King, Law, Liberty, North America, Pennsylvania, Petition, Repeal, Slavery, Slaves, Virginia
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Thought For the Day: Laughter and Sleep Are the Best Cures For Everything
“A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.” – Irish Proverb
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Anything, Best, Cure, Good, Irish Proverb, Laugh, Long, Sleep, Thought For the Day
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