Poem-Bot Monday

There are some percs to managing the list-serv for a fledgling citizens' group with a taste for conversation and no budget.

Okay, maybe like two.

One of them is participating in the really important work they're doing.

The other is...spam poetry.

Like this recent gem:

Nothing grows better than this one alveolar

The beautiful lights that grace the top of The Empire State building are energy
opening day of last season. Science projects related
to these topics, including the DOE Science Grid.

Fabio Grosso scored the winning penalty
after France's David Trezeguet missed.

Afghanistan in its efforts
to counter cultivation, production.
week-out for Champions League
winners Barcelona and know him

to be the finest footballer on the planet.

The incident occurred right in front of Argentine referee
Horacio Elizondo, who was
Materazzi levelled with a header
from an Andrea Pirlo corner.

that was settled
in extra-time by Rodriguez's thunderbolt
from the blue.legendary Diego Maradona in 1986.
Zidane. In 2002
it was Ronaldinho.and service to this position.

Calls on Sudan To Comply
With UN Resolution 1706
solve the issue of who plays
And unfortunately for England
it ended in the same result

Very good games, but were either of them classics?
Are they the games that people

*********************************

I especially like that haunting final question, don't you?


[image of the original Fembot from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, decades before Austin Powers got there]

Poetry Thursday: Clarence Major

On Watching a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly
By Clarence Major

It's a slow, slow process sitting here on the porch
just watching a clumsy male milkweed caterpillar
slowly turning itself into a graceful butterfly while
hanging from the underside of a withered leaf dark with life
among a pungent cluster of other rich leaves
from this old branch leaning over my banister
at a certain Point in its natural growth
probably caterpillar thinks it can decide which way
it wants to go - to fly or die, by simply taking an Oath and dreaming
of having the loveliness of, say, the male-crow butterfly
or having the stripes of the tiger butterfly
or maybe stay in the chrysalis stage of become a friar butterfly
caterpillar is a dreamer and a natural schemer
in this changing light where cuticle-shaped drops of fluid
glow and glow like red nectar
changing itself as it hangs from the bottom
of this green leaf wedged tightly
as though bolted with metal springs,
throwing off that light, a light of silver-purple
outlined in gold - golden trimmings

[Reprinted here only for personal and educational use. COPYRIGHT 1994 African American Review]

return of the monarchs

It's that time again.

As described in my post on the monarch butterfly last year, there's such a remarkably clear connection between the colors and bittersweet themes of autumn and the pumpkin-colored stained glass cloak of these creatures:

"Monarchs arrive in Mexico at about the same time each year, just in time for the annual Dia de los Muertos. Let's see: millions of orange-and-black creatures that just happen to "die" and be reborn show up as an entire nation begins to celebrate its strangest and most tragicomic festival, to both honor the dead and party like crazy.

"Coincidence? I don't think so. This phenom alone is enough to convince me there's a lot going on that we don't understand."