August 2021 – The Hobart Chinaman

Routine Rumination

Browsing WordPress Reader over coffee and raisin toast the Skeptic’s Kaddish of a son headlines. I’ve written of this blog a few times. Imagine my delight when I saw that today’s offering was longer than a few lines of convoluted phrasings, rhyming or unrhyming poetry. [I accept that this is how the blog has transformed]

You see, I’d been in a funt, probably still am. Slavishly following poetic “Words of the day”, week or moment. All creative drive consumed with the need to wrangle words today’s into rhyme or count.

Today’s Skeptic’s Kaddish of a son, recounts a parent’s ennui on their child’s first day of school. An experience shared the world over. I’ve done it four times now repeating with grandkids.

I sense for most, this seminal event, is often the one which features most in a parent’s memory of their child’s childhood. A sense of departure, of letting go, albeit six hours a day. A time in which the influences on a child are mediated through other than self.

As Aristotle saith , “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” or was it Francis Loyola?

Demise Of Wuhan Virus

Covid-19 is all the rage,

Wuhan Virus is off of the page,

For now humanity’s predicament

Hidden behind a p c vent.

You can’t blame them, I hear you say,

Laboratories just do not play

With diseases fatal to every man

It’s not the aim of C P plans.

But I attest it needs a place

It’s origin from which to trace

Like Spanish Flu in times gone past,

It needs a name, for fame to last.

Covid19, a title trite,

Numeric, so has little bite.

What if they find another strain,

The numbering goes down the drain.

So let’s all call it what it is,

Not get our balls caught in a tizz.

Wuhan Virus, shout it out loud

And stand out from the pc crowd.

Shadow Poetry : Etheree and Clarity Pyramid

Etheree
The poetry form, Etheree, consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Get creative and write an Etheree with more than one verse, but follow suit with an inverted syllable count.

Reversed Etheree: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Double Etheree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

…Triple Etheree, Quadruple Etheree, usw#

#usw [undsoweiter] is used here, as recollected from my first and second form german language classes taught to us by John de Courcy Ireland at Princes Hill High School Nth Carlton, Melbourne, My other memory is aus, bei, mit, nach, von, zu

Brain Drain

Brain,

Makes Man

Self centred

Accruing wealth

At expense of health.

Sometimes by deception

Lying, duping, seducing

Just preying on naivety.

Naming this abuse, why’s it for me

To twist, then celebrate in etheree?

copywrite © thehobartchinaman

Clarity Pyramid
A Clarity Pyramid is a poem consisting of two triplets and a single line (7 lines in all). Usually, this poem is center aligned when displayed.

The first triplet has 1, 2, and 3 syllables. The title of the poem is the one-syllable word of the first triplet, which is displayed in all capital letters. This line is followed by a two-syllable line, and then a three-syllable line, both of which clarify the definition of the poem, or are synonyms for the title.

The second triplet has 5, 6, and 7 syllables. Its design is based around a life event contained within the triplet which helps give a poetic view oroutlook *on the first line (title).

The last line is 8 syllables, and is in quotations as this line contains a quote that defines the first word (title).

BRAIN

oozes out

on the ground.

blood seeps into soil

hidden sniper’s sure aim was

“Cerebrally hemispheric”

copywrite © thehobartchinaman

Editor’s note: for the cryptically minded . This second poem, BRAIN in “CLARITY PYRAMID style, might have shared the same title as the former poem, BRAIN DRAIN, save for the style constraints.

.* oroutlook is how http://www.shadowpoetry.com defines a poetic view of the title. thehobartchinaman will wonder about this for a minute or two.

Shadow Poetry : Epigram and Christ In A Rhyme

Epigram

Epigrams are short satirical poems ending with either a humorous retort or a stinging punchline.

Used mainly as expressions of social criticism or political satire, the most common forms are written as a couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in the same meter.

When sloshed or high shit talk gets spoke

But not from those so terribly woke.

ScoMo markets his political schtick,

Sounds insincere, vaguely comic.

Editor’s note : These are pretty poor, thc embraces failure

copywrite ©thehobartchinaman

Christ-in-a-Rhyme

Christ-in-a-Rhyme, a shape poem of the spiritual nature, consists of five 3-lined stanza that must rhyme (scheme for this form is aaa, bbb, ccc, ddd, eee) and a syllable count of each stanza is as follows:

Stanza 1 – 8 syllables
Stanza 2 – 14 syllables
Stanza 3 – 7 syllables
Stanza 4 and 5 – 5 syllables.

The poem should be centered to show the cross that will be created.

Reader’s note : This blending of religious symbolism with meter has legs. As we speak we are lookin around for other symbols to versify. * THC has dug deep into Presbyterian upbringing to mine its guilt for depth.

Jeff and Anne

Remembering, sad lost brother

and also his loving mother,

I can’t recall any others.

Recollected vague memories haunt me most every day,

Closing my eyelids in darkness they briefly go away,

I seek their guidance wondering if this is what they’d say.

Morally they both were strong

Always seeking right from wrong.

Is my compass half as strong?

I’m a laggard

follow the vanguard

can’t meet their standard.

Quite a cross to bear,

drop just anywhere,

Need to find a chair.

chair to recline in after laying down my cross

* Ephemera : A brief religious symbol search shows these not very promising candidates for versification. Readers are invited to send in their tips for less ornate versifiable symbols of their own.