September 2021 – The Hobart Chinaman

Shadow Poetry : MonoRhyme 2

Confession of the Teetotal THC

Being of slow and simple mind

I’m ‘tracted to the monorhyme

Deciding on what to opine,

Writing in a limited time.

Readers of a deeper mind,

Will not find within my whines.

Deep philosophy of any kind,

Just tripe of ilk that, love is blind.

Cerebral trap in my left mind

The side of brain can be unkind

Emotion’s that side hard to find,

Could alcohol help me unwind?

I don’t drink, so getting ‘blind’

And passing out is such a grind,

But beats chowing down on bacon rind,

As hangover cure to clear my mind.

Fatty Bacon Rind sometimes suggested as a hangover cure

copywrite ©thehobartchinaman

thc wondered whether trigger warnings should have been attached to this piece to avoid possible offence to :

1 Jewish community: being a goy I blurted out “bacon.” Yeah yeah I read y’all can get ‘kosher’ bacon , but traditionally we goy know bacon is forbidden to the Chosen Folk.

2. The intellectually disabled community for my insensitivity in using the term ‘slow and simple ‘ to describe myself.

If this blog has triggered any distress or feelings of inadequacy please call the following numbers in your home country.

13 11 14 Lifeline Australia

1-800-273-8255 Lifeline USA

List of national emergency numbers world wide can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

Shadow Poetry : Ottava Rima and LaCharta

thehobartchinaman is on a continuing quest to conquer the traditional and invented poetry forms at http://www.shadowpoetry.com

Ottava Rima

A Ottava Rima is a poem written in 8-line octives. Each line is of a 10 or 11 syllable count in the following rhyme:

BreadMaking Thoughts

Waiting for the yeast improver to raise my bread,

Leaves me thinking, is my old age well spent?

If Christian, could yeast raise me from the dead

Or pray for His forgiveness during lent?

Thought of cremation, not encased in lead,

Vapor, soul go up crematory vent.

For me, a quandary for a decision,

Younger folk might smile with feint derision.

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LaCharta

The LaCharta, created by Laura Lamarca, consists of a minimum of 3 stanzas with no maximum length stipulation. Each stanza contains 6 lines. The syllable count is 8 per line in iambic tetrameter and the rhyme scheme is aaaabb ccccdd eeeeff and so on. “La” is Laura Lamarca’s signature and “Charta” in Latin, simply means “poem”.

Thylacine, a Tassie icon,

Since thirty six its been long gone

Can’t be seen by folk from Sichuan,

Or those close by in neighbouring Xian.

No rumbling jets from PRC,

Fly over the South China Sea.

Black and white stripes across its rump

From photographs its not a lump.

Last carcass disposed of at the dump,

Quite close to eucalyptus trunk

The visitors will see ghost gums,

And overweight gross aussie bums.

A menacing marsupial,

Harks from antediluvial.

Bones found in soil alluvial

Its jaw size was not trivial.

Big wide mouth feeds food in faster,

Mice and rabbits even pasta.

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There Is A Tide …..

“There is a tide….. taken at flood…* which brought a seal to
Tranmere shores.

…omitted…* from retreating ebb, rank carcass drifted without cause.

….bound in shallows…* rotting fishlike from head down,

…take the current when…* it flows, right up to Hobart Town.

Was he harpooned or did he die

naturally, then on spring tide

drift silently into shipping lanes

where propeller blades hit him again?

Weeks later, gazing at his rotting head,

See skull bone bleached, the fur all shed,

Death wafts quite strongly off of the beach

So pungent, makes me wanna retch.

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Reader’s note :

1 Snippets from the speech of Brutus to Cassius in the Bard of Avon’s, “Julius Caesar.”

2 This celebratory piece of thehobartchinaman’s blog, marks the beginning of no cutesy language, content or picture warnings.

American Sentence

Depends on your financial status. Long for poor, short for filthy rich

“What’s an American Sentence?”

Allen Ginsberg, inventor of the American Sentence, felt that the haiku didn’t work as well in English. And Lordy do I agree. Ginsberg decided to remove the line structure of the haiku, maintaining the requirement of 17 syllables total. He felt that removing the line count freed the American Sentence up for the idiosyncrasies of English phonemes.

The requirements:

Composed in one line;
Syllabic, 17 syllables;
Condensed, written with no unnecessary words or articles;
Complete sentence or sentences;
Includes a turn or enlightenment

Why There Are Fears That Nipah Virus Could One Day Cause A Deadly Pandemic : Goats and Soda : NPR

thc has wondered aloud about virus naming in past posts.

Imagine the thrill of seeing an article ‘Indian Nipah Virus Outbreak’, another place name to be added to the virus list.

A lovely pic of the Nipah Virus Area, banner replete in Hindi, courtesy the Mavoor Cops. But golly gosh where was that in India?

It isn’t.

Nipah is in coastal Malaysia, from where the virus is supposed to have originated in bat saliva..

My sense is that the Nipahnese aren’t fussed greatly about striding the world’s stage in the virus stakes.

Nor should the Wuhanese be.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/09/12/1035571714/why-the-world-should-be-more-than-a-bit-worried-about-indias-nipah-virus-outbrea

Shadow Poetry : Ode and Inverted Refrain

Ode

An Ode is a poem glorifying or praises a thing, place or person.

Reflection on Ode Definition

An ode glorifies or praises

A thing, place or person,

Chose a name, rhyming phrases,

Ode-tte features in my version.

A figment of imagination,

Lithe of spirit, ruby face

Her scent aromatic perfection,

Skirt knee length trimmed in white lace.

Could this be an ode? I speculate

Try words in web based decoder

I’ve done it now, it’s to damn late

Wordplay on letters of od(e)-ur

copywrite ©thehobartchinaman

Editor’s note : thc tried, verdict : hung jury

Inverted Refrain

The Inverted Refrain, created by Jan Turner, consists of four 6-line stanzas, for a total of 24 lines. Rhyme scheme per stanza: Lines #1-4 are abab; Lines #5 and #6, the two inverted refrain lines, can be a,b or b,a. Meter: 8 syllables in every line. The first four lines of a stanza create a statement from which the last 2 lines extract the meaning, and invert the way it was said

Sadness on Wuhan Virus Forced Separation

Painting strokes on taughtened canvas,

Brushed and smeared seemingly random.

When viewed closeup reveal to us,

Nature’s broad majestic kingdom.

Landscapes like a memorandum,

Summarise scenes we can’t discuss

Classic FJ Holden, an iconic Aussie made car

My cousin paints, she’s such a star,

Paints scenes of life from photo

She lives in Sydney, its quite far,

Her third son strums a mean banjo.

Mark’s renown for his jazz solo

Fay and I recall, Holden* Car.

Mark is a well known double bassist in Manhattan, New York

Image result for tranmere rd tas — Tranmere of thc

She lives by the bay at Rodd Point

We both see views over water.

Pete seeks souls for Christ to anoint,

He has had sons and a daughter.

Doubt Pete’s ever smoked a joint,

Never seemed to him he oughta.

One day soon hope we’ll meet again.

Andy a chef of some reknown.

Flying so far from Belgian town,

Travel when free of covid’s strain

Wuhan Virus keeps each to own,

Cos’ none can board an aeroplane.

I’m stuck in Tranmere writing verse

Old age rages unabated.

Verse topics can seem perverse

Inspiration never sated.

Tho perhaps I could have waited.

I try never to sound too terse.

.* Fay’s Beloved Dad, my Uncle Jack, worked for many many years at GMH Holden

Shadow Poetry : Nonet and HexSonnetta

thehobartchinaman is on a continuing quest to conquer the traditional and invented poetry forms at http://www.shadowpoetry.com

Nonet

A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables, etc… until line nine finishes with one syllable. It can be on any subject and rhyming is optional.

Nonet Reflection on Accusations of Child Abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness Sect, in the Aussie context

Jehovah’s Witnesses in the dock

Abuse accused by some of the flock

Will they pay, I wonder how?

Tax Exempt, holy cow!

Old men seek abuse,

Report no use.

What a waste,

Wonder why?

Cry!

HexSonnetta

The HexSonnetta, created by Andrea Dietrich, consists of two six-line stanzas and a finishing rhyming couplet with the following set of rules. *

Meter: Iambic Trimeter
Rhyme Scheme: a/bb/aa/b c/dd/cc/d ee

HexSonnetta : Listening To ABC Radio National and Considering Its Social License.

In background radio drones.

Writer’s yap ’bout new book

encourage us to look

at shiny latest tome,

Composed on an iPhone

Keyed In a uni moot.

Though ABC is free,

No commerce on its site

In spite of publisher might,

Why does this affect me?

Pulp** is not from a tree,

Varied content is trite.

Sounds like advertising,

Is government lying?

.** double entrendre intended

. * The Rules : Iambic Trimeter means the usual iambic (alternating unstressed/stressed) meter for every line of the poem, but instead of the ten syllables that comprise a typical sonnet’s iambic pentameter, this particular form uses six syllables of iambic trimeter per line. Thus, the name HexSonnetta. The first part of the form’s name refers to the syllable count per line. The second part of the name, Sonnetta, is to show this to be a form similar to the sonnet, yet with its shorter lines and different rhyme scheme, it is not the typical sonnet. Not only does this poem have six syllables per line, it also has a set of two six-line stanzas, giving an extra “hex” to the meaning of HexSonnetta. The rhyme scheme is a bit of a mixture of the two traditional sonnet types, with the two 6-line stanzas having more the rhyme scheme of an Italian sonnet, but with the ending rhyming couplet being the featured rhyme scheme of the English sonnet. The first stanza presents the theme of the poem, with the second stanza serving to change the tone of the poem, to introduce a new aspect of the theme or to give added details. The final couplet, as in an English sonnet, can be either a summary (if the theme is simple) or it could be the resolution to a problem presented in the theme. In any event, it should nicely tie together the whole piece and could even appear as a nice “twist” presented at the end.