| First line poems
Posted: 9/15/2005 5:18:40 PM | OK, I thought I would try my hand at creating one of these poetry threads. I have no idea how popular this idea would be buuuuuuut . . . .
I was just over at Phish's new poetry thread and I started writing a poem. I was looking for inspiration and I thought of the opening line to the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson, so I wrote a short verse about it (see below).
Then I thought, there are a ton of great first lines from novels--great lines from movies--great lines from poems---etc. I'd like to see how these lines, these quotations have inspired people. There are several threads for favourite quotes here on PoF. In this thread, I invite and welcome your personal poetic musings on those quotes.
Rules: The quote should be the first line of the work. Please cite the source of the quote--at the end of the poem, in the poem, in brackets four lines down from the poem, etc.
I hope y'all have fun.
ummm. ummm. Please come out and play. I don't want to be the only geek!  | |
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| Technology advances
Posted: 9/15/2005 5:24:32 PM | "The sky was the color of television tuned to a dead channel"
How many of us know what that means?
Not the snowy reflection of fractured pixels
That erupts on the screen of the digital age
But rather that steel grey blankness of old
With not even a drop of rain to provide contrast.
I remember when I thought sunglass monitors
Were the coolest item in SF
Now you can buy them at Sony--for a price
Between technological advances
computers, cryogenics, and cloning
And the deterioration of western culture
we bomb Iraq while thousands drown in Louisiana
I'm living in a cyberpunk present.
Why any longer read fiction about it
When I can turn on my tv and see it fed live?
(Neuromancer by William Gibson)
**
copyright 2005 by Michelle Wilson
"feel free to quote it, just credit it" | |
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| Technology advances
Posted: 9/15/2005 8:38:56 PM | I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunant accident. I hadn't learned that or it can happen so gradually you don't lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don't neccesarily sense the motion. I've found it takes at least two generally three things to alter the course of life; You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap.
A Map of the World
By: Jane Hamilton | |
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| George remembered
Posted: 9/16/2005 8:19:49 AM | "For forty years
my act consisted of one joke.
And then she died."
I meet you
someone new
we talk
we laugh
inevitably
you make a joke
and I reply
taking it straight
only realizing
my mistake
by the look on your face.
"Just call me Gracie"
I say
and laugh.
If you laugh with me
I know you understand,
and recognize the reference.
He was an icon of my youth
I looked forward to his
centennairy
celebration
and mourned when
he passed just months before
What I remember most
A cigar
A beloved wife
A thick pair of glasses
A smile filled with sly humour
All bring a smile
to my face
even today.
(George Burns, Gracie: A Love Story)
**
copyright 2005 Michelle Wilson
"feel free to quote it, just credit it" | |
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| Welcome!
Posted: 9/16/2005 8:27:48 AM | blitz: yea!!!!! Thanks for joining in! I hadn't read any Jane Hamilton. This quote resonates for me. It's dozen's of pin pricks that add up to the wound, not a single sword stroke, as 'twere.
Now you get to write something about the quote---what does it inspire in you?
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| ThankYou Much
Posted: 9/16/2005 10:42:56 AM | Hi mishkarma thanx for the warm welcome, I think your idea for this thread is absolutely brilliant, what better way to inspire the sensitive and the warrior poets in us all.
To me the character, Alice, is talking about losing touch with herself and the way others view her. That you engage in acts so subtle that you have no idea what kind of damage you are inflicting until its to late. Once you are aware what you have created in your life through your wrong choices, it hits you hard and its a long and steady climb out, just as steady as the events leading up to the slow motion fall. Its something that she doesnt see herself rise above for a long time, if ever.
This is a wonderful book, Im reading it now and it is written in rare form, I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read between the lines. | |
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| ThankYou Much
Posted: 9/16/2005 1:59:24 PM | You're welcome for the welcome!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  And as to all the others--come on in the water's fine! | |
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| ThankYou Much
Posted: 9/16/2005 2:11:44 PM | What an awesome concept for a thread Mishkarma:)Ill be around sometime to post:)Nice job so far ladies!You rock    | |
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| ThankYou Much
Posted: 9/16/2005 4:33:04 PM | | Thanks, oohpie! You are welcome by anytime! | |
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| First line poems
Posted: 9/16/2005 7:09:03 PM | "The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry
and been widely regarded as a bad move."
Whoever's idea it was, to do this thing,
sure had a strange sense of humour,
leaving everyone totally clueless,
each believing they have something to prove.
Then again, maybe it just happened,
or, was some supernatural force,
what the hell to do then?
With no one to blame, or turn to.
Does it really matter who's right?
Not really, not until after you're dead.
Whether you believe, or don't,
why not do as much good as you can do?
Whether it's for the betterment of future mankind,
whether it's to bring some peace to your heart,
whether you believe it's a steppping stone,
on a journey to some better place.
Why not try to listen and hear?
Why not try to learn and accept?
Why not try to love and forgive?
Why not try to get along, in this vastness we call space?
Peace
(Chapter 1, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, by the late great Douglas Adams) | |
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| First line poems
Posted: 9/19/2005 4:53:22 PM | hey, nuthin', thanks for dropping by! And thanks for sharing! I like what you have to say--basic yet apparently difficult, according to the headlines, at any rate. And using Restaurant as your jumping off point  | |
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| Nighttime Disturbance
Posted: 10/19/2005 3:50:04 PM | "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again."
Last night I dreamt
as I slept
a vision of my sister
present but clouded in her presentation.
Last night I dreamt of my sister.
She lay on a bed,
her naked yesteryear body
stretched towards me
her face obscured by the crumpled sheets.
I raised my eyes from her head
to the wall behind her,
taking in her pert small breasts
resting on her chest
slanted
slightly up, slightly out
still firm,
taking in her flat belly
covered by the tanned wrinkled hand
and grey brushcut head
of our father.
Feeling an immediate suffison of anger
at this betrayal of responsibility
I moved to the bed
swearing at him
to move, to stop,
berating him for his betrayal,
understanding, finally,
much of her behaviour,
providing him no mercy
in the face of this disablement.
Realizing he had been the one from my youth,
the one, and only the once,
I yelled back to him his awareness
of how it had affected me
knowing now I was not crazy
to have been so impacted.
I yelled back to him his criminality
in continuing his actions
knowing how even a single time
had permanently shaped me.
In my dream,
I reported him.
I followed through.
My sister did not fight me.
Neither did she support me.
She had no momentum for action.
-----
copyright 2005 Michelle Wilson
"feel free to quote it, just credit it" | |
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| Nighttime Disturbance
Posted: 9/12/2006 5:28:02 AM | "Call me Ishmael."
I did try to call you,
Ishmael, but there was no one home
and the answering machine
hadn't been invented yet
so I don't know if you'll receive
this message, but if you do
it's your turn to call me, Ishmael....
Melville: Moby Dick | |
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