Write a poem on the country you live in

[Majesty]

If that country is not named in the poem,state the country after writing the poem.

[YesNo]

That sounds like a good challenge, Majesty. I'll see if I can come up with something about the USA.

[Majesty]

Sure,hope you manage to write something about it soon.

[YesNo]

Thanks for the reminder. If I don't do something right away it slips away.

I enjoyed your poem about confessional poetry in the bad poetry thread.

[Majesty]

Thank you,you enjoyed because it was really bad is it? I realise the forum seems rather inactive..

[YesNo]

Large enough so all can see
And rich enough to start a fight,
Persistent people, much like me,
Awaken from the dream-filled night
To justify our joys and pain
Our daily loss and daily gain.

[YesNo]

Thank you,you enjoyed because it was really bad is it? I realise the forum seems rather inactive..

It seems like a good place to practice poetry, inactive or not.

[AuntShecky]

Large enough so all can see
And rich enough to start a fight,
Persistent people, much like me,
Awaken from the dream-filled night
To justify our joys and pain
Our daily loss and daily gain.

That's prettry succinct, but contains the country in a nutshell. Incidentally, what do you think Saul Bellow meant when he wrote "Dreaming in America is no cinch"?

[YesNo]

I have read a few novels by Saul Bellow but that was decades ago, so long ago reading them seems today like something I did in a dream.

The main reason I included dreaming here was because I was reading Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming by Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel and Thomas Peisel. I've been trying to become aware while I was in a dream without actually waking up. So far, I've been unsuccessful, but it has kept me preoccupied with dreaming.

I wonder what someone would mean by claiming that dreaming is "no cinch". Last night I had to get up multiple times to check a process that I was running for work. It finally failed, thankfully, so I could rest in peace. Through all that, I was dreaming so much I'm tired this morning. None of those dreams were lucid, by the way, so that failed, too.

[DieterM]

Good first poem in this thread, YesNo. Been trying to write one about France ever since I stumbled upon this thread, but for the moment, without success. Will keep trying...
Now, where the quote is concerned, I think I can guess what Bellow wanted to say; of course, only from an outsider's non-involved, theoretical point of view. I gather that dreaming in the US is "no cinch" (i.e. is not easy) because you're always supposed to make your dreams come true. It's what your national philosophy-cum-legend (and incidentally, Hollywood) want you to do. E.g. you dream of being a writer, so you HAVE to become a writer, and a successful one with that. If you fail, there's no one and nothing else to blame than you. We in Europe tend to allow, naively, other reasons like social background, economical status and so on to be of some influence, too ;-) That's just an attempt to explain the quote; I'm neither sure to be accurate nor to be precise enough so that I made myself quite clear (it's Friday, after all, I'm in the office and want to sleep *yawn*).

[AuntShecky]

I wonder what someone would mean by claiming that dreaming is "no cinch". Last night I had to get up multiple times to check a process that I was running for work. It finally failed, thankfully, so I could rest in peace. Through all that, I was dreaming so much I'm tired this morning. None of those dreams were lucid, by the way, so that failed, too.

I think the kind of "dreaming" to which Bellow was referring was the aspirational kind, similiar to that of Gatsby, although I'm convinced that Fitzgerald had a "love/hate" thing going on with the monied class. What I'm wondering, re the Bellow quote, is this: does he mean that dreaming in the good ol' USA is hard because the country as a whole seems affluent already or does he mean don't bother dreaming of making it here, the odds are stacked against you?

[YesNo]

As I think about it, DieterM and AuntShecky, you are probably right about the kind of dreaming Bellow was interested in. I expect he would think that the odds are stacked against you, but it is a nice ride. I'm trying to remember what "Humboldt's Gift" was about.

So I won't be the one making the next "Machete Kills" or "Bad Grandpa" movie? At least I got to watch the last ones.