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Thread: So What?

  1. #1
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    So What?

    Bugger the butterflies, bugger the hills,
    Bugger the daffodils, floating like spills,
    Show me a skyscraper plated in glass
    Show me a motorway ploughing through grass:

    How you survive for the rest of your lives
    Isn’t a subject that’s fit for my eyes,
    Let there be famine and let there be war
    Gravediggers tally the body-count score.

    Tanks and machineguns received with due thanks,
    Fighters and bombers; the cost drains our banks.
    Grumman and Lockheed are grateful, I’m sure,
    Pay them the money, but still they want more,

    Jobs will depend on the loot that we spend
    Paying for fusion reactors that end
    In glorious meltdowns that poison the earth;
    Surely a subject for unrestrained mirth.

    Nature is savage and nature is cruel
    Kill or be killed—dog eat dog is the rule.
    So don’t be so soppy and don’t be so wet
    Nobody cares, long as targets are met.

  2. #2
    Registered User Delta40's Avatar
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    Excellent. A wonderfully dry poem with great flow!
    Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised - American Proverb

  3. #3
    Translator Mohammad Ahmad's Avatar
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    It is being a military chant, indeed I find a pleasure on many verses of it, but how dog eats dog this is not in our culture we always said that dog never eats dog because they are from the same family
    My country is the Home of Honour And
    Without honour I haven't Home
    MMA

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    Registered User DATo's Avatar
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    Liked it, but I think you meant "Fission" reactors rather than "Fusion" reactors. There are no fusion reactors yet though they are desperately working to create them. Fusion is the safe kind of nuclear energy.

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    Thank you Delta, MA & DAto, for reading and commenting. Glad you enjoyed it Delta

    MA, Not really intended as a military chant, but I can see how it could be interpreted as such. My intention was to satirise corporatism, as much as anything. I accept what you say about cultural differences re the expression "dog eat dog" though the justification you cite doesn't stand up to too close a scrutiny - just look at mantises and spiders!

    DAto: actually, I did mean fusion, though I was cognisant that fusion is supposed to be "safe." But then, lots of things are supposed to be safe, in theory. It isn't until someone builds something supposedly safe, and unleashes some apocalyptic blight on the world, that we find out it isn't. The first atomic pile was built in a squash court. Very safe. They told us in the late forties and fifties that we'd all be driving around in nuclear powered cars... The realities are Chernobyl and Onkalo. I chose fusion specifically because of the topical recent press release by Lockheed Martin, stating that they were developing fusion reactor technology. Just imagine what will happen if one of those goes critical. Would you live next door to one? How "safe" would you feel?

    Live and be well - H

  6. #6
    Translator Mohammad Ahmad's Avatar
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    Thank you Hawkman since you spoke about your mode.
    Yes I touched the sarcastic tone, I knew that, but it can be interpreted as I previously mentioned, especially for a soldier finding himself far away from home so he turns disgusted for the duty and everything he sees looked black on eyes.
    However, this is maybe a reasonable way to understand poetry or to analyze any poet intention; otherwise, it is always like your description. I myself have read such poems for the American soldiers before leaving my country like one's poem: Christmas in Fallujah. .
    For "Dog never eats dog", it is a proverb on our culture and for instance, "if two persons of a same aim and their interests meet other, they won't fight between. This is the pragmatic meaning or the implied meaning, moreover the expression in English I know its meaning, which it is "ruthlessly competitive", and here in English language, also it has negative sense.
    Again I thank you to your a good poem
    Last edited by Mohammad Ahmad; 10-20-2014 at 10:35 AM.
    My country is the Home of Honour And
    Without honour I haven't Home
    MMA

  7. #7
    It wasn't me Jerrybaldy's Avatar
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    Anything that satires corporatism has my vote Mr H. I heard this new low point in "corporate speak" the other day.... " let's put that in the thought fridge and we can snack on it later". Actually a whole poem of corporate speak could be fun. But that may just be blue sky thinking.

    For those who believe,
    no explanation is necessary.
    For those who do not,
    none will suffice.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerrybaldy View Post
    I heard this new low point in "corporate speak" the other day.... " let's put that in the thought fridge and we can snack on it later". Actually a whole poem of corporate speak could be fun.
    Do it! Pretty please for your l'l ole auntie.

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    JB, Thanks for reading. For some reason an image of Stephen Fry leaps to mind on reading your comment about corporate newspeak. Can it be that you heard this little gem on QI?

    Auntie, it is unclear whether you are exhorting JB to take up your challenge or li'l ol' me! You might remember this, though perhaps it falls a little short of being worded entirely in corporate jargon. Do you think middle management executives win prizes for inventing ever sillier baby-speak euphemisms? Is it possible they will be hurled down, down, down through the glass ceilings by enraged vice presidents in charge of vice presidents, if their banter isn't silly enough? let's hope jargon hating goes viral and all the sinecures die of flu.

    Live and be well - H
    Last edited by Hawkman; 10-21-2014 at 07:06 AM.

  10. #10
    Registered User DieterM's Avatar
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    Rings a bell, H, definitely rings a bell. Of course, what I hear on a daily basis is a) in French, b) doesn't rhyme, and c) lacks your wit and irony. My boss has learned some stupid phrases during his university career and takes them out at least once a week, offering them like diamonds. Which they ain't.
    Anyway, your poem—very funny and well written, my friend :-)
    "Im Arm der Liebe schliefen wir selig ein…" ("Liebesode" - Otto Erich Hartleben)
    New poetry collection available (Kindle and paperback)

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    Glad you like it, Dieter. You have my sympathy, languishing in thrall to a pretentious middle management executive! How awful for you! What you need to do is go to work with a pet leopard That should make him reevaluate his status

    Live long and prosper - H

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawkman View Post

    Auntie, it is unclear whether you are exhorting JB to take up your challenge or li'l ol' me! You might remember this, though perhaps it falls a little short of being worded entirely in corporate jargon. Do you think middle management executives win prizes for inventing ever sillier baby-speak euphemisms? Is it possible they will be hurled down, down, down through the glass ceilings by enraged vice presidents in charge of vice presidents, if their banter isn't silly enough? let's hope jargon hating goes viral and all the sinecures die of flu.
    Either one of you! You're both up to the challenge.
    Re: jargon. Not only is corporate lingo bad, so is teacher-talk. Half the trouble w. the American school system can be attributed to Educationese, all their "facilitating" and "implementation," etc. The PC has gotten to such a point where they are reluctant even to say "student." They prefer to say "learner," which strikes me as a little presumptuous.

    And not to be picky-- but "sinecure"--how is it possible fot it to die of the flu? I believe the word refers to a perk bestowed on clerics outside of ecclesiastical duties, like a nice country estate or something. In modern times the meaning expanded to compensation for little or no work. I'm not criticizing. Maybe you were using personification.

    Keep the original stuff comin'!

    Auntie

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    You may rest assured that "educationese" is not confined to the States. It is prevalent over here too. I, also, object to the classification, "learner," which is applied indiscriminately to those who may, or may not be, learning. As for the sinecures, I was indeed personifying the post, or sinecure, through the post holder. I don't see why they shouldn't die of flu. At least a post holder is someone who holds a post. I rather detest the term "stakeholder" when referring to those who might merely have an interest in something. "Holder" implies possession or ownership, which interest does not. There is a difference.

    Hi ho.

    Live and be well - H

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    I'd never use the word "stakeholder," not even for somebody about to off Count Dracula.
    Almost time for Game 2 of the World Series. This is your auntie signing off.

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    a dark soul Haunted's Avatar
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    My noodles are in a tight little knot and so I'm stuck somewhere between nature, skyscrapers and big guns but food for thought nevertheless as your poems are always.

    "But do you really, seriously, Major Scobie," Dr. Sykes asked, "believe in hell?"
    "Oh, yes, I do."
    "In flames and torment?"
    "Perhaps not quite that. They tell us it may be a permanent sense of loss."
    "That sort of hell wouldn't worry me," Fellowes said.
    "Perhaps you've never lost anything of importance," Scobie said.

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