Things

[white camellia]

John sent me a ‘Velvet Underground’
with Nico, my outlet for Chinese cliché.
Tube in London, Di-Tie in China,
but Underground, is another thing.
‘Winter Song’ and ‘La Plus Belle’ on my way,
I took Plath’s ‘Jar’ to my class another day.
Swirling stars and black trees sailed through
only the hollowed to give sumptuous senses,
but Meaning, is either absent or late.




Thanks for reading.

[Shadow Poet]

This worked out quite well, I think. You have a creative topic and interesting too. Good one.

[Riesa]

everyone should get a Velvet Underground with Nico sent to them. nice play on underground, camellia. your final line is fabulous, and hopefully excuses me from making complete sense of your poem.

"Il y a deux filles en moi"

me too/two. at least.

[white camellia]

Thank you, Shadow Poet!

Yes, two at least... ;- ) I wanted to write these lines to express a kind of vanity. There are many things around or one grasped but there is an absence of meaning.

[blp]

Poems that sound chatty and demotic like this, then hit you with something, are almost my favourite kind, if I have a favourite kind. The only bit I'm not sure about is the swirling stars. I love the ending too - the absent or late bit.

[Silas Thorne]

John sent me a ‘Velvet Underground’
with Nico, my outlet for Chinese cliché.
Tube in London, Di-Tie in China,
but Underground, is another thing.
‘Winter Song’ and ‘La Plus Belle’ on my way,
I took Plath’s ‘Jar’ to my class another day.
Swirling stars and black trees sailed through
only the hollowed to give sumptuous senses,
but Meaning, is either absent or late.

:thumbs_up
Love the first part, that punches with 'Underground, is a different thing'- and the 'Meaning, is either absent or late' line at the end.
Haven't read Plath's 'Jar' or heard 'Velvet Underground', maybe I've lost a lot from the poem because of this. But the words play heartily! :)

[firefangled]

Edgy poem. I loved the references to Underground. I haven't heard those songs in years and never read the book. So maybe I'm missing some of this.

Chinese cliche escapes me.

[blp]

Haven't read Plath's 'Jar' or heard 'Velvet Underground'

You haven't heard the Velvet Underground? :eek:

The Chinese cliché bit confused me too.

[qimissung]

I have to admit that I am not familiar with "Velvet Underground." Is it a song or a group? There used to be a group with a similar name a long time (ahem) ago. I've read "The Bell Jar" but don't quite get the reference to 'swirling stars and black trees.' Nevertheless, I like the poem, the 'chatty' tone, the references to the underground, and I LOVE the last line.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I love the somewhat elliptical quality of it and of course the last line reminds me of another of your lines, the one that blp adopted as his signature.

[blp]

"Il y a deux filles en moi"

me too/two. at least.

'Because each of us were several, that was already quite a lot.' - Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus