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PrinceMyshkin
07-12-2009, 10:58 AM
The day they invented my mind
the committee almost came to blows.
Clouds like overblown cannon-balls
boomed against the skies.
Pieces of weather fell everywhere.

Some of the committee proposed,
as a compromise,
to issue me one of those new,
one-size-fits-all, chromium-wired
minds with floating interstices.

The weather continued to rage.
I waited.

Sometimes I feel
I’m waiting still.


Jerry Newman (C) July 12/ 09

islandclimber
07-12-2009, 11:22 AM
This is lovely, as always. I love the ending, for it leaves me with such a feeling of surrender to inevitability. Such a calm in the eye of the storm. So aware of the tedious nature of life that Pessoa so often mentioned...

PrinceMyshkin
07-12-2009, 11:32 AM
This is lovely, as always. I love the ending, for it leaves me with such a feeling of surrender to inevitability. Such a calm in the eye of the storm. So aware of the tedious nature of life that Pessoa so often mentioned...

Many thanks for your comment and for bringing this poet to my attention. Had never heard from him before, but here's the first of the poems I came across, which he wrote in English:



Alentejo Seen From The Train

Nothing with nothing around it
And a few trees in between
None of which very clearly green,
Where no river or flower pays a visit.
If there be a hell, I've found it,
For if ain't here, where the Devil is it?



Fernando Pessoa

islandclimber
07-12-2009, 11:51 AM
i've never read that one.. it's interesting.. I like alot of his poetry, the collection "A little Larger than the Entire Universe" has some great poems in it, but I love Pessoa's prose... The Book of Disquiet is one of the most amazing works I have read...

Virgil
07-12-2009, 12:52 PM
The day they invented my mind
the committee almost came to blows.
Clouds like overblown cannon-balls
boomed against the skies.
Pieces of weather fell everywhere.

Some of the committee proposed,
as a compromise,
to issue me one of those new,
one-size-fits-all, chromium-wired
minds with floating interstices.

The weather continued to rage.
I waited.

Sometimes I feel
I’m waiting still.


Jerry Newman (C) July 12/ 09


Hahaha, this reminded me of work. I'm sure I will think of this tomorrow on our regular Monday morning team meeting. Not bad as a poem. I really liked these two lines: "one-size-fits-all, chromium-wired/minds with floating interstices." :)

qimissung
07-13-2009, 06:22 PM
Brilliantly, savagely, comically beautiful Prince. You have done it yet again, my friend. I, too, love the ending. The patient ending of the little man who can only wait-and live- while important decisions are ****** up by the powers that be. Proving,of course, that you ended up with a brain after all.

PrinceMyshkin
07-14-2009, 07:48 AM
Brilliantly, savagely, comically beautiful Prince. You have done it yet again, my friend. I, too, love the ending. The patient ending of the little man who can only wait-and live- while important decisions are ****** up by the powers that be. Proving,of course, that you ended up with a brain after all.

On behalf of myself and the Tin Man, I thank you heartily!

symphony
07-14-2009, 11:16 AM
Reading this again in the middle of a mess trying to select courses from a course selection guide which is looking like ancient greek to me, I actually feel like I'm waiting too, for my mind to be born!

AuntShecky
07-14-2009, 12:43 PM
Your piece, full of your characteristic sardonic humor, reminded me of a playground joke the kids used to taunt me with when I was a little kid (way back in "Jurassic" Park):
"When they passed out brains, you thought they said 'grains,' so you said, "No, thanks!"

PrinceMyshkin
07-14-2009, 12:55 PM
Your piece, full of your characteristic sardonic humor, reminded me of a playground joke the kids used to taunt me with when I was a little kid (way back in "Jurassic" Park):
"When they passed out brains, you thought they said 'grains,' so you said, "No, thanks!"

In my case, I thought they said "trains" so I asked for an express.