Geography

[PrinceMyshkin]

North is a fiction
somewhat like love.
South is the definition
of hope. In between
is the broad belt of the Equator
on which we all live.

[qimissung]

I think I like this one best of all.The Equator-the place where we wait for Godot.

[firefangled]

North is a fiction
somewhat like love.
South is the definition
of hope. In between
is the broad belt of the Equator
on which we all live.


I get the message of this. I get the three virtual points of reference, in which we all struggle to be human, but it seems fuzzy to me.

I think your statement is over simplified and unjustly categorical regarding love.

I assume you mean romantic love, when you say fiction, in which case I would agree. However, in its entirety, it is obvious your poem is about something larger than romantic love.

You've made the world and its people and their hope your subjects. The love you speak of for me is never anything but action.

Love is doing and for that it is always as real as it gets.

I like where this is going. I just don't think it is there yet.

[Virgil]

It's good enough as a little poem, but I just don't think there's enough depth there. These little profound pieces need depth and I don't see it here.

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's good enough as a little poem, but I just don't think there's enough depth there. These little profound pieces need depth and I don't see it here.

Thanks to both you and Firefangled. I see your point(s), both of you. The danger in working in the minimalist style I have chosen is of course that in carving all the meat away from the bone, the bone itself might be less than nourishing.


I get the message of this. I get the three virtual points of reference, in which we all struggle to be human, but it seems fuzzy to me.

I think your statement is over simplified and unjustly categorical regarding love.

I assume you mean romantic love, when you say fiction, in which case I would agree. However, in its entirety, it is obvious your poem is about something larger than romantic love.

You've made the world and its people and their hope your subjects. The love you speak of for me is never anything but action.

Love is doing and for that it is always as real as it gets.

I like where this is going. I just don't think it is there yet.

I replied in the main via my response to Virgil but it occurs to me why I conflated "love" (in all its many varieties) with romantic love. A friend of my lady-friend Andrea has been forwarding her friend's (and with the other woman's permission, to me) exchanges with a man she met via one of those dating sites. I don't have their first several exchanges but, since approximately mid-July they've been writing each other 2 or more times per day, his messages unreservedly proclaiming her to be the love of his life, her responses lagging a bit behind but also poetic, hopeful...

Well, they finally met yesterday after he travelled some 3,000 miles and...she is struggling with her initial revulsion (I don't think that's too strong a word) from him. Of course that's just one of innumerable internet heartbreaks, this one at least without any intentional deceit on either side, but I had watched the balloon rise higher and higher, and having exchanged a few friendly emails with her I got to be rooting for the two of them - with, however, unspoken misgivings.

[qimissung]

firefangled and Virgil make very good points. I think that's why I referred to "Waiting for Godot," and life as just a piece of surrealist fiction. Or it could be the outlook of an extreme cynic.

Your explanation does clear up a lot Prince. I'm sorry for your friend. I, myself, could never bring myself to hope that much based on words alone, and for me, protestations of love before meeting and establishing a relationship-well, let'sjust say,no dice. I'm a romantic pragmatist.

[qimissung]

It takes me awhile to cvollect my thoughts. So, I still think it's a good poem, if looked at in the terms stated above, but that's not really your style, Prince, which is why I think Virgil and firefangled had problems with it. I'm sure they will tell me if I'm wrong. :)

[Virgil]

Thanks to both you and Firefangled. I see your point(s), both of you. The danger in working in the minimalist style I have chosen is of course that in carving all the meat away from the bone, the bone itself might be less than nourishing.


Hey, you can't always hit a home run. :) Oh I see how the poem developed from you friend's experience. That is a shame. There is nothing like the face to face visual cues that are so necessary in a relationship. But if one never loved one would never know.

[Riesa]

"So they wandered on, looking for somewhere." ~Ian McEwan.

[blazeofglory]

North is a fiction
somewhat like love.
South is the definition
of hope. In between
is the broad belt of the Equator
on which we all live.


This is a holistic approach to life

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hey, you can't always hit a home run. :) Oh I see how the poem developed from you friend's experience. That is a shame. There is nothing like the face to face visual cues that are so necessary in a relationship. But if one never loved one would never know.

Indeed, and your last remark reminds me of the sage saying: 'Tis better to have loved a short man than never to have loved a tall!


"So they wandered on, looking for somewhere." ~Ian McEwan.

Which reminded me of my own aphorism: "A map will only get you to where others have already been."



Your explanation does clear up a lot Prince. I'm sorry for your friend. I, myself, could never bring myself to hope that much based on words alone, and for me, protestations of love before meeting and establishing a relationship-well, let's just say,no dice. I'm a romantic pragmatist.

I hadn't previously thought that there were subsets of romanticism. I myself, along with the male half of the relationship I referred to, am of the romantic idiots subset, the motto of which, as it is said of religious faith: "It is certain because it is impossible."

[Riesa]

Which reminded me of my own aphorism: "A map will only get you to where others have already been."

I just meant that others have compacted life into one sentence while yours tries but doesn't quite achieve it. Sorry, I don't like your poem. it's bland. It's like taking one sentence out of a great book and faking it, pretending it's yours.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I just meant that others have compacted life into one sentence while yours tries but doesn't quite achieve it. Sorry, I don't like your poem. it's bland. It's like taking one sentence out of a great book and faking it, pretending it's yours.

Ouch! - and thank you.