Sinecure

[Hawkman]

We are imagineers,
the architects of dreams,
who build our castles in the air
to float, or so it seems,
on banners run up flagpoles
where brainstorms whip the cloth,
delineating project goals
before they’re carried off.

We constantly evaluate,
we work and meet in teams,
our blue-sky thinking shapes the world
to jargonistic themes.
As management executives,
we’re hungry, cruel and thin,
so we’re the ones you have to blame
for hogging all the tin.

Metabolising energy
from coffee and hot air,
we carry on regardlessly
without a single care,
secure in our positions,
with email, cell and fax
as camouflage and cover
from the working man’s attacks.

[YesNo]

I didn't get what "hogging all the tin" was. Is "tin" a way of saying money or power or something else?

The fax might be out of date, but I don't know. I rarely use it. I don't think there is much security in these positions either. Nor do all blue-sky projects succeed.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Marvelous how a serious argument cohabited with these often witty but never strained rhymes!

[Hawkman]

Y/N: Hi and thanks for reading. Yes tin is (or at least was) a slang coloquialism for money :) As for faxes, well they still seem to be in vogue in my neck of the woods, although I don't use them myself, but local businesses still do. As for the failure rate of blue sky thinking - well, that was kind of the point :D

Prince: thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Live long and prosper - H

[blank|verse]

I have a feeling I've read this before. Maybe it's just me?

De ja vu aside - at first I thought this was about poets (and it still could be!) but I presume the intended 'target' is marketing types, that reminds of an article Damian Hirst wrote called 'Why C-nts Sell Sh-t to Fools'. That's capitalism for you!

Not really sure I get the 'working man's attacks' at the end, (and I was a bit unsure about 'cell and fax' but I think you can get away with it!) but the rest of it reads well, and as Prince said, there's a nice tension between the form and content; there's something more sinister behind the rhymes.

I have a feeling I've read this before...

[Delta40]

I like the theme and it reads in a team voice (for some reason)

[Hawkman]

b/v: Hi! I don't think I've written this poem before, but I can imagine that John Cooper Clark or Roger McGough might have written it :D I checked my back catalogue and couldn't find one which came particularly close, although "Song of Revolution" had a go at Personnel managers (but in a different way).

Of course, it's perfectly possible that marketing types and middle management executives write poetry (although if they do it is probably very smug, self-satisfied poetry) but no, I wasn't having a go at poets :D I wanted to say filofax, but these are definately too "eighties!" I'm glad you thought I could get away with it :) As for, "the working man's attacks," it's just a metaphor for socialsit revolution (though Socialism seems to be a spent force in the modern world, and I don't comment on whether this is a good, or a bad thing.)

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting and I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed it.

Delta: It's all those 'we's :D Glad you liked it. ;)

Live and be well - H

[MystyrMystyry]

Wallace Stevens?

This was very enjoyable Hawk, though it's a bit too heavy on the poor buggers that are shaping our future (progress is a fact - mind-control is an illusion, planetary destruction is just the extremely unfortunate side-effect)

I was going to write an ode to one of my favorite electronic gadgets thanking the engineers and designers for its technological achievement - but then realised I'd have to include the other manufacturers who provided the competition, the corporate spies, everyone who'd bought their previous products to maintain investment in R and D, the underpaid foreign workers, and even the overpaid company CEOs - all of whom without which its manufacture and affordability wouldn't have become possible

I left it as an idea for future reference

But in this you have an interesting angle and both the rhyme and tropes were very well done

[everyadventure]

Sharp and witty. My favorite line:


Metabolising energy
from coffee and hot air

:D

[Hawkman]

MM, Hi, and I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed it. It's not the progress I object to, it's the Management culture, with it's jargonistic euphemisms and smug self-importance, inflicted on normal humans, regardless of intellectual capacity to tollerate B-S. Blue sky thinking when applied to products is all very well, but when it's performed by middle management executives of very little bain, purely to justify their existance, it is usually counter productive!

As for your proposed ode to gadgets - I had a little rant of my own a while back in a poem called Luddite. I guess you'll be able to determine its tone just from the title :D

Anyway, thanks for reading and dropping me a line.

ea, hi to you too. Glad you enjoyed it :D

Live and be well - H

[Jerrybaldy]

Could not agree more with your sentiment Hawk. I too thought we we were talking poets at first before discovering it was a grey coloured group with an even more dubious voice ;)

[julian94]

This was a very good read and I just adore the wit in it. Especially how you mixed the idyllic type of language in the first stanza to the harsh and cold type of language in the third stanza which then form a perfect harmony in the middle point that forms the perfect transition to the second half, it is fast with a smooth development. The rythm and not to mention the flow of sentences were perfect.

There is also this theme of self-loathing that is very interesting. It was head-on in the second half and they know themselves that they are in a sort hypocrites that hide behind the lines they command.

Moreover, I like the subtle hint in the first stanza that it is as if they are not being very truthful with what they are saying while at the same time emitting this feeling of self-inadequacy.
"to float, or so it seems,"

I do not know if you intended to deliver this statement but do you know that generalising oneself to a certain group, like how the management executives describe themselves in the second half in an antagonistic manner, is a way to cope from the criticisms they receive everyday. In fact, they perform in a way that is antagonistic as many people perceive them that way rather than change because even if they try to change, many people will still stab them behind their backs and will continue to mention how bad they were.
So at the end of the day those who continually vocally criticise these people are just in the end creating or manifacturing the very people they criticise? Isn't that counter-productive? I think that rather than criticising we should suggest things in a friendly manner, in a manner that does not make neither suspects nor victims because the people criticised too are also human beings with emotions. I may sound too optimistic but I needed to give this point.

[Hawkman]

JB, glad you were able to relate to it, even if it's not about poets :D

julian94:

"This was a very good read and I just adore the wit in it. Especially how you mixed the idyllic type of language in the first stanza to the harsh and cold type of language in the third stanza which then form a perfect harmony in the middle point that forms the perfect transition to the second half, it is fast with a smooth development. The rhythm and not to mention the flow of sentences were perfect."


Thanks…

"There is also this theme of self-loathing that is very interesting. It was head-on in the second half and they know themselves that they are in a sort hypocrites that hide behind the lines they command."


Funny, while writing I was, of course, conscious of the fact that I was expressing my loathing for the breed and their culture, but in this satire I was endeavouring to communicate their brazen pride in it, rather than their self-loathing.

"Moreover, I like the subtle hint in the first stanza that it is as if they are not being very truthful with what they are saying while at the same time emitting this feeling of self-inadequacy.
"to float, or so it seems,"


In my experience they are fully convinced of their invaluable superiority and blind, or too thick skinned, to be aware of their faults!

"I do not know if you intended to deliver this statement but do you know that generalising oneself to a certain group, like how the management executives describe themselves in the second half in an antagonistic manner, is a way to cope from the criticisms they receive everyday."


This is a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy, they behave like demigods, everyone loathes them and they wear their stigma with pride.

"In fact, they perform in a way that is antagonistic as many people perceive them that way rather than change because even if they try to change, many people will still stab them behind their backs and will continue to mention how bad they were."


The rampant ambition of the individual members of the group usually means that they are more likely to stab each-other in the back for personal advantage. However, they close ranks against external attack.

"So at the end of the day those who continually vocally criticise these people are just in the end creating or manifacturing the very people they criticise?"


The rise of the management culture was a direct result of the collapse of the industrial manufacturing base in the Western hemisphere. Factories aren’t allowed to burn coal or oil because they pollute and human rights legislation says you can’t treat your workers like slaves. Consequently all the factories were moved to the third world where the great industrialists are allowed to pollute and employ slaves. This left the majority of the workforce in the West with nothing to do, except work in shops or push bits of paper around. As pushing bits of paper around (Wombelling) isn’t really productive, they had to make themselves seem to be indispensable – hence the freemasonry of jargon. Back when we still had factories a small firm might have 100 workers and about five managers. These days there are about 20 managers and only about 30 production operatives. The factory is very clean though.

"Isn't that counter-productive? I think that rather than criticising we should suggest things in a friendly manner, in a manner that does not make neither suspects nor victims because the people criticised too are also human beings with emotions. I may sound too optimistic but I needed to give this point."


Humour is often generated through cruelty – Sad but true :D

Thanks again for your indepth reading and comments. Live and be well - H

[deryk]

A very amusing piece. The cadence honestly reminded me of the "Captain Planet" theme song. I believe there is a branch of the Disney corporation of the same name. I also believe this describes them rather well. A very keen rebuttal of corporatism, if I've ever read one.

[Hawkman]

Thanks deryk, glad you enjoyed it. By the way, does your "(not for much longer)" under 'Location' in your profile, refer to the name of the town, or your residence in it? :)

Live and be well - H

[AuntShecky]

Late with this reply. No one to blame but yours fooly, distracted by televised MLB games and the a certain inept counterpart of Jeopardy!

There are two noteworthy aspects of this one. First, the
subject whose title alludes to a position bestowed by the
medieval Church which required no ostensible duties in return. "Sinecure" = "sine" + "cure" ("without" + "care.")
The recompense and honor came free of responsibilities and actual work. Very witty to borrow that old concept to apply to the modern phenomenon of the "no show job." (Plenty of those puppies in my particular neck o' the woods, but I can't elaborate without delving into the Forbidden Zone of politiks. I never had a no-show job meself, but if there's anyone who wants to offer me one, I'll listen!)

The second laudable aspect of your verse is the meter and rhyme, which provide focus and rhythm to your poem. What makes them effective is that they are unforced, so subtle that we hardly notice them. It's similar to what the celebrated thesbian Spencer Tracy once said: "Never let 'em catch you 'acting.' "

The only clichés in the entire piece are the ho- hum "castles in the air" and "run up the flagpole" Luckily they don't detract from the abundance of original metaphors and bits of wordplay that animate the piece:

where brainstorms whip the cloth,

our blue-sky thinking shapes the world

hogging all the tin.

email, cell and fax
as camouflage and cover
from the working man’s attacks.


Finally, the piece is both amusing and thoughtful.
(As I write this, my beloved team is playing a day game, probably in the 4th or 5th inning by now, so-- as the kids type on their Twittering machines, G2g.)

[deryk]

By the way, does your "(not for much longer)" under 'Location' in your profile, refer to the name of the town, or your residence in it? :)

Hahah, I wish they'd change the name! But no, I might be relocating North to a greater city with a friend soon, and I may possibly join my brother in Canada after that. I don't hate the U.S., I'm just sick to death of rural America.

[Hawkman]

Hi Auntie. As for your tardiness, no harm - no foul, Sports fan :D You are forgiven. I'm glad you enjoyed this one. By the way, the ho-hum cliches were included to illustrate the idomatic jargon of management speech, although I grant that, "castles in the air" was a bit of a reach, but I liked the idea of their having architects :)

Did your team win?

deryk: Well, I hope you enjoy your travels. I have famillial connections with your state as my sister in law hails from Indiana. It seems she too sought to escape as she's lived on this side of the pond for nearly 20 years :)

Live long and prosper - H