The General Commentary Thread

[Piscator]

@cascadia bound

All things purple and red
Roasted beets seeping
deep purple juices
Staining my fingers and sink
Red raspberries so sweet
I can't stop popping them
Into my mouth
Surely fresh berries are
Calorie free

Nice you might appreciate this quote from Tom Robbins on beets

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.

Slavic peoples get their physical characteristics from potatoes, their smoldering inquietude from radishes, their seriousness from beets.

The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip...

The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies.

The beet was Rasputin's favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes.”

And with respect to raspberries, their calories have to be good calories but those in the cream they swim in are not so good. The same applies to local strawberries but I'm less sure on the imported ones in February.

 

[cascadiabound]

Nice you might appreciate this quote from Tom Robbins on beets

“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.

Slavic peoples get their physical characteristics from potatoes, their smoldering inquietude from radishes, their seriousness from beets.

The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip...

The beet is the murderer returned to the scene of the crime. The beet is what happens when the cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies.

The beet was Rasputin's favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes.”

And with respect to raspberries, their calories have to be good calories but those in the cream they swim in are not so good. The same applies to local strawberries but I'm less sure on the imported ones in February.

I love this quote fishy.

Than you so much for sharing. Made my day so far.

 

[Tzara]

This is a comment on this poem from the 007 Thread. I'm posting it here because my response is largely not about poetry, at least not about the poetry in the thread, and I don't want to disturb the flow of that thread, which is mostly really good poetry. (I know, that's clunky and redundant phrasing. Sue me.)

My first, and perhaps most obvious comment, is to thank AT for the poem, which alerted me to aspects of Adrienne Rich's career that are problematic, namely her association with Janice Raymond, author of The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male, a virulent attack on transexuality (see this article). As to the poem itself, it's difficult to parse such a heartfelt poem. The first stanza obviously should stay, but it seems to me a little obscure until the reader gets to

....................... I read
aloud one leaf of your ivy which
climbed for decades on

what walls remain from back
then. Your name alone broke
air.​

which speaks to the author's affection, even love, for Rich's poems. It then shifts as the author shifts her perspective with knowledge of Rich's attitudes toward trans persons, leading to the wonderfully definitive line "Women aren't defined by orifice".

This is a very powerful poem, I think (not that, as a pretty clueless guy, I would really know). It is a poem about a feminist taking issue with an iconic feminist about attitudes toward the "T" community in the LGBTQIA grouping.

I do think it needs a lot of trimming, and perhaps elaboration in places. It is powerful in its commentary on the intellectual/emotional limitations of a revered figure in poetry.

We do not often see a poem with as serious an intent as this at Lit. Cherish it, people.

 

[AmericanTrash]

Thank you very much Tzara. It is a raw rough draft but art is the door prize of struggle so I guess I'm grateful even though occasionally pinned to the mat. I do really appreciate your commentary. The poem needs a serious edit and would best be paired with my much loved poet friend's writing from a trans viewpoint. Perhaps one day I'll get her to post here. We'd all be better for it.

 

[Tzara]

The poem needs a serious edit and would best be paired with my much loved poet friend's writing from a trans viewpoint. Perhaps one day I'll get her to post here. We'd all be better for it.

Yes we would. Please tell her that.

 

[AmericanTrash]

This is a really strong landing. Resonant.

Sleeplessness


find another cliff.

That's a keeper.

 

[Moochienanu]

This is a really strong landing. Resonant.



That's a keeper.

Thank you. It was a whim ending which made sense at the time I was writing (and more after). I’m glad it strikes a chord.

 

[HarryHill]

Moochie is at the wire. Enjoyed your run.

 

[butters]

hopefully i'll be able to spend more poetry-time here next week. been a bit busy and not had my po-head on, and it looks like i've plenty of great reading to catch up on! thankyou, poets

 

[Piscator]

These days, I find myself looking forward to American Trash's 007 posts. An amazing stream, no torrent of pedal to the metal wiring.

Thanks for sharing AT.

 

[todski28]

does anyone understand why the god damn hell lit times out and eats posts??????

so damn frustrating I could smash my computer

 

[HarryHill]

does anyone understand why the god damn hell lit times out and eats posts??????

so damn frustrating I could smash my computer

I've lost a couple when I was writing live. To be fair you have to be on a long time before you get dropped.

 

[todski28]

I've lost a couple when I was writing live. To be fair you have to be on a long time before you get dropped.

Lol i was on for ages part of what made it so frustrating, maybe 600words

 

[butters]

does anyone understand why the god damn hell lit times out and eats posts??????

so damn frustrating I could smash my computer

if you don't remember to check the little box next to your username 'remember me' and a tick appears, it drops you out after a certain amount of time.

if you're writing live, make sure you've got it checked and, even then, i'd periodically save where you are on a word/notepad to be on the safe side.

on some sites that 'remember me' box, when checked, will bring up your username and also your password (p.w in asterisks) and so i never used to click it here, not till i'd lost so many posts it pissed me off enough to say something and then a kind soul put me straight

 

[UnderYourSpell]

if you don't remember to check the little box next to your username 'remember me' and a tick appears, it drops you out after a certain amount of time.

if you're writing live, make sure you've got it checked and, even then, i'd periodically save where you are on a word/notepad to be on the safe side.

on some sites that 'remember me' box, when checked, will bring up your username and also your password (p.w in asterisks) and so i never used to click it here, not till i'd lost so many posts it pissed me off enough to say something and then a kind soul put me straight

I clicked it because when I empty my cache it kicks me out of everywhere, here Facebook the lot and one time I couldn't remember my password and had to send a "HELP" message to get back in!!

 

[Piscator]

does anyone understand why the god damn hell lit times out and eats posts??????

so damn frustrating I could smash my computer

Another solution would be to write in the word processor of your choice ( i.e.Word) with an autosave function then copy and paste to Lit

 

[todski28]

Another solution would be to write in the word processor of your choice ( i.e.Word) with an autosave function then copy and paste to Lit

I would love to have that luxury, but everything I write is live if I have the time, that piece wasnt tsuppoded to be that long also was running three other work process and flitting between quoting and this, it's the first time it's happened. On the mobile phone I simply click back and it reloads the writing giving me a chance to copy and paste I didn't realise a computer simply ate it.

Thanks for the suggestion piscator I wil probably do that in future if ever composing on the computer again.

 

[Tzara]

On the mobile phone I simply click back and it reloads the writing giving me a chance to copy and paste I didn't realise a computer simply ate it.

I think you should be able to do the same thing (backup, copy and paste) on the computer, Tod. I've done this in the past. It's a little tricky, because if you don't get the steps just right, or if you try to login to Lit (the main error I commit), you'll lose your input.

My suggestion is to periodically select everything and [Ctrl][c]ut it to the clipboard. Better yet, save the cut by [Ctrl][P]asting it periodically into a Notepad file. (And periodically save the Notepad file, of course.)

And if all else fails, write a rant poem about the mechanical insensitivity of computerized culture. I've been down that route as well:

F&@$ing Internet--you SUCK!!!

 

[todski28]

I think you should be able to do the same thing (backup, copy and paste) on the computer, Tod. I've done this in the past. It's a little tricky, because if you don't get the steps just right, or if you try to login to Lit (the main error I commit), you'll lose your input.

My suggestion is to periodically select everything and [Ctrl][c]ut it to the clipboard. Better yet, save the cut by [Ctrl][P]asting it periodically into a Notepad file. (And periodically save the Notepad file, of course.)

And if all else fails, write a rant poem about the mechanical insensitivity of computerized culture. I've been down that route as well:

F&@$ing Internet--you SUCK!!!

Lol

I wonder if the world needs me ranting at a screen again, seems it's all I ever do...

 

[AmericanTrash]

These days, I find myself looking forward to American Trash's 007 posts. An amazing stream, no torrent of pedal to the metal wiring.

Thanks for sharing AT.

Thank you so much for this mention and for reading the poems. Right after the last one my motherboard melted. $407 later, I am able to catch up on what I missed. Of course, I tried writing on paper, but it seems foreign. Like dictation rather than writing. Anyway, I look forward to reading the threads and dusting off my keyboard.

 

[Piscator]

giving this a bump

 

[Piscator]

Plague poetry

Wow 4degrees' untitled piece in "all of a sudden passion suddenly"

 

[Piscator]

Caution

An outbreak of Monotetra has been detected in the Line by Line December Challenge. Contact tracing has determined that Tzara is contact zero and that smiles are infectious. Masks manditory.

 

[Lyricalli]

Angeline, your five senses poem this morning is so lovely and moving.

 

[Angeline]

Angeline, your five senses poem this morning is so lovely and moving.

Thank you Callie. I love that thread and P'tor's prompts just worked for me this morning.