Poem First Enclosed in An Email Written to Ken

this poem is written in thanks to Ken for the incredible help he has provided to me and Michel


Just yesterday
When you showed
Us your work for
For the Wolfsonian
We realized how reality
Is organized much
Like Photoshop itself is 
Consisting of layers
That may be variously
Assembled or not
And often synchronized
Though sometimes not
Nor always unidirectional
As the objects float by
Either which way 

Spampoetry -- the Genre Evolves

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Earlier this year I started a series of poems called Spampoetry.  My work on this series has languished but meanwhile the genre seems to be flourishing.  Just the other day I got this email – a tasty little bit of marketing spam – that arrived in my in-box as a ready made poem.  Here's the email I received.

 *  *  *  *  *

   

·                             Russ Qualidad  Yahoo Mail

To Me

Nov 6 at 1:06 PM

Your old dog has a leaky bladder.  Your spouse is overly fond of drink.  Your mother and father are both on dementia’s brink.

The roof of the old summer cottage is on the verge of collapsing.  Your supervisor at work scowls every time she passes.

Monthly bills and dental expenses, cups of coffee followed by packs of gum, it all adds up; the tens and twenties keep getting siphoned out of your wallet. Soon enough you’re reduced to counting the change in the bowl on the dresser.

Fortunately you can bridge all your cash needs and then some too, enabling you still to enjoy a few of life's little pleasures!

Look here to learn how to make smackers in plain abundance:

 kimmjobhomereports.com/breaking_news/

 *  *  *  *  *

Certainly something appears to be going right in my life.  I'm finally beginning to receive a much finer caliber of spam!

Discovered by Accident - by Du Mu

Here is a poem by the Tang poet Du Mu I stumbled upon this morning and decided to translate.  The poem has an interesting title -  偶题 - which literally could be translated as Accidental Topic.   But that doesn't seem quite right as the title for a poem as supple and profound as this is, as perhaps you'll agree once you read my translation.  Hard to believe this was written in the early 9th century.

The Way through

The human state of things

May be transmitted by verse

When we’re young

We tread light and easy

But that changes with

The coming years

Today finds us embarked

On a long ocean voyage

Raised on the waves

And buoyant with hope

Not yet arrived

At the Island of Peng Lai

Still short of those Immortal
Shores it seems

*  *  *  *  *

One explanatory note.  The reference in the last stanza to the Island of Peng Lai - this is a place where the Immortals resided located not so far off the coast of Mainland China.

Here's the text of the original:

  

道在人间或可传

小还轻变已多年

今来海上升高望

不到蓬莱不是仙

October Frost

A morning that

Passes for perfect

With the crispness in the air

The crabgrass wan and forlorn

With October's first frost

But a colorful swatch lies draped

Along the fringes of the lawn

Red maple and yellow ash

Even those JumpUps
Carmine pink and red
Still remain at the ready
For one more allegro leap
Dreaming of noonday's
Final blast of warmth 

I hope there’s an extra

Set of blueprints

For a day passing perfect
Just as today is

Somewhere safely
In storage

An Open Letter to Bill Gates On the Occasion of Downloading OpenOffice

Dear Bill --

For the majority of

My adult life writing

Legal briefs

Business plans

A novel and poems

Of assorted length

You've been my

Constant companion

As uber software vender

And grammatical scold

(in addition to other roles

you sometimes chose)

Long did I chaff under

The yoke of those lines

You insistently served up

Always spewing vermillion

If ever I ran even slightly afoul

Of some grammatical

Stricture you

And Mister Softie

Sought to uphold

When quite suddenly

Thanks to my laptop's

Untimely crashing

Yesterday I found myself

Bereft of further recourse

To the full function and use 

Of what I had previously

Deemed indispensable

But in such mishap

I found greater license

For reward as I'm now
Writing to inform you

Of my immediate withdrawal

From the ranks of the loyal hobbyists 

And assorted others who remain 

Licensees in good standing

Of your copyright
Protected work

As I have declined

To enroll as a member in

Your new software

Subscription scheme

(which by its evergreen 

terms seems more than
a tad overreaching)

Instead I've opted

To download a freeware

Program called

OpenOffice Pro

By which means

From this day forward

I am officially severing all

Legal connection between

You folks in Redmond

And the text of my poems

As henceforth my work

Will be exclusively based

On open source code

Very truly yours,

Joe Lamport

Another Poem by Du Mu

 

Here's my translation of another poem written by Du Mu in the mid 8th century.  This strikes me as incredibly contemporary in sentiment.

Parting from Minister Shen

What’s done is done

A ragged dream

What’s still to come

Is the road that winds

Into autumn

Old friends unseen

But remembered

Time brings us

To a sacred tower

Facing east

别沈处士

  

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旧事参差梦

新程逦迤秋

故人如见忆

时到寺东楼

A New Blank Document

A few thoughts about Enlightenment are coming into better focus for me this fall.  Maybe it’s not a mental state after all.  I mean maybe it really starts as a physical condition.  And that’s why so many religious disciplines cultivate a wide variety of physical regimens to help open the Path to novitiates and other seekers.

By understanding Enlightenment as more of a physical than mental state I don’t intend to denigrate it.  Far from it.  Only to suggest that it may be easier to attain in literal fashion -- as a physical lightening of the load we carry through life.  You can simulate this feeling by first carrying around a 20 pound weight in your backpack and then suddenly you remove it and right away you feel a surge of energy throughout your entire body frame.  It's like a jolt of oxygen enriched air in every breath you take.  (Achieving this same sensation without the benefit of 20 pound weights or oxygen mask, that's the challenge we all face.)  This too entails mastering detachment of a certain sort, a loosening of the normal physical bounds.