How To Dedicate A
Scholarly Work
Perhaps you should mark
how the apples fell
or thank a village,
toutes complete,
or add your mothers
name as well?
Put your audience under a
spell
that can keep your
endeavour sweet
or make your swoop a
little more fell.
Out in the world, who can
foretell
whose recognition is most
upbeat?
(Mama, Mama! I hear you
yell.)
Dedication could be the
chore from hell
Depending on whether
youve milked the teat.
Maybe just note where the
apple fell?
If you suss variation
youll be able to tell
the top of the flock from
its well-dragged feet
or who feels good and who
feels well...
Whatever you do, be it
on- or off-beat
you can give it a hard or
a softer sell
if you know to mark how
the apples fell
and say thanks that your
mother did so well!
Observation
[2023]
Busy old fool, unruly
moon
Palm Sunday, Passover,
blood-red eclipse
so many faces for three
short nights
plus ça
change
plus la même
moon
Sonnenizio On A Line
By Poe
Science! true daughter of
Old Time thou art!
Auld lang syne is better
than a rest
and a structured seance
brings us joy
if not much sense. Memory
in harness
preserves the sighings of
the brain
leaving the world an
easier place for scions
who grew up deferring to
signs and symbols
and other things to which
meaning is assigned.
You give us meaning for
all seasons
a sensible way to
approach truth, to learn
rather than just sigh and
wring our hands.
Is this the way to see an
end to unsigned poetic waffle?
Let others have their
Erewhons and Zions,
but Ill put my
money on the joys of Science.
Snog Of
Snogs
Which Never Was
Solomons
Youre a garden
enclosed,
O my beloved,
a sheep paddock
fenced
a motorway
blocked
completely
opposed
to talking it
over
to any intrusion
of rational
thought.
At letters and
notes
you grumble and
grunt
e-mails count
as
intolerable drivel ...
Might I reach you by
phone?
Perhaps just this
once
we could sit down and
talk
on a cellular
level!