I met a traveler, late of Nobelland,
A meme park, cloying as Candyland,
Who said, “A vast, nay global, king is crowned,
Hawaii spawned, of earth split diverse strand,
Pre timely marriage, by two not long for him around.
Oft’ stoned, he education gained, and phlegm,
Plus caustic wife, and rep for writing great renowned.
From him pure peace will sure from passion stem,
To one and all astound, stamped on world around.
On Nobel plinth we erect his image,
Sing fulsome praise unto his visage.
“Here’s to you Obama, this prize of prizes,
We scarce imagine, the deed that to it rises.
To you great king, Serene Obama,
Fond hope of hordes of baser mopes,
We grant, we sing, this hail, hosanna,
Based whole on horde of our fond hopes.”
To you deniers, we render this,
“Look on his glory, ye righties, and despair,
For from your every taunt re things amiss,
There’s nary doubt the writers most folks read,
Who grant no wrinkle, on those who leftward lead,
Will with airy twinkle, his flawless rep repair.”
Comments 12
…
[struck speechless, in awe, doubly in awe]
[when recovered, might have some minor proofreader-y suggestions]
November 1st, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I was going to title it “He said Amabo Obamadias eh.” but the meaning is too obscure. I’ll be cursed for a week with trying to make the palindrome work as a title. There is little new under the sun. A prior use of what I stumbled on while playing with this and a perfect example of the phenomenon involved is here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23840219189
November 1st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Fabulous! I’m so glad you kept the phlegm. (And how often do you get to write that sentence?)
I do love “meme park.” An expression of marvelous felicity, which in some ways applies to the entire EU.
The contrapuntal légerté of the “will with airy twinkle” in the last line is superb. “Will with airy twinkle, his flawless rep repair” floats the whole stately meditation off on a swirling leaf, tracked only by unseen air traffic controllers in the fairy world.
It evokes, in fact (for me anyway), William Allingham’s “The Fairies,” the beloved childhood poem:
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
That’s just the first stanza, of course. Images thick and fast: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelites, the Mitteleuropa that should have been in which the story of the romantic archetype Othello had no Iago… (Isn’t Rahm Emmanuel an Iago type down to his toenails?)
Much bang for syllable in this one. Hats off to the Poet Laureate of Zombiestan.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
I don’t know whether to be flattered or afeared that you’re turning that laser of yours on my stuff. . . but I do know that I loved the Allingham poem. I never saw that before.
All the discarded efforts from my poetizing here has me considering a separate blog called “More Than Slightly Cracked Poetry” that would include stuff like:
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Where Ralph his bad Samoyed ran
O’er lawns designed to impress the Han
And made quite free to pee.
So twice five kennel guards were bound
And whipped the circuit hellish sound
For yellow spots on coronation ground. . .
This poem, of course, needs work; and I would have to learn how to find and post a picture of a bad Samoyed as an illustration before such a blog would work.
Well buried on such a site I might have the nerve to post a palindrome including the word obama that Redd Fox might have used in a late night show; but probably not.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bad+samoyed&go=&form=QBIR&qs=n
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:42 am
In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Where Ralph his bad Samoyed ran
O’er lawns laid out to impress the Han
And made quite free to pee.
So twice five kennel guards were bound
And whipped the circuit well and sound
Of yellow spots on lawn around
That set the khan’s bad temper free.
Worse yet just then a Japaner laughed,
so went two great fleets that got foul gaffed
By freak Tai Funs that whirled timely round
Which only more Kublai’s wrath compounded.
What luck for countries all around
That Ralphie just then playfully rounded
And soothed the Khan’s urge to re-pound.
His grandpa Ghenghis’ stomping ground.
For Kublai couldn’t stay annoy’ed,
When cavorting with Ralph, his bad Samoyed.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:42 pm
@ Sully:
Be flattered, Sully. Be very flattered. (Not at the poor pale flicker of my “laser” but at the worth of what attracts that which may pass for it.)
It’s not often I get caught laughing out loud in front of the computer screen, but Ralph and his bad Samoyed did the trick. Too much, too much trenchant poetic enchant is here.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
@ J.E. Dyer:
I’m glad to be of service. I’m pretty easy; but it’s fairly rare that something on the web really gets me laughing.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
The new title looks a bit like hinky code garbage, if you know what I mean… Would the author perhaps care to parse it?
November 19th, 2009 at 11:15 am
(I understand it’s a palindrome – just not sure I understand the rest of it.)
November 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I don’t know what hinky code is, but we used to play hinky-pinky when we were kids. Do you know a hinkety-pinkety for Jack Daniels? (A: Tennessee Hennessy.)
November 19th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
He said he shall love the great man Obama, eh?
A bit of a stretch, but I judged not too far since it’s the title of a poem based on Ozymandias.
I’ve been thinking off and on about the palindrome for a while. Today I remembered the ecce from altar boy days. Ecce Homo means “behold the man” with the man being Jesus Christ so “ecce” in church latin is like an exclamation of wonder, a word modifier rather than a word.
We shall see if others comment. I’m suspecting J.E. will get it.
When I realized that “He said Amabo Obamadias eh” was a palindrome I looked around and found that I was far from the first to stumble on “Amabo Obama”.
http://gprr.blogspot.com/2008/02/palindrome-time-amabo-obama.html
Amabo Obama also has a facebook page, I think.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:41 pm