SoP 23: "Big Ol' World" and Appreciation

Big Ol' World
Dusty Pas'cal

(picture quality's not that great, and my favorite version's on his CD "Home," but the video's at least got the song. That's all that matters, folks)
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I'm so far away from heaven I feel burning on my shoes,
An itchin for the heavenly land
Then I get to thinking, "but there's still so much to do"
"should go out'n get it while I can"

But it's like that xkcd,
The one with nature's splendor,
We're all so wired, don't you see,
We don't always 'preciate time tender.

And when I think of wires, I get all worried so,
The wires may us just one day bury
So let's just count to ten a time or two or mo'
And while we can see all that we can see.
- - - - -
(inspired by a Eloosive-spawned prompt a while back)
A singer-songwriter, xkcd, impending technological singularity/apocalypse, and philisophical wonderings, all in one poem? It can be done, my friends!

SoP 4: "Common Cold" and Elusive Eloosive

Common Cold

Ogden Nash

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!

You shall not sneer at me.

Pick up your hat and stethoscope,

Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;

I contemplate a joy exquisite

In not paying you for your visit.

I did not call you to be told

My malady is a common cold.

By pounding brow and swollen lip;

By fever's hot and scaly grip;

By those two red redundant eyes

That weep like woeful April skies;

By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;

By handkerchief after handkerchief;

This cold you wave away as naught

Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Give ear, you scientific fossil!

Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;

The Cold of which researchers dream,

The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.

This honored system humbly holds

The Super-cold to end all colds;

The Cold Crusading for Democracy;

The Führer of the Streptococcracy.

Bacilli swarm within my portals

Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,

But bred by scientists wise and hoary

In some Olympic laboratory;

Bacteria as large as mice,

With feet of fire and heads of ice

Who never interrupt for slumber

Their stamping elephantine rumba.

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!

Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;

Don Juan was a budding gallant,

And Shakespeare's plays show signs of talent;

The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,

And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.

Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

- - - - -

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/bc01_mega_giant_plush_microbes_cold.jpg

- - - - -

Elusive Eloosive,
Why say that you hide?
You show us your talent,
Not keep it inside.

Perhaps it's because

Right after you write,

You go off in seclusion;

But at least you don't bite.

- - - - -

It's not much, not the greatest, but I felt like doing this sort of thing today. Not quite sure why I stuck a poem about 'Loo in with a poem about the (un)common cold.... perhaps because his whole poetry nudge is contageous or something...

Maybe it's not the best idea to crack illness jokes in a time of an international pandemic, and when a late-night host got in a bit of trouble for a joke... then again, procrastination's not a good idea either, so the low-quality joke stays.

NPM the Last: The Concession

Eighteen Days ago I slighted my verse "skill"
And 'Loosive would not let it drop.
Impishly I 'gested that I write poems't kill
Expecting it to utterly go "flop."

Seeing as he prodded me into this "mess"
I thought it's only fair to say to Marc:
Now, I'm not one to most easily confess
To my own faults, but this has been a lark.

Thank you, 'Loo, for spurring me along to try
My hand at verse, to work upon my form,
Most importantly, for showing me that I
Don't stink at poetry, safe from my scorn.

I'm not aiming for those form points here
Just felt I had to write this way right now,
Had to say that 'Loo was right on this point here
And I was wrong (here's where you take a bow).

At this point, Marc, you are free to say that you
Had told me so, because you did do so.
I would not improve lest there was a poem'r two
I see now practice helped this poet's woe.

Here we have an odd sort poem from odd chiqueet
One you'll pro'lly never really get to meet.
One more couplet before this poem is through
And one more time I must say thanks to 'Loo.

Some Things About Me

I was inspired to do this from a recent blog post by the (absolutely astounding) writer known around Protag. as Eloosive.

1. I love waking up early. Today, on the first day of my spring break, I got up at 5am to practice for 3 1/2hrs. That felt really, really good.
   
2. Likewise, my brain usually begins to shut down around 9pm, and by 9:30 I can no longer type coherently (I proved this point once by accidentally stating this same thing, only I said "9:70" instead. It has become a running joke).
   
3. Sometimes I prefer to speak in Spanish. I just love the sound of it, and the feel of it in my mouth. But frankly, sometimes it makes the sappy things I want to say seem a bit less so. I'm not quite sure why, because I'm saying the exact same thing. For example, if I want to tell someone that I miss them, but I don't want to feel awkward about it, I'll say Te echo de menos. Which means "I miss you." Figure that one out.
   
4. I was born during Hurricane Andrew, down in Florida.
   
5. The only time I've been off of the North American Continent was when I went to Ireland a few years ago. We were in Co. Tipperary (where are ancestors were from) on my birthday, as a matter of fact. Oh, and the thing they say about the seven shades of green? Yep, that's true, except it's probably more like seven thousand.
   
6. In relation to 4: when we were at the Cliffs of Moher, an Austrian woman and one other person wanted to take my picture with the Cliffs in the background, only because I had red hair (the Austrian woman sent us a copy later on; the shot came out beautifully).
   


7. I have yet to fall in love. I think I'm too busy all the time to really look for love at the moment; not only that, but I've heard too many sob stories for comfort. You could say I'm afraid of rejection, but it's more rejection without reason that shakes me.
   
8. I take that back. If you want to get technical, I have fallen in love, except not with a human person. More like I've fallen in love with the piano, our gorgeous Steinway Oliver, to be specific.
   
9. In most one-on-one conversations, or with small groups, I'm fairly outgoing. But if I have to give a presentation, or there's a large group, I become very shy.
   
10. In choirs, I sing first soprano, which is the highest part.
    
11. Although, this past weekend I sang tenor in church, as I'm getting over a cold.
    
12. I adore classical music, but I don't like all the frills that go into going to a performance. You're just going to listen to music, not to listen to music and enter a beauty contest (but if you were/are, then that last bit doesn't apply to you. Whoever "you" are).
    
13. Sherlock Holmes is one of the many people I consider to be "The Man." I can't think of anyone else, real or fictional, who can deduce the way he can. And he's British, too! All the better! The whole drug thing's a bit of an issue, though...
    


14. I don't have a cell phone. Never really needed one; I don't have a "life." If I do go somewhere, I borrow the old "spare," and that's only to contact home if I need to do so.
    
15. I rarely watch T.V. This may be part of the reason I'm out of the proverbial loop. I don't watch because: a) I never have any time, and b) very few things strike me as interesting. Don't even get me started on "reality" shows.
    
    
16. I have, however, discovered the awesomeness that is "The Big Bang Theory."
    
17. I love the way physics twists my brain into knots. Like thinking about light: it's a particle which acts like a wave, except when its being observed... but that's quantum physics for ya.
    
18. If I could combine the feeling of my fingers after a good practice with the feeling of Spanish on my tongue and the brain-twisting of physics, I think I'd be the happiest person in the world.
    
19. I'm a huge fan of British humor. It's so dry, I love it!
    
20. I'm all for a healthy dose of daily nonsense. I often try to silly walk at least one step every day, much to the embarrassment of whoever happens to be walking next to me.
    
    
21. I absorb movie quotes like there's no tomorrow; they often come back out by way of my mouth.
    
22. I love words (surprise, right?). Sometimes if I'm bored, I'll flip open to some random page in the dictionary and find an interesting word
23. Sometimes I have the suspicion that I might have too much time on my hands.
    
24. I'm convinced that, between my own mental antics and those of my friends, I'll be in therapy by the time I'm thirty. And it won't be because I chose to be in therapy, I'll probably be perfectly content with my insanity, as I am now. I'll probably be there because people are concerned for me, and those people will have dragged me to the office.
    
25. I love ballroom dancing. I'll occasionally fox-trot in my kitchen, or tango in my bedroom, by myself (unfortunately). Often times I wish I had an excuse to ballroom dance in public.
    
    
26. I can't skate to adequately save my life. It's quite pathetic.
    
27. When I'm wearing my cotton scarf, black wool pea coat, blue hat, and sunglasses, I've been told that I look rather intimidating.