Cool

 

Cool like amazing

Cool like attitude

Cool like football stickers

Cool like a pen that can write in ten different shades of the rainbow

Cool like the kid in your class who can sketch anything

Cool like watching someone’s dad build them a tree-house

Cool like sunglasses worn indoors at all times

Cool like the dirtiest joke

Cool like a sneer of cigarette smoke

Cool like the booze stash at the bottom of a fifteen-year old’s wardrobe

Cool like liberal parents who don’t mind wild parties

Cool like obscure brands of trainers

Cool like explicit lyrics

Cool like being Seen at a sell-out concert

Cool like refusing to remove the unexplained talisman round your neck

Cool like you are and they’re not

Cool like meaningless art

Cool like media students portraying heroin

Cool like sarcastic wit

Cool like Sunday dinner on a Sunday

Cool like films with subtitles

Cool like carving enigmatic statements into your forearm with a penknife

Cool like machine guns taking out a shop full of innocents

Cool like a poet not afraid to spill his mind

Cool like rock gods smashing up hotel rooms

Cool like the picturesque view from the peak of a mountain

Cool like snorting cocaine through Monopoly money

Cool like ironic picnics in your twenties

Cool like mental illness

Cool like always being in the red

Cool like having gay friends

Cool like a phone that’s also a camera that’s also a bottle opener

Cool like doggy style

Cool like the best birthday present you’ve ever received

Cool

It’s cool

That’s cool

She’s cool

Cool like a stunted vocabulary

Author's Note

I guess this is an attack on several things:
1. How irritating mainstream culture and its 'sheep' can be
2. How ambiguous the word 'cool' is
3. Loss of innocence as we get older
4. How people admire things from a distance that they technically disapprove of

Let me know if these four aspects to the poem are clear, and anything you don't like about the poem.
Thanks.

NB: I say 'cool' too much, thus this poem is an attack on myself as well as others

Reviews

[JR]

Ok, as for what you were shooting for, thematically, I think you nailed it. This has a lot of sarcasm� a ton of sarcasm. But that comes across as a method for showing the inherent fallacy of "cool." So much of this is ridiculous� "Cool like swearwords in songs," "cool like refusing to explain the talisman round your neck" (my personal favorite," "cool like sunglasses worn indoors at all times." But yet all of that happens, even though all of these, alone, mean nothing in the grand scheme of life. Why the f**k are they "cool" actions? They just are� and I think this poem drags them into the light, points a finger at them, and laughs.

Even the repetition of the word "cool" heightens to portray just how empty that word really is. I wonder about the etymology of that word� Did you know the term "hip" became fashionable because heroin users would shoot into their hips? Hence, "I'm hip to that." So I wonder how cool became cool�

Suggestions:

"Cool like having tickets to a concert everyone wants to be at �"

Ending on a weak word like "at" kills the line. Shoots it dead. Is it the music the empty people want to hear, or is it that they just want to say they were at the show? If that's the case, maybe something like this would work better:

"Cool like having tickets to a concert where everyone want to be seen"

Or something of that ilk to put the kibosh on the "at."

"Cool like a sneer of cigarette smoke."

No suggestion with this one. Just wanted to point it out because it's goddamn images like this that make your writing so f*****g strong, and the reason I keep coming back to read. There's so much in this�

"Cool like the best birthday present you've ever received �"

I would either drop this line entirely or move it up in the poem. I think the sexual reference as the last line is so important and powerful to the construct that it would be best if it was the last "cool like" reference the reader gets. Think about it� why do we wear shades inside? Why do we give a s**t if someone thinks we're cool? It all comes down with the instinct that we need to be liked, right? And why do we want to be liked? 'Cause we want to get laid. In the end, our need for "cool" is an ingrained mating instinct, the idea that the entire earth needs to be populated with our genetic strain. We think we're so cool� but in the end, we're just meat with seed.

Good write. I think you met all your goals, and the "cool like" sure gave this a lyrical feel and progression all it's own. I will definitely be thinking of this for the rest of the day� especially when I next use the word "cool." Heh. Cool like you, cool like me, eh, C?

[just is]

Cool like the dirtiest joke
Cool like a sneer of cigarette smoke

I like these lines here, I think The word Cool fits alright, i mean if that is how you want it to sound then it must sound okay. I like it and thought It was a well thought out write.

[Gandré]

Loss of innocence as we get older -----I love this line... I also wrote a piece "Mutable laws of emergence" and said... "If innocence needs guilt / In order to know itself / Then the knowing / Is guilty. "

so...I can't agree more with you... this is a beautiful philosophical piece, my dear.. I adore your questioning everything making me think... "Cool like the best birthday present you've ever received" ----------ha ha this is something !! loved your writing. great! be well.

[Tomás Ó C..]

OK... heres something to wean you off cool as a word... in Romani it means... skitter. Its forms kuhl and kuhla respectivly mean skitter, diahorreah and s**t itself.

I am frinds with Slovak Romanies, who are really Hungarian Romanies and who were origionally Serbian Romanies... they move around a lot so you get the story - to us theyre Slovak Romanies: their landlady was collecting the rent, and answered "cool" to agree to everything that was said, to the great amusement of the kids...

[Emily B]

I agree with JR. You nailed it. Some lines I nodded along with and others snuck up and scared the hell out of me. . . That takes a steady hand.

Now sit back and watch me stutter when I would normall use that word, 'cool.'

[F. Nazarov]

I get it,
at some points I was all "hehehe",
that's true!
A stunted vocabulary is part of this generation
nowadays, to be be "cool" you have to
be unable to speak properly.
I thought is was a really good piece,
excellent work (like always) :D.
Those 4 aspects are clear, just to answer what you
wanted to be answered.

[Mike Mitchell]

HAHAHAHA I hate poetry, but I like this.

It's such an indoctrination of so many things: Commercialism. Hipsters. Shock Value. Comedians. Life-Styles. Stickers.

Excellent work, o Talespin enthusiast.

[VERONICA]

This is GREAT! I love what it's saying and the attack. The phrase "Cool like..." is very well used and gives it a young tone.

The 1st 2nd and 4th points are by far the clearest. And it is an incredibly true list. There wasn't anything on there that made me go "what is he getting at?" OR "mainstream culture wouldn't consider this 'cool'"

It is a long list though and although entertaining, I feel like there could be more items that are a bit less realistic that point towards the frivolous nature of these things. I really got that from "Cool like a phone that's also a camera that's also a bottle opener" and felt a few more could be thrown in. And because of the length, personally, I would venture to take a few out- I think it would be more balanced that way particularly since the wrap up is relatively short.

I think the analysis at the end could be longer to give it more balance and to show off more of your talent as a writer because although a clever list, anyone can list (not to say you aren't effective with it- you most definitely are).

The last line is perfect! and it was well enjoyed!
By the way- why did you use "she's cool" as a opposed to "he's cool"? Just curious if it was random or significant of anything.

[Dominique]

cool...real cool...ah men what else would come to mind after reading this? when every phrase says cool..perhaps il be saying cool all day even if I'm not the type to say it more than once in a day...
i like the way cool is used..its kinda subjective but you would agree at most of what yo consider as cool...

[zig]

you know what this poem has that some of your other poems dont have? (and im not say those poem were bad, not at all, they just dont have what this poem has) confidence

and its about god damn time too (heh)

execution: you know what you want to say, you know how to say it, lay it out, play with it, apply your layers, you like to take some chances and little "adventures" with style, and most importantly, you know how to be you.

when i read poetry, its the confidence of the piece that commamds me, a strong and true voice and confidence. this has both. skills are fine, talent is fine, but withour voice and confidence, its just not complete. this poem is complete i think.

on a side note, i have to agree with jr, i didnt like the birthday pesent line (maybe if you smashed your favorite birthday present with a hammer, yeah, that would be cool)

im teaching some classes this fall, would you mind if i brought this into some of my classes?

[R J Askew]

'cool' the word has both pissed me off and puzzled me. I don't know why I used to get to me...perhaps it was generational. It just seemed sloppy, maybe it was supposed to. But then I stopped caring about it or even noticing it. But then I've stopped caring about a lot of things. I do like the triggers in the poem though. I think there is something there to call up strong associations in any reader. The penknife line caught my eye, dunno why but it did. I was definietly never free and easy enought to do that or many of the other things in the poem. Is that what cool really is? Freedom. Hmm, looking at your note again, maybe I am falling into catagory 4. I would not say I admire arm carvings or snorting coke, but they are definitely a terra incognita to me and I am curious. But I will never do either. Maybe there is a small regret to pass through life not having done this n that. But on the other hand I don't think it matters much. 'Sad' is another word similar to 'cool' in that it's meaning seems broad. Maybe one person's sad is anothers cool and visa versa. But does any of it matter? We can only think and be ourselves and must not worry to much about fitting in with the herd. On the other hand some find comfort in that. But poets tend to be individuals, right?