Welcome Back Cotter

Saying it and thinking it don't make it so.

Who knew the “whooleeganz”

          would return in full force? 

     Not I said the Little Red Hen. 



It remains to be seen if the sky will really fall

          or if 2012 is indeed "The End"

     implied by the Mayan Calendar. 



Until then, soldier on

        oh brave and cowardly world

     of illusion, shadow and light.

Author's Note

What do you think? Feel free to comment on any aspects. Be brutal if desired, I (mostly) love to work on my ego and self-control. :)

Reviews

[rutherford]

Power packed three stanzas with enhancing visuals. Normally I think lots of font changes are a distraction but they work well here. I like the final stanza's capture of ambiguity of "brave and cowardly" and final line of shadow and light. Tripped up on the opening word “whooleeganz”--hooligans? Also, catchy title but was thrown off by relationship to poem itself.

[Tam Warink]

Sometimes it's fun to misspell words just for fun or effect or both. The little editors in my head could care less either way (...lazy bums). I think this one might have been a page out of your own playbook. But you might take umbrage to that so I'll just say it was a few minutes of spare time and I asked my fingers to come up with something to do... last time I ask those guys for inspiration!

[rutherford]

No umbrage sir.

[Lydia Shutter]

Well, the Mayans were wrong and most of the "Welcome back Kotter" gang is dead and buried. What is left to do but soldier on? It's all smoke and mirrors anyway, is it not? :) Your words leave so much to ponder...which is a good thing. The use of different colored and different sized fonts is effective here. Lydi**

[Tam Warink]

Thank you, Lydi! Sometimes the frivolous becomes relevant even though that might be intended. I am always amazed at how much writers depend upon the mind's gift for trying to make sense out of its existence.

[Chris]

Syndication and reruns... life as we don't know it. A whole lot of canon fodder in schools then and now. - no typo. The world changed but who noticed what?

[Tam Warink]

Too true. The pace of change outstrips the change of pace and we are left with butterfly scales upon which to weigh the truth of almost everything; except, perhaps, the ability to notice change.

[Pryde Foltz]

First, love the author note. That got a giggle. The piece itself. All I have to say is we do enjoy a disaster movie. Life is too dull for some of us, I guess. Loved this piece of absurdist satire. I don't know if that is even a genre but it is now.

[Tam Warink]

"Absurdist Satire" ... I am, little by little and bit by bit growing fond on your mental machinations, Pryde. You know, I'm always going to wonder if that's your real name. No, no, you don't have to tell me; it doesn't matter really but there's just so much to ponder. It's like poetry in and of itself - the puckish implications of innuendo and permutation gnaw on my "little grey cells." I am embarrassed to write that I think I am growing quite fond of you (and especially your writing). BTW, I'm sorry I haven't responded to your RRs but my mind is in the shoppe; hope to have it back soon. Until then be just as kind and sweet and unpredictable as ever. (My fortune cookie, "Never lick the boot that kicks you.")

[Pryde Foltz]

Hahaha. Yes, it is, indeed, my real name.

[Sami Khalil]

I really like the ending of this poem.
Cowardly world,
of illusion, shadow
and light.

[Tam Warink]

Well thanks, Sami! That's kind of you to say and makes me think you might see the world this way, at times. Perhaps.

[Sami Khalil]

I agree. We see and witness all these realities ... A nice write.

[Bill]

I'm a huge hypocrite. Poetry does not do it for me... I believe this in my heart! And yet, I keep reading people's poetry.

Actually, I'm not that big of a hypocrite. I would not have read your poem if not for the HILARIOUS title and accompanying image. As for the poem itself, I don't get it, but don't worry, I don't get any poems. I would have really enjoyed an actual ironic ode to an actual cotter pin, with some sly reference to Gabe Kaplan thrown in somewhere.

[Tam Warink]

Bill, thanks a bunch for your comments! Actually, you nailed it. It was all about the picture and the title. There's nothing much in this prose poetry except some random thoughts and fun with formatting/fonts. Being new here and not knowing what to expect I thought it might be fun to test the water - so to speak. That's a great idea, really. An ironic ode to an actual cotter pin. Perhaps there's some inspiration/perspiration in there somewhere. If you've got something in mind, write it and I'll review yours! :D

Tam

[Tam Warink]

ADDENDUM: Bill, I just read your bio. That is the most hilarious bit of self-analysis I've read on here (so far). I will be following your reading recommendations.

[Bill]

I'm new as well, two weeks new. I'm pretty stunned by how much I've gotten sucked into it. If you tool around and sample a huge number of writers, you're going to find that most of it is teenaged angst. However, when you stumble on something golden, it's such a pleasant experience, the whole thing gets kind of addictive. The problem is that I'm actually writing a little bit less now, because I found a few things that I really enjoyed reading. I'm hoping my honeymoon period ends so I can get back to my old levels of prolificness.

[Bill]

Oh, by the way, there's a weird quirk with this site, whereby readers can sometimes see what you are planning. Right now, I can see your novel "To Kill a Bear" in the right margin, but when I click on it, it tells me you're working on it.

I have a point to this.

Here's what I'm driving at: if you have serious aspirations for publication, be careful what you post. You'll notice in the terms and conditions that the site owner THINKS you have agreed to give him some form of distribution rights. He tries to sugarcoat this by saying it's royalty free, blah blah blah. But I can't think of too many publishers who would be thrilled to know that you've already granted a non-exclusive license to somebody else. They want exclusivity. Personally, I'm not convinced that Mr. Site Owner could win a hypothetical court battle on this issue, but who wants the pain and heartache of a court battle anyway? Better to steer clear entirely if you have serious aspirations.

[Tam Warink]

Hmm, a good point and one that I will seriously consider. Thanks again for your observations and comments, Bill. By the way, while I fancy myself a decent writer, I'm not yet a "pro." My definition of a "pro" is someone that can actually make a living writing (or has a day-job and has been published). By that definition then I'm not a pro, mainly because I haven't yet figured out how anyone can make enough money in this business to eat and pay the rent. I read an humorous comment the other day. It goes something like this, "If you want to make a little money writing/publishing, start with a lot of money."