Muscle Pentameter

Muscle Pentameter 

 

 

 

how much does a poem weigh?

seems it would depend on whether

it just finished eating some really long words

multi-syllable type ones

with lots of vowels on the bones

 

it would depend on whether

the poem just ran a mile

shedding its consonants

drinking onomatopoeia

at each leg

 

or each foot of iambs

not the dog food

but the poem food

 

 

how much does a poem weigh?

seems it would depend on whether

the theme were happy or sad

if it's heavy, how much could the poem bench?

 

does the poem even like to work out?

if the beginning is enticing the reader to go on

the middle is alliterative and visual

and the ending fits with the rest'

perhaps yes...then it works out---

 

i bench pressed the weight of a poem once

was one i wrote,

didn't even move the needle on the scale

 

it just weighed so much on my mind

i couldn't even press the issue

and my words ran out of the gym

before i could catch them with my keys.

 

 

 

erin-cilberto

7/16/19

Reviews

[Norman 223]

Having weighed up all the gram-matical parameters, I envy your expounding of the gravity of this new hypothesis.
Thanks for the "intellectual " chuckle, Jacob.
N.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and thank you for your review and the smile, Norman...
j.

[kentuck14]

J,
Nice workout my friend!
T

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, Tom...
j.

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

You rock, you rock, you most poetically ROCK Master J.!! The title paradox, the working analogy and expert metaphor use here should be a textbook entry on ‘how to write the penultimate poem’. So creative, inspired and firing on all cylinders of thought. Muscles and Roses?...Ahhhhh Yes! Bravo my friend love this!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Annette,
j.

[MomzillaNC]

Your analogy of a poem as physical exertion is terrific. Poetry – especially some of the more rigorous forms – is always a mental workout. It requires intellectual heft and supple mental flexibility, performed with emotional dexterity and finesse.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, MomZ...
j.

[MomzillaNC]

YVW 😎

[John Alexander McFadyen]

As I 'hit' the gym thrice per week and work hard for two hours I took this baby to heart Jacob. Love the allegorical assimilation of the excercise and fitness with the writing has such a 'fit' with life as many are unfit while others are super fit and all sizes in between, and the same applies to writing, how others see it and how we see it ourselves.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

glad you could relate, John...thank you,
j.

[Chris Shaw]

Can I have a pound of Jacob's poems please? That's where you took me back to the sweet shop as a kid. And please put them in a paper bag and not a plastic one. So creative, so original. Love it.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

ha ha paper not plastic...i like that..
thank you, Chris,
j.

[TheJordBaker]

I love this Jacob, thoughtful, clever and you bring us in to your inspiration.

The part about whether it's happy or sad resonated so strongly, and I love the pondering around it as it illustrates an artist's mind at work.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Jordan,
j.

[John the Baptist]

I actually think the best poems do either yoga or tai chi and are therefore more flexible. As to weight, I'd say Emily Dickenson is heavy, while Ogden Nash is light, though not to Em's face, because even a recluse wants to keep in shape. Furthermore, I don't care what the English professors say, onomatopoeia is really a kind of super potent Greek wine.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for the read and the smile on your review.
j.