[Larry Hammer]

!!!

A crowned sonnet redouble, no less.

---L.

[Lightning Bug]

Oh, MAN, that was cool!! And Season 5 was the BEST of all. I ought to try one of them things! Does it require talent?? :O.)

- Bugsy

[RCL]

Breughel’s Fisher King

The Fisher King, carved very small,
recalls the days before his fall.
While acolytes search for the grail,
beside him, in a tiny pail,
swim fish, the fry of his revival,
bait he dangles for survival.
This wasteland king imagines more,
a boon that will the land restore
behind his double—that fish-as-man,
the Ichthys full of fresh élan
vital. A boy looks toward the fish
and king, obeys his mentor’s wish,
beholds the story being told:
man's rebirth gifts are manifold.


Happy birthday, "Bear"!

------------------
Ralph



[This message has been edited by RCL (edited October 23, 2003).]

[Lo]

Vomiting Jonah

(from an engraving by Breughel)


Come Children, hear the ocean sigh
as seaweed turns to grass -
The rivers all run blood tonight
the water's made of glass.

Come see the soaring snakes and snails,
winged fish in desperate flight -
A silent pair of ragged claws
goes scuttling out of sight.

Come meet the mermaids, pale as sand,
who hide their tails with care,
while hermit-crabs and sea-urchins
are dangling from their hair.

Come greet the sailors home from sea,
the hunters, brave and few.
Tonight they'll dine on carrion -
We'll not know who is who.

Come watch the islands disappear
at the turning of the tide.
The world ends in flame or flood -
unless the prophets lied.

Come Children, view the earth's retreat.
Observe the ocean's swell.
The belly of the whale has burst -
and Jonah's back from hell.
__________


Happy B'Day, Robt

Lo

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Paul Bunyan Spies Breughel's Sushi Bar

Like kits with cats or sacks with wives
the fishermen have taken knives
and slit the fish Jasconius
who swallowed old Petronius
and in this way, harmonius,
emerge the lesser fish.

From north to south, from west to east,
they fill the belly of the beast
like Baba Yaga, old babushka,
a Russian doll, a sweet matrushka
with babies bouncing mid-mamushka
with peasant-skirts a-swish.

A cockleshell or other shellfish
is clamped onto a swimming hellfish
now swallowing a little grunion
the way you’d eat a tiny onion
in your martini, like Paul Bunyan
will eat these from a dish.


Happy Birthday, Robert.



[This message has been edited by Kevin Andrew Murphy (edited October 23, 2003).]

[Robt_Ward]

We have a decision. The judges have all weighed in, and the winner by a landslide was Janet Kenny's "Wail", the astounding dialect poem. Congratulations, Janet!

The race for runnerup went by a nose to Lo, with a tie between Kevin Murphy and Ralph (RCL) for third just a whisker behind Lo.

I thank you all for participating, and I thank my anonymous staff of 7 judges for their cheerful cooperation. It was good fun, and I'll do it again shortly.

Janet, communicate with me on delivery of the prize ok?

(robt)

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Cool. That's how I would have voted too, had I not been an entrant.

Looking forward to the next contest, though the real prize here was getting to read Janet's poem.

[Janet Kenny]

Robert and Kevin

Thank you for blessing my fushes

Thanks everyone. I loved the other poems. I was genuinely surprised to win.

Robert, I will frame the photo very carefully with an acid-free mount and non-glare glass.
You have my information I think.

Janet

[Maryann Corbett]

At Chris's suggestion, I'm bumping this thread up. I see that it contains a bit of a contest of ekphrastic poems, so it might be instructive about Philip's recent idea. At any rate, here it is.

[RCL]

Wow! I'd forgotten all about this thread. I noticed that the Breughel engraving doesn't show up on Robert's post. Does anyone have a link or title for it?

Thanks,

Ralph