Ulysses On Ithaca

Well, I haven't blogged for some time. I forgot this blog existed actually! (involved with other projects!) Alas, how long will it take the world to realise my genius? (hehehe)

WireImage

Will try to finish Richard Burton's "Land of Midian Revisited" over the next couple of days. Only an academic would be bothered! It's really too tedious!

Ryze business networking

Bah...more humbug at this so-called university. It doesn't bear thinking on!

Ryze business networking

Today was a relaxing day, marking university scripts! :) Actually, the marking was quite easy and today is the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, Al Hamduleila!

Ulysses On Ithaca

I don't know what the result of the Italian election will be. Berlusconi looks to be in trouble this time. I don't like the man personally, though he does have a certain style. The alternatives to Belusconi are also depressing. I wrote a poem about Silvio.

Il Presidente Del Consiglio


Berlusca was a crooner,
Frank Sinatra style;
An Italian baby boomer
Filled with Latin guile.

With the help of dark Sicilians,
His meteoric rise,
Brought him countless billions
And “Cosa Nostra” ties.

He bought up Rete Quattro
And also Channel Five.
Became a politician so
He could realize

The dream his ego always craved
To be Napoleon
(A kind of second rate, depraved,
Latino Palmerston).1

“Il Presidente del Consiglio”2
Has a pleasing sound.
Il Gran Signor del Campidoglio3
Finally is crowned!




1. A famous 19th Century British War Secretary and PM.2. Italian Prime Minister.3. The Great Man of the Capitoline Hill.

Ryze business networking

Very interesting discussion on Ryze as to whether a poet can reasonably write sonnets in the modern age. Personally, I think it's possible--but only if the conventions of the form are observed. The best sonnet of the 20th century, in my opinion, is "Leda and the Swan" by Yeats and this has the expected imagery and themes of a sonnet: classical mythology, love and lust, high events in the world of man. I feel a sonnet really doesn't work very well without the presence of a fairly dense imagery--and that's one reason that it's difficult to write very many now. I wrote one about 12 years ago that I was happy with--though it seems to have lost a line somewhere during the many transcribings!


Traveling through the sun-lit cyclades


Traveling through the sun-lit cyclades,
I thought about romances from the past,
Of mighty Ulysses strapped to the mast,
Of siren lovers: Priam on his knees,
Cursing Paris for that strange and vast
Emotion men call love: one only sees
That certain things were sure from first to last.
What is it in a single woman's eyes,
Or nose, or mouth, or lips, or snow white-breast,
That make men lose their reason and at once,
Begin to slowly plot and to devise,
Schemes and affairs that put love to the test,
Until the world itself has no defence?

Ulysses On Ithaca

Yestersay, I discovered a new poetic form that I hadn't really come across before--the villanelle. It's a form not much used in English (coming originally from France) though Dylan Thomas used it to good effect in his famous poem about his father, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night". Basically, the form has 5 triplets and a final quattrain. Only 2 rhymes are used throughout. I tried my hand at the form and came up with the following.




Why do you love me still and speak my name
After the many failures which we knew?
Why do you care for me and yet remain?

You are the one who always played the lover’s game
With just a “pizzico” of something new:
Why do you love me still and speak my name?

I don’t believe our love’s remained the same.
In Mantova a strange indifference grew.
Why do you care for me and yet remain?

I wouldn’t want to try and lay the blame
For everything I lost, on loving you.
Why do you love me still and speak my name?

I know you never wanted to complain
About the ways in which I wasn’t true:
Why do you care for me and yet remain?

How much you like to play the archer’s game!
(Or is it that you know I still love you?)
Why do you love me still and speak my name?
Why do you care for me and yet remain?

For the rest of this day, I'll be correcting scripts at the university where I work. :(

Ryze business networking

At first, I wasn't too enamoured with the idea of creating a Blog. Mostly, I don't have much to write about from day to day. I am the kind of writer who likes to polish everything up before it sees the light of day, so the spontaneity of Blogdom is an ambiguous to negative factor for me. Still, I finally decided it might be fun to interact with other Bloggers, so here I am.