[New-Poetry] Poem With Common Words

[James Cervantes]

langpo version:

world life
day week year
man woman part
child problem case
work place thing
eye time hand point way
person number group
government company fact

- Jim, again

On 11/29/07, TheOldMole <Opus40-01 at opus40.org> wrote:
>
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> POEM IN COMMON WORDS
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>
>
> From the Oxford English Dictionary:
>
> The list of top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world,
> life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point,
> government, company, number, group, problem, fact.
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> There comes a time in every person's life,
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> When he or she must face a crossroad, joint
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> Or several: a career, a husband, wife,
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> Serving the Lord, if you He doth anoint,
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> Or brigandage, the pistol and the knife,
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> Or pure sloth. To take a case in point,
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> Consider Olaf: we'll give him a voice,
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> The Everyman who has to make a choice.
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> Consider Olaf: by vocation, plumber,
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> When first encountered, chauvinist and jerk,
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> He'd be the second lead in Dumb and Dumber.
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> He figures, what's a job without a perk?
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> --Takes several, but at last they've got his number,
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> It's One too many. Now he's out of work.
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> Perhaps, he tells himself, it's for the best.
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> I'll take a year off, and I'll start a quest.
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> What have I never tried? His first thought's group
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> Sex, but it turns out that presents a problem.
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> His abs and biceps long have flown the coop,
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> He's left with a physique approaching blobdom.
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> He sighs, and dips himself another scoop.
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> Were he a master thief, perhaps he'd rob them,
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> But chocolate marshmallow and licorice
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> Leave him with none but Hershey for a kiss.
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> His next solution is to overthrow
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> The government – he'll start his own conspiracy!
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> He calls Pat Robertson to raise the dough –
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> It doesn't work. He's just accused of heresy.
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> Maybe Bill Gates? No luck for our poor shmoe,
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> He has to face a rap for software piracy.
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> He's sentenced to a year and then a day,
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> He knows there's got to be a better way.
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> He vows his malefactions to atone.
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> His sentence up, he's tossed out on his rump and he
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> Bounces in the direction he's been thrown.
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> Then, skidding to a stop, he hears a bump and he
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> Swivels around to find he's not alone,
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> In fact, our Olaf's got himself some company.
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> A soft, warm hand is holding his, a human
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> Touch, a sympathetic eye: in short, a woman.
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> The thing is, Olaf's found that life's not part
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> Of anything – it is the world, the cosmos is
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> Enfolded in the place we call the heart.
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> A home, a child – we find it by osmosis,
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> Not once a week, but every day – we start
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> And end with just this thought; it's more than gnosis,
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> It's Zen, it's karma, everything we're hot for,
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> Our Olaf has become a bodhisattva.
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>   --
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>
> The moral is this: in American verse,
> The better you are, the pay is worse.
>  --Corey Ford
>
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> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>
>


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