Time was, when a budding poet Only needed to send a sample in To a magazine or publisher, For them to recognise their kin – A fellow wordsmith, to be lauded, Calliope’s very twin !
I guess their sheer class shone through – By which I mean their bourgeoisie. For had a working-lad likewise, There’s be no welcome-mat for he. These days, of course, they snub us all the same – Well, that’s equality…
These days, ev’ryone has their flag, Their brand, their team – I see them as their colours stream upon the breeze. I don’t know what they mean, Not any of these – But they sure look grand ! These layer-cakes in purple, pink, and green To folks in far-off lands That will never be reached by me first-hand, But it’s good to know they’re there, That they still get seen. And those who fall-out inbetween, The citizens of elsewhere, Who are ev’ry bit as keen to share – Not part of this, nor part of that, Yet part of where our culture’s at – They’re hesitant to wear the stripes we’ve flown, Or sport our crest – Well, there’s always room within the nest For strangers with another face – They get to make a banner of their own, To fly with all the rest. Eventu’ly, I’ll see it grace A new lapel or wedding dress – Another flag I cannot place, But somebody salutes, I guess. Well, good for them – what’s one more more-or-less ?
From Juliet and Cio-Cio-San, By way of Emma Bovary – They each were halted by a man, Intent to plot and oversee Their ending with his fatal pen – All killed by their creators yet agen.
Come Brünnhilde of the Norse, Jocasta of the Greeks, come too, And Thelma and Louise, of course – Cecilia Lisbon’s joining you. So young and clichéd, full of romance – Farewell. Alas, you never had a chance.
For Anna Karenina, Hedda Gabler, It will never be a wonderful life – Each felt a fatalism grab her, With a well-placed gun or foreshadowed knife. Like all of the tragic women above In their man-made suicides for love.
Normal service is temporarily resumed, before continuing to the audio poems tomorrow.
Having completely failed to make my previous passing, I have decided to mark my half decade instyle (Is that a quintade ? Or is this the epitome of Unnecessary Latin ?)
Thanks to recent advancements in AI, it is now possible to create avatars of never-existed people in Midjourney, and voices of never-spoken tongues in Prime Voice, and then get the former to speak the latter thanks to D-ID. Although you won’t get to see that last part, as videos can only be included for premium WordPressers – after all they have to keep us riff-raff out…
And so, all this week I shall be unveiling my new Readers, who are definitely attempting to scale the slope out of uncanny valley and almost sorta kinda sound perfectly natural ! Well, as long as the poem doesn’t contain a question mark, as they can’t change their intonation. And as long as you don’t mind them sounding thoroughly middle class, as the British voice samples all tended towards the RP – which is a pity, as I always intended for my words to be read in an ‘Educated West Country’ accent.
However, saving the best for last, I have persuaded a couple of friends to read for me as well, and you can heartheir delightfully-human tones at the end of the week.