Search Darkmoon
Recent Comments
- flying cossack on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- flying cossack on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- Ezequiel on America in Ruins, by John Kaminski
- Franklin Ryckaert on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- Manoflove on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- lobro on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- lobro on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- GTRman on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- GTRman on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
- Gilbert Huntly on The J-Word, by John Kaminski
Laughing through her tears, by Darrell Wright [*POEM*]
I’m drawn to men who make me laugh
I like it when I laugh so hard
From feeling down another day,
O how I’d love to laugh all day,
This entry was posted in Other Writers. Bookmark the permalink.
Darrell, this is one of your best poems. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read it. So I compromised by smiling sadly.
Why not by “crying happily”?
I have no objections to this poem. I detect no anti-Semitism here. Not in the poem anyway. In the picture, however, doubtless chosen by Ms Darkmoon, I find certain anti-Semitic overtones.
This woman looks vaguely like an Ashkenazi Jew I know, an associate professor in Sociology at an Ivy League university. Her nose is partially hooked, if you look carefully.
The picture seems to suggest that Jews are such practiced deceivers that they try to confuse people all the time, even to the extent of not making it clear if they are laughing or crying. I’m not saying this is openly apparent in the picture, only that it is subliminally suggested.
Very profound, Seymour. I must confess that I fail to detect any note of antisemitism in this poem, both on the conscious and subliminal levels. But then, I wasn’t expecting any!
Excellent poem, Darrell, you have restored my faith in human nature!
Keep up the good work.
@ Seymour
Seymour, I’d like to see a poem from you.
How about, um, Death to the Goyim?
An excellent piece of verse! Well-done, Mr. Wright!
It’s your turn now, sir. C’mon, wow us with another!
Myself, I only write naughty limericks. “There was a young lady of Kentucky / Who thought she would like to get lucky…” You can complete the rest. I gave up at that point!
You’re too kind, Sardonicus.
Seriously, Darrell Wright has hit upon something a lot of us have probably only chalked-up to “silly women”, not thinking about how much they might have been hurt by someone else before we met them, and how their behavior is thereby influenced. Seems they are mostly ALL that way, now, after a certain age – and it is too bad. No more sweet prospects out there for romantics like us who were not wise enough to recognize there might be an end to the availability of women worth keeping…
“There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.”
“Joy’s smile is much closer to tears than laughter.”
- Victor Hugo
“Sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”
— Shelley, Ode to a Skylark
Darrell,
Thank you for this beautiful poem.
I can see this comes from the heart.
Ditto.
This is such a beautiful poem and thank you.
My sincere thanks to all who said they like this poem.
I for got to mention my gratitude for Ms Darkmoon’s suggestions and assistance in getting this poem into its present form. (Although now that I re-read it I think it could probably use a comma after “laugh all day”
On punctuation in poetry
The comma has been inserted, dear Darrell, but only to humor you! You appear to think that poetry and prose should abide by the same rules of punctuation. They used to do this until the early decades of the twentieth century when minimalist punctuation gradually became the norm for poetry. Too many commas were regarded as ugly and fussy and were cut out at the end of lines… when the line break itself was regarded as a comma substitute.
Consider the quotes from TS Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” below. Ezra Pound was Eliot’s editor. Notice the minimalist punctuation used. It works splendidly.
Lasha is simply doing her best to bring your poetry punctuation into the 21st century, dear Darrell, but you will insist on remaining in the 19th century!
Not to worry. You are not as bad in your over-commification as Gilbert Huntley who scatters his commas like confetti at a wedding! If Gilbert can use six commas where one will do, you can be sure he will do it!
Hey, no offense meant to either of you!
Just trying to let you know that, as seasoned editors with pretty high university degreees, we have mastered the rules of correct punctuation! It’s not too hard. If we leave out a comma here and there which you would rather see included, it’s not because we are slipshod and uneducated; it’s because we are trying for the minimalist punctuation which is de rigueur in contemporary poetry.
However, I have to admit that if a poet said to me: “I don’t agree with this newfangled minimalist punctuation. I think traditional punctuation, as used in prose, should also be used in poetry…” if he said that to me, I would have to admit that he has a point. And I would bend to his wishes.
BTW, Lasha in her poems makes use of both traditional punctuation and minimalist punctuation, and sometimes she deliberately uses no punctuation at all.
Just check out the punctuation in the TS Eliot poem below. You will see what I mean by minimalist punctuation.
Excerpt from TS Eliot’s “The Waste Land”
The river sweats
Oil and tar
The barges drift
With the turning tide
Red sails
Wide
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
On Margate Sands.
I can connect
Nothing with nothing.
The broken finger-nails of dirty hands.
My people humble people who expect
Nothing.
la la
To Carthage then I came
Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest
burning
http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html
The mention of “Carthage” in the extract above is an allusion to a famous passage in St Augustine’s Confessions.
When the young Augustine went to Carthage, he fell into the sin of “concupiscence” or lust. Carthage was then a hothouse of brothels.
The young saint-in-the-making could not resist the lures of the flesh in those early days and is quoted as praying, “Oh Lord, make me chaste — but not yet!”
Thank you, Montecristo, for your thorough explanation re- modern poetry and punctuation. Very helpful.