Libby Weber's Blog, page 31

April 16: The Manhole

In a greensward that I walk past every day,

A yellow scaffold warned me to take care,

In my distraction not to go astray

And fall into those innards, now laid bare.

To see a space revealed beneath the ground,

Gainsaying the solidity of sod,

Is fascinating, though it can confound

To see that the familiar’s just facade.

And peering down, a part of me expects

To see caucus race or beanstalk rise

Thus rendering reality convex,

A world beyond the banal it belies.

And all who seek it shall be crowned the queen...

April 15: Blood Moon

Photo credit: Chris Adler

Full moons are lovely but familiar sights.

They cast their gleaming silver and evade

The sharpened shadows of a ravenous night,

Until encountering Earth’s umbral shade;

For when most sleepers to their beds’ embrace

Succumb, hushed conversations will emerge

When neighbors find their spouses have misplaced

The telescope that passed their latest purge.

My seat’s a folded blanket on wet grass,

Our sprinkler-dampened dogs upon our laps,

A strong arm ’round my waist will earn a pass

B...

Apirl 14: An Extremely Juvenile Sonnet

They say the penis mightier than the sword,

But sometimes writing makes one’s conscience prick-

It’s hard on one to keep one’s own accords,

If one does, celebrate with spotted dick–

For cheap laughs are a tool one should not use,

And if you find that door and turn the knob

The package that you find could well amuse,

It could cock up your image or your job.

If your tumescence threatens to emerge,

Suppress it so it won’t come to a head.

A shaft of light will baser urges purge,

As Auden or Longfellow might...

April 14: Stages

This afternoon, I practiced songs I knew

Enough to sing by rote for the first time,

And then this evening, pieces that were new

I read and sang, ambitious and sublime.

Each stage of learning has its devotees,

The first accessing networks that were formed

In practice, and the second, cortices

Newly connected, leaving one transformed.

Particularly pleasant is the vote

Of confidence from pieces you’ve prepared.

Sight-reading after singing songs by rote

Makes one far less afraid of having erred.

Delightful c...

April 12: Satu and Son

It’s worth it to acquire a yearly pass

For visiting the San Diego Zoo

To press your nose against the pane of glass

That separates orangutans from you.

While those great apes are peaceful, dull they’re not,

Their personalities are singular,

And to the young ones certain skills are taught

And in new generations they recur.

For Satu learned his treetop acrobatics

From neighbor siamangs, and Karen taught

Him somersaulting, Clyde made automatic

Belief that under burlap’s the best spot.

Now Satu has two offpsr...

April 11: How Tweet It It

The World Beer Cup awards are streaming live,

While “Spring Awakening” has its Tweet night,

And “Don Quixote” spectators contrive

To keep the opera open one more night,

As my best friend quotes “Mary Poppins” lines,

Another, lyrics from They Might Be Giants,

I understand from corporeal confines

Technology delivers blithe defiance.

Yet no-one speaks aloud but to be heard

And conversations, few and far between,

Are meant to be remarked on and observed

And do betray a bright, self-conscious sheen.

It can be...

April 10: A Vogon Affair

My uggerblat delivered me a note

All writ in blagcious pildering, which smelt

Of wholded cradgerous, inciting bloat

Which plorped and made each vuvulation melt.

Inveigling proopish fashigoobs with words

Beslavering my varishing physique,

And offering a plungitude of flurds

If only I’d missuage his bludderleak.

But when I folded up this fabberdink,

I saw it was a form ought seven two.

My uggerblat was gullfullish to think

That I would gospingbrap a fardelsmew.

I flurked that cobblequirt where it squilked...

April 9: Apostrophe Yes

Rhetorical device par excellence:

How Your direct address fills me with glee!

O Universal Cry when fortune daunts–

You all-important hymn of irony;

Reduced in common usage though You are,

To show possession and elided letters,

We wordsmiths venerate You from afar,

Considering ourselves Your humble debtors.

One cannot elevate soliloquy

So powerfully without Your attributes.

Bring into being precious colloquy

Between You and our innermost disputes.

I hope that You don’t find it blasphemy

That I’ve apostroph...

April 8: A Viola Appreciation Sonnet

The violin’s vivacious, sweet, and wild.

The cello has a winsome, sexy air.

Viola is the awkward middle child,

Whose prospects sometimes fill us with despair.

Violas are so frequently ignored

Because they rarely play the melody,

Yet they give inner richness to each chord–

A voice of understated dignity.

And when it’s featured in a composition,

Viola’s melancholy, mellow voice

Is twice as joyful in juxtaposition–

Its alto sweetness makes a poignant choice.

Hector, Ralph, and Robert all agree:

What’s good f...

April 7: Platinum Lining

It’s said that silver lines the passing clouds,

But science says this isn’t really so-

The water molecules proceed to crowd

Resulting in abundant rain or snow.

And yet the cloud has come to represent

Encompassing depression should one fail,

Which is its own particular torment,

And sometimes feels like being hit by hail.

The metaphor is not so apropos,

Since rain, no matter how destructive, brings

Life-giving water to the world below,

And, melting, turns the winter into spring.

So when you can ignore the...