Riffin' on Jim: Poetry of the Netherworld Remix in the Style of James Schuyler, Sort Of

James Schuyler (1923 - 1991)

Image from the Poetry Foundation page

This poetic remix exercise takes the titles of all poems written for this month's challenges and roughly reworks them into the style of James Schuyler's poem, Sweet Romanian Tongue.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/53034/sweet-romanian-tongue

Drew down the COVID-19 curse on broken-down America

The stench of time breaking down a corpse

We cannot sail away on the asphalt sea

Some prefer to hide in sleepy little towns

 

Why do we follow a lunatic down the road to hell?

I harbor a secret wish that there are better days ahead

Yet the masque of the Orange Idiot may prevail

Too many fall into his trap

 

Steve Mnuchin, such a waspish twit, it makes me weep

I think I will head to Mr. Lovecraft's madcap zoo

Perhaps I have fallen into a time-leak mousetrap

 

Will we all fall victim to the word that destroys

As fools with brains full of love in bloom for Trump

Refuse to get their news elsewhere away from Fox

 

We are unable to hide beneath a lead umbrella

As everything rages out of control like a fire from a cigarette dropped in dry grass

The spirit of the wood hides in pitchy night

Staring at the damage, there is no taking it back

 

"Why would you let this be your legacy, America?" it queried

"I wish this miserable red mess would wake to a blue dream."

The last, best, chosen one went on speaking nonsense

The spirit of the wood wrote a Sedoka for a lost world

 

"These are the happiest days of our lives," the orange despot bellowed

Wagging tarnished silver tongue as the wind lifted his piss-blond hair

I wrote a message to my past self, an impotent warning

"I give you a gift wrapped in horror," it read.

"Although I fear that my words may be lost in translation."

 

"The people made a troublesome choice," I warned her.

my diseased and dying body smelling of wet cigarettes

"Will Mark's train come to collect me in the pitchy night?" I wondered.

"Will social distancing save us?

Or will we all wind up lying dead in a field of rotting pumpkins

As the crows and vultures pick the sun-dried flesh from our bones?"

 

Content coyright 2020 by Cara Hartley

 

Please do not repost

 

Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it.

 

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Quoting portions of the poem for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.

 

NaPoWriMo: Use a long poem by James Schuyler as a guidepost for your poem

 

April PAD Challenge: Write a remix poem

 

This work is cross-posted in these places:

 

http://poetryofthenetherworld.blogspot.com

 

http://publish0x.com/naughty-netherworld-press

 

https://bitpatron.co/orneryowl.id.blockstack

 

http://ko-fi.com/naughtynetherworldpress

 

http://patreon.com/naughtynetherworldpress

 

http://slyfawkes.blogger.com

 

If you appreciate my poetry, please consider picking up a copy of my first published poetry volume, Another Autumn.

 

https://amzn.to/2Y4820s

NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 5 + April PAD Challenge 2020 Day 5 + April PAD Countdown Catch-Up Day 5: The Masque of the Orange Idiot

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Like a pigeon from hell

The Red Death tripped the light fantastic in the door

To a nation helmed by a megalomaniac so wrapped up in himself

That he didn't hear it knocking

He didn't see it coming

He didn't smell the decay

Of the bodies lying in the streets

He was too busy tasting the saccharine

Of the lies he told himself

About how wonderful he was

To touch upon the truth

And so he heard the death knell

As a victory march

And his mind burst forth fireworks

In celebration of his assured triumph

Donald Trump, the despot monarch

Of the land of the freely dying

He said he didn't see this coming

Then argued that he always saw it coming

And took to Twitter to shitpost

Some stupid memes he cooked up

To magically distract from his cock-up

As the Red Death painted the town

King Don said the Red Death was all the fault

Of the Lamestream Media

And Hillary Clinton's emails

And Obama's microwave

Because they let the Chinese Virus

Come across the Mexican border

He emitted smoke from seven orifices 

Proclaiming he had other pussies to whip

So Nancy Pelosi better stop ironing his head

Raving narcissist lacking empathy

As stable as a sleeping volcano

Being rudely awakened

He flew through the corridors of the White House

Proclaiming "that ornery old lady Cie is a nasty woman"

"I will lock her up!" he cried

"She claims I am bigly responsible

For the Red Death dancing through the streets

But I will pound his ass into a quivering jelly

Because I am a very stable genius"

King Don continued ranting

Det ligger en hund begraven

There was no magic in this moment

The American flag dropped to the ground in despair

Night fell over the homeless sleeping in parking lots in Las Vegas

~sly has spoken~

image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

notes

This poem was penned by my politically-minded alter-ego, Sly Fawkes

Here is the list of prompts followed to create this poem.

Also included are the prompt Moment (for April PAD Challenge Day 5) and Magic(for April PAD Countdown Catch-Up Day 5)

Begin the poem with a metaphor.

Say something specific but utterly preposterous.

Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.

Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).

Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.

Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.

Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.

Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.

Use an example of false cause-effect logic.

Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).

Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”

Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.

Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”

Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.

Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.

Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.

Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.

Use a phrase from a language other than English.

Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).

Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.

Shout-out to the page of foreign idioms

Also the page of Swedish idioms

Det ligger en hund begraven means "there's a dog buried here," a metaphor for someone not telling the complete truth.

NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 3 + April PAD Challenge 2020 Day 3 + April PAD Countdown Catch-Up Day 7: Follow the Leader Down the Road to Hell

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

Follow Dear Leader

Down the road to hell

As he spouts lies and bullshit

Out both sides of his mouth

People are dying of a contagious disease

For which there is currently no cure

He advises us to pack the churches

Because apparently thoughts and prayers will make us immune

If only 100,000 people die

He will have done a really good job, he says

Do not be afraid, because

His ratings are better than The Bachelor's

And his ranking on Facebook is at an all-time high

Surely you will sleep better tonight knowing

That Dear Leader is tweeting in the third person

About his Bigly popularity

Just have a cup of covfefe and relax

Don the Con is in charge

~Sly Has Spoken~

Courtesy of my politically opinionated alter-ego Sly Fawkes

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Sly is feeling the Bern again

But she will vote blue no matter who

notes

The only prompt I followed today was the April PAD challenge prompt. I wasn't feeling the NaNoWriMo prompt and the day 7 PAD countdown prompt didn't quite fit.

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 16: Break Free of Tyranny

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

it seems to me

that for a nation of people

who love to talk about freedom

there were all too damn many of us

willing to trade our freedom

to be under the orange thumb

of a tangerine despot

now it's time

to put up or shut up

now it's time

to take our country back

now it's time

to realize that electing

a rude, loudmouthed reality tv star

with an ego the size of Jupiter

was a really stupid idea

and now it's time

to impeach the sonofabitch

who shouldn't have been in the White House

in the first damn place

now it's time

to fix our mistake

and really make America great

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Notes:

The November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt for today was to write a "free" poem. So I decided to move over, Rover, and let Sly take over and write a free verse about breaking free from the tRump tyranny. No putting a fine point on this one. Impeach the illegitimate bastard. 

Yes, Pence is his own brand of awful. We'll deal with him next.

Even more worrisome to me than the fact that Lord Dampnut and the Gentleman Serial Killer ran for office is the fact that there were enough people willing to vote for them that they got elected. Anyone who thinks that we live in a country where racism, sexism, classism, and all the other shitty little isms are a thing of the past is, as Flavor Flav once said, blind from the facts.

OctPoWriMo 2019: Day 4: Gilded Cage

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

A cage

Whether silver, gold, or platinum

Or wrought iron

Is still a cage

Do not follow

The edicts of charismatic cons

Do not strive to become

What others have told you that you must be

Do not wait on a messiah

Who may be centuries away

Or a boogeyman conjured

To keep people compliant

Only you can set you free

Do not let what advertisers tell you
You must be in order to be "beautiful"
Keep you locked away
Closed off from the world

Don't let the quest for silver and gold
Trap you in a crate of greed
Until your need for wealth
Becomes more a coffin than a birdcage

Only you can set you free

~Cie~

Song Inspiration: