assesofparnassus - Tumblr blog

[assesofparnassus]

The Best in You

I try to find the best in you,    But may I say discreetly: You do your best--you really do--    To hide it so completely.

--Steven Kent

[assesofparnassus]

Engendering Mystery

What’s the form book on gender this century? What freaks us? What’s cool and adventury?   What broad-spectrum glow   Lights up all we don’t know About thirst for new flavours of quenchery?

"Boy" and "girl" don’t suffice anymore; Amid options and reboots galore,   Men have so much to learn   That we’d feel real concern If we’d understood women before.

--Chris O'Carroll

[assesofparnassus]

Kitty Yum-Yums

When your kitty comes prancing to greet you and seems more than elated to meet you, don’t delude yourself, dude. I don’t mean to be rude: if it could, that cute tabby would eat you.

--Vladimir Tumanov

[assesofparnassus]

Distraction

It's loud but not disastrous, not a cataclysm--- Just dogmatists disputing, barking out some schism.

--David D. Horowitz

[assesofparnassus]

ON ANGER: A friendly note to William Blake

In the dawn I thrilled to see my lifeless, deadwood Enemy; and on the garden's rusty wire, his kit-and-caboodles hanging fire.

Thinking back, it may be vicious, but 'twould have been thus twice delicious, if this had a different end, and anger offed my useless Friend!

--Royal Rhodes

[assesofparnassus]

Versus

New Hampshiremen mock us Vermonters and the odd state that we are in. But we regard the Granite State fondly, as our feeble, bastard twin.

--Roderick Bates

[assesofparnassus]

Dover Air Force Base, Delaware: February 2, 2024

Today I watched the "dignified transfer" -- More sorrow and pretense than truth should bear. The coffins, draped with spotless flags, Held the corpses from indexed body bags. After the honored dead were wheeled away, The News returned to covering Groundhog Day.

--Bob Zisk

[assesofparnassus]

Winging It

Albatross, ovenbird, John Keats’s nightingale, Skylark, a sparrow in Nemerov’s zoo,

Ornithological Poetry murmurates, Raven to darkling thrush, Swan to cuckoo.

--Chris O'Carroll

[assesofparnassus]

Electric Greta

“What do I want by 2050?” said Greta, showing that she cares. “All things electric: cars and blankets ...and chairs.”

--Vladimir Tumanov

[assesofparnassus]

On waking up in a strange bed on New Year's Day

stupid Cupid missed again

--Mandy Macdonald

[assesofparnassus]

Glancing back at a full-length mirror

Again aghast At what's amassed.

--Aaron Nydegger

[assesofparnassus]

The Philosophers

It often seems, with certain men,  The point is: not to make one.  They'll repeat what they've said, again -  An exit? Yes, I'll take one.

--Claire Boyce

[assesofparnassus]

Risqué Clerihew

Walter Pater was a master debater. The love he could not name burned with a gem-like flame.

--Royal Rhodes

[assesofparnassus]

Clerihew

Gertrude Stein thought Hemingway a swine and offered to pay his air fare to where there was no there there.

--Gail White

[assesofparnassus]

Selective Envy

It doesn't jangle my serenity when brilliant poets win.  I clap with awe to witness merit honored, yet to see talentless bastards triumph scrapes me raw.

--Susan McLean

[assesofparnassus]

Too Much

When all is said and done, my son, Too much is said, too little done.

--Steven Kent

[assesofparnassus]

Note to Self

As page on page increases weight and density encumbers lift, you treat each poem as short shrift until confession inundates and leaves your readers bored, at best. Should you keep writing? Sure. I guess. 

--Richard Porter