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Thursday, April 22, 2021

April 22, 2021

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| | tight, slant, iconic, neuron, in one sitting.
Image from the Internet.

The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.

7 comments:

Ol' Man Keith said...

FLN: Wilbur & Sandy ~
Thank you, Sandy, for clarifying the voices in the piece, and thanks, Wilbur for providing all the additional background. I think I get it all now. What threw me in the last stanza was/is the number of quotation marks--that don't seem to correspond to the two voices. But the main thing is I think I get the "marry your father" bit.
Thanks, both!
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...


Is our future prophesied in a film? Which might it be?
Can I see it all...

"... In One Sitting?"
"Billions and billions"--an iconic sound bite for counting the stars,
but here tallying neurons in the typical human brain.
The hundred billion or so tightly crammed in each head
you'd think would grant Joe Six-Pack the brilliance to reign
by sweet genius alone in this planet of ours,
instead of by showers
of missiles, and by armored corps,
or the coldest of wars
'twixt nuclear powers.

But here's a slant worth contemplating:
Our brains, so packed with axons, so loaded with dendrites,
so capable of cogitating,
don't belong to only us; we haven't exclusive rights.
The billions of nerve cells we proudly claim
belong in every primate brain.
And though the gorilla's count is lower,
and, yes, he thinks a little slower,
the dolphin outclasses all of us.
His bigger brain is a real plus.

While we humans fret from year to year
how to save the earth and live without fear,
how to end all war and be of good cheer,
at least our future will likely escape
the world shown in Planet of the Apes.
But lest we feel cocky about mankind's survival,
I hear Flipper's New Adventure is up for revival.
~ OMK

Misty said...

"Nervous Ned"

Ned's tour upon the Huron
gave him an edgy neuron.
The waves made him chill with fright
and he held on to his seat real tight.
When they landed, he stopped his rant
and his journey took on a new slant.
He knew his fears were iconic,
but they were also pretty ironic.
Since he now had nothing to fear
he went to the bar for a beer.
His peace, as there he was sitting
felt much more comfy and fitting.

Misty said...

My goodness, Ol' Man Keith, your amazing journey into the universe of our planet and our brains is simply stunning in its scope, and lovely in its poetic grace. Many thanks for this wonderful morning treat.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thank you, Misty, for the complimentary words. And thank you for your own poetic gift. I particularly enjoyed the following couplet, which seems to pack much wisdom about human experience into its succinct phrasing:

"Since he now had nothing to fear
he went into the bar for a beer."
Brilliant.
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

FLN: In case you haven't been back to last night's notes, Misty I did follow up--although with a late posting--on the directions for deleting and/or re-shaping your earlier posting.
If you need to know the steps to take, they are there.

BTW, I was going to mention that the last line of my early poem yesterday, the one about the new bride's elopement, is a tribute to my mother's "mom," Mrs. Charles Montgomery.
She was in fact my mom's aunt, the sister of her father, Jack Hocking.
Both Jack and my mother's biological mom, Nellie Price Hocking, died two months after my mother was born, both taken by the Spanish Flu in 1918. My mom was raised by her aunt and her husband.

Wilbur ~ We had the clash of leather in my "Happy Days." My HS years, 1953-56, saw the clash, not so much versus khaki as "Ivy League," or what we interpreted as "Ivy." The gals wore the petticoats with poodle skirts, and we guys wore checked shirts with a button in the back of the collar.
Our pants had little belt buckles in the back, just above the butt. Useless bits of decoration.
We wore white buck shoes and carried little sachets of white powder to keep them clean.
Topped by either a cashmere cardigan or a windbreaker jacket.
Very cool.
In my drama class, the clash of cultures was between the leather & denim stage crew and the actors. I went between the worlds.
~ OMK

Misty said...

OMK, I was able to find your late message from last night, telling me how I could delete or chance posts. I haven't tried it yet, but really appreciate the advice. Thanks so much for sending it.