Tanka
by “Clear Dew” Ibuse
Indeed, it is true
that I have quite forgotten
the passage of time.
Is it not today I need
to change to winter clothing?
“Clear Dew” Ibuse is waka writer. Nijō Yoshimoto (1320-1388) was a noted Japanese renga poet of the early Muromachi period.
~~~
Tanka
by “Wired Clues” Abe
Propylene glycol,
water, sodium stearate,
glycerol laurate,
fragrance, aluminum-free
underarm deodorant.
Tanka
by “Wired Clues” Abe
He hardly could hear,
listening so carefully,
those sounds of silence,
o’er the Pacific Ocean,
the bells of Nagasaki.
“Wired” Clues Abe is a poet of NewMillennial construction. Takashi Nagai (1908-1951) was a Japanese Modernist author and survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Nagasaki, Japan, has a population of around 390,000.
~~~
Contact the CIA with Sino Info Stash
by Weedler SubCIA
How to contact the CIA with Sino info stash—
Do not provide ID. Secure a new device with cash.
Remove all pre-installed software to avoid all ties.
Connect to public Wi-Fi, keeping screen from prying eyes.
Download a browser and a VPN, that would be best.
Create a new, anonymous email from the West.
Directly enter th’ Agency’s official web address;
or come at it from the dark web and leave one’s messages.
Delete all browser links and traces to the CIA;
and then go on about one’s normal business of the day.
Weedler SubCIA is a poet of clandestiny.
~~~
Camel’s House, Gaugamela
by Darius Belewec
The flat plain where Darius placed his groups,
by some called Camel’s House, Gaugamela,
was filled with an array of sorted troops,
one hundred twenty miles from Arbela,
in that part of Iraq, qua Kurdistan,
331 BC. The total size
of Persia’s army or the Macedon
may ne’er be known, still they were grand. The prize
was nothing less than all the Middle East,
those lands that held the spells of Babylon,
Assyria, and minions of the Beast,
as well as all the seed of Abraham.
Here Alexander marched and put his stamp
on history’s long, royal road and map.
A Persian Aversion
by Darius Belewec
A sampling of Oriental despotism
is seen in Xerxes’ reactions to Pythius,
the richest man in Lydia, who’d once given
a gold plane-tree and a gold vine to Darius.
At Celaenae, Pythias offered his fortune,
3,993,000 darics,
for the war. Xerxes declined it, and offered him
7,000 to make an even 4,000,000.
Shortly thereafter, Pythias then asked if one
of five sons could stay. The request was an ill one.
The Persian king, not averse to nepotism
himself, gave orders to locate Pythius’ son
and cut him in half, so that they might march through him.
Darius Belewec is a poet of Ancient Persia. Xerxes (c. 518 BC – 465 BC) was a king of Persia who invaded Greece in 480 BC.
~~~
Newsreel:
The Chinese are conducting massive moves inside Iran:
some sixteen military planes in a three-day time span.
~~~
That Rough Beast
by Crise de Abu Wel
“what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
—William Butler Yeats
It has the head of a man,
the body of a lion.
It is the color of sand—
tan. It is slowly dyin’,
but lying in wait. It wants
to attack all who come near
it. It hates, it hangs, it haunts
about those with spirit. Hear!
Oh, you who are unaware,
its men hold spears to your heart,
who’d just as soon breathe the air,
as watch you slowly depart.
They want nothing more to see
than you in eternity.
Crise de Abu Wel is a poet of Western Asia. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was a Modernist Irish poet.
~~~
Dogs’ Heads, Cynoscephelae
by Aedile Cwerbus
Just five years after Rome’s defeat of Hannibal
at Zama, Philip V of Macedon prepared
his phalanxes for battle. Rome’s each maniple
in legions then to Cynoscephelae repaired,
led by Flaminius. Here was the porcupine
pin cushion against fox fangs that dared.
While pilae rained down, spears drove through the Roman line.
But Spanish swords and elephants broke the static
formations of the phalanx. Macedon’s design
fell to Roman initiative and changed tactics.
Old groups were outflanked by Rome’s new, more flexible
troops, ready to attack from anywhere, front or back.
Aedile Cwerbus is a poet of Ancient Rome. Titus Quinctius (c. 229 BC – 174 BC) was a Roman general instrumental in the conquest of Greece, and Philip V (238 BC – 179 BC) was a king of Macedon.
~~~
Pascal
by Duc Blaise Were
Pascal was an interesting fellow
on many levels. On one level, he
seems to go backwards: he leaves the mellow
for the intense and he leaves geometry
for letters. That seems the wrong way around.
On another level, he’s so upset
with skepticism, he makes faith profound,
if but a probability, a bet.
And his arguments are not deductive,
but inductive, practical, lived fully,
laden with emotion and seductive,
his prose meandering beautifully;
while the elegance of his thoughts reminds
one of the truth he so frequently finds.
Duc Blaise Were is a poet of France. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French Baroque physicist, mathematician, and proset.
~~~
Milton
by Wilude Scabere
Milton had discovered something was wrong,
wrong with himself, wrong with humanity,
and he put it in his poems. His strong
solemn lines reveal heartless vanity,
along with hard-headed inanity
and heavy-handedness. Squarely he faced
it all—the villainous, insanity,
and evil together interlaced.
But he did not accept us as displaced
persons eternally. He strove to find
for us more than a wretched and debased
spot in history. He was not resigned;
for he embraced with all his soul and mind
our race as both his kin and God’s own kind.
Wilude Scabere is a poet of British literature. John Milton (1608-1674) was a Baroque English poet and proset.
~~~
Newsreel:
In Minnesota, tension’s high, the winter cold has come.
Hot hatred with snow, fraud, and ICE, have joined with car and truck.
~~~
The Gymnast
by Sirc de Wee Balu
He puts his calloused, chalky hands upon the bars
and begins, at first swinging back and forth,
and later ascending, feet toward the stars,
like a compass trying to find true north.
He continues with coordinate feats,
pointing his legs, like pegs, this way and that,
in various and competitive meets,
a swirling, whirling, curling acrobat.
Then, with a quick sweep, he leaps high up, yes,
his whole body in an arc moving past,
vaulting through the air with an abruptness
requiring strength, balance, and poise. So fast
is the dismount, when his feet hit the ground
with a jerk, one wonders where he was bound.
Sirc de Wee Balu is a poet of acrobatics.
~~~
Nothing Known Will Stay
by Erisbawdle Cue
Life passes by so quickly, so it seems.
One moment one is rising to the dawn,
and letting fall behind one’s sleep and dreams;
the next, new light is coming to and on.
You reach to grasp the present when it comes,
but as you do, it fades into an end
in morning’s aura. Pausing to take plums,
to break night’s fast, you turn to reascend.
And so, no matter how slow you may go,
each instant travels on in its own way.
You may stand firm, but time’s winds have to blow
you to another place, another day.
Therefore, it’s best t’ appreciate each trice;
for nothing known will stay. Let that suffice.
In the Garden
by Erisbawdle Cue
It’s horrible. It’s horrible. It’s horrible.
A rose arose near Mister Kurtz. There is no hope.
He keeps his clothing tidy. It’s deplorable.
That’s all I can recall. He had the will to cope.
The funeral was grand, expensive, neat and nice.
The casket was surrounded by a slender rope.
The questions all revolved around what was the price.
Somehow one makes it work despite the messiness.
The lovely moments in the garden do suffice.
when one’s expecting little more than nothingness.
Somebody thinks the clothing’s cut’s adorable.
The dirt flies past my face, the air’s compressing less.
Erisbawdle Cue is a poet of philosophy. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Modernist Polish-English proset.
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