[928] Quiescent, a Person Sits Heart and Soul

Quiescent a person sits heart and soul
Thinking of daytime and Amy Lowell.

A couple came walking down the street;
Neither of them had ever met.

 	-- Ring Lardner

To quote the inimitable Calvin[1], "I try to make everyone's day a little more
surreal". And the equally inimitable Ring Lardner is surely a fitting weapon
of mass surreality - today's poem has the kind of inspired idiosyncracy that
leaves the reader wondering just how it was pulled off.

Indeed, I find it impossible to say just what it is about this poem that I
like. On the face of it, it is just a couple of random images stuck together
and called a poem. It is not even, as might be expected, a parody of Lowell
(or if it is, I'm missing it). There's just something about the perfect
balance of incongruity and poker-faced pointlessness that appeals to me.

[1] http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/cartoons/pics/calvin/calvin.surreal.gif

Links:

  Biography:
  http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/fiction/lardner.htm

  Bob Blair ran this poem a few months ago:
  http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/7086/010306.htm

  Amy Lowell on Minstrels:
    Poem #102, "Generations"
    Poem #644, "Patterns"

-martin