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Villanelle: How Much Is How Near Enough and Yet Not Much

Villanelle: How much is how near enough and yet not much How much is how near enough and yet not much The measure of the cup is what the hand grabs Must the common man pay the price or all go Dutch Some take more than what is their share in one clutch Most really take what comes trickling down for grabs How much is how near enough and yet not much Many such grow up never knowing what is much Nor how the rich few make an art out of nabs Must the common man pay the price or all go Dutch Most make up the legions who for others march Those who run the State run it for magnate flabs How much is how near enough and yet not much Big fish eat shoals of small fish all in one munch And the bigger they get all the smaller nags Must the common man pay the price or all go Dutch Yet everyone wants to dangle from the high hatch E’en when there’s nothing much the Nation brags How much is how near enough and yet not much Must the common man pay the price or all go Dutch (C) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2018

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T Wignesan

Date: 2/26/2018 10:31:00 PM

You're a true sport, Maureen. The important thing is that you recognize the element of ambiguity and the role of the unconscious in the act of creation: the "poietics" of poetry, of all art, of us all as created "objects". I, for my part, defer to the beauty of the "swift" as the ultimate - in your awareness - form of beauty; so is the "sperm" and its "blind" as the bat in your poem role creating an archetypal poem in theme. Here's a hand out to shake. For the moment, Sayonara!

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/27/2018 6:18:00 AM

This has been a mind opening feast of a conversation Wignesan, it has been an honour. Merci beaucoup. I shake your hand with the customary kiss to each cheek. Enchanté mon ami.

T Wignesan

Date: 2/26/2018 1:01:00 PM

To be brunt, this poem is then about "masturbation" and the pardonable guilt feelings associated with this universal "sport" right from puberty: oedipus/electra complexes and further "complications" as adults torture themselves under the weight of moral turpitude. (Unable to submit: BLOCKED, Maureen.) To be brief, "swifts" can represent spermatozoa and the "chimney", the uterus. The "cigar", fingers and so on - all "delightfully" distract from unbearable situations, etc. Over to you...

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/26/2018 2:52:00 PM

...that you might suggest so tickles me to no end. I have delved into such hot risqué-ness absolutely with my visual art. The matter of the sexes a preoccupation for years. Consider this: the swifts as absolute beauty, however unrecognized, however overlooked, however small or insignificant, their beauty and perfection is absolute. Enter "God", I am not religious, but where others write of "Him", I write of birds. To you...

Caycay Jennings

Date: 2/25/2018 9:33:00 PM

I'm thinking and hearing rock and roll while I'm reading, lots of drums and I don't know or care if there are comments below, I just know that right here, right now your poem delivered a great time. I was drawn in and I liked it, I liked enough too be clear, enough is the perfect thing to hear. Poetry hugs ... CayCay

T Wignesan
Date: 2/26/2018 6:56:00 AM

That's exactly what I need right now: "hugs", CayCay. Glacial winds roam the Ile-de-France looking for warm bodies to suck! Cheered you heard tell-tale drums rock your foundations: "shiver my timbers"! You're absolutely right to evoke music as the key to poetry, for poetry is born dead without. Be seeing ya. Au revoir! Thanks a lot. Wignesan

Maureen Mcgreavy

Date: 2/23/2018 12:40:00 PM

A clever and eloquent penning dear poet. Much enjoyed :) reads like a classic to me xomo

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/26/2018 2:45:00 PM

That "too lightweight" is exactly the point of "envy alone has named you so mundane" obviously not based on envy at all but on the human need to label and catagorize and to some affect declare power over or ownership of... The stagnating limits of our human methods of thinking and relating to the world around us. The poem was never about masterbation, however...

T Wignesan
Date: 2/26/2018 12:31:00 PM

...the poem you wrote is perfectly valid if taken from the poet's own biographical motivation: we've been through this already. Now, if the reader were to react to the poem from the persona's point of view (not knowing the poet's personal history), the swift imagery takes on other multiple insinuations. My reading thus makes your poem archetypal. Why?

T Wignesan
Date: 2/26/2018 12:24:00 PM

"Bourré des fautes" as your attempt stands, it's still better than mine. I just refused to attend class to learn it. Now you've asked for it. I kept harping on the "swift image" simply because it's far too light-weight to support the intensity of the narrative that follows. Not really compatible, but acceptable in view of your own personal involvement with swifts, I must allow. You may not have intended it: "intentional fallacy" but...

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/26/2018 9:05:00 AM

D'accord, je pense. Je suis peur mais j'avez aussi du curiosité. Pardon mon francais, ca déjà les annes que j'ai pratiqué d'ecrire. If that resembled french at all I am pleased.

T Wignesan
Date: 2/26/2018 7:07:00 AM

Yes, I have taught school; primary to secondary, for short periods; then literature at the tertiary level, again for short periods - all in different countries, but I've never held tenure track posting. That said, you're not going to get away without more "supplices" yet. I need your permission this time to launch into my "explication du texte" à la persona du poème. D'accord? Pas d'accord?

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/25/2018 5:31:00 PM

I couldn't think it would speak to the complexity of feelings in others, only my own. "Awkward" and "uncut diamond" are apt descriptors I might have used if asked to describe myself. As for rhythmic choking, words have a feel to me, a texture; in my mind, when I write poetry, it is akin to sculpting. Wignesan, I am guessing you are a professor or teacher of poetry at some level, no? I studied visual art.

T Wignesan
Date: 2/25/2018 2:34:00 PM

Q3: The "swift" by your own admission constitutes a captivating phenomenon in your psyche. Why would you think it could likewise serve to ably represent and underwrite the complexity of feelings in others as well? The question of "choice" of image par rapport the existential seriousness of the narrative is called into question. Over to you.

T Wignesan
Date: 2/25/2018 2:16:00 PM

You're right to keep furnishing clues to the surface- level comprehension of the piece. As an aside, I'll add that the personal history and the rather awkward phraseology - at times - smacks of the "uncut diamond" execution feel, barring the rhythmic choking - the meaningfully repetitive hiatus - with "delightfully" arresting and concluding the cascading conclusive assertion. Over to you. My take might astound you! Later.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/25/2018 9:10:00 AM

With "the conditions of my sin", I was going all the way back to Eve and the apple.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 2/25/2018 8:56:00 AM

My initial reaction, your intellect is dizzying. Dissecting the piece myself, naming the swifts after chimneys in itself is a product of the human "sin condition". True, the fact/history of the poem are irrelevant, and I am without shame.