Track them most as wanderers
Life's deep ponderers.
Who scales this rarefied air
Breathes in genius!
By what, in fowl, does impress
For soaring progress
Led on as twere. Inspired, more
Again, as if by
Their own breakthroughs, fiery-high.
Divine! Splenderous!
There once was a bloke called Aristotle
Who drank his ouzo straight from the bottle
His tutors were far from impressed
When he failed his Ethics 101 test
But when he partied it was always full throttle.
If A is B and B is C
Then A is C by syllogy
And A, B, C are one and three
The holy classic trinity
So Aristotle comes to be
Among Aquinas’ company
Aristotle, doth he opine,
That parrots grow saucy with wine.
I can't help but think
He drove it to drink,
The source of its moral decline.
Outside the mind
they’re no universals
Conflation and trend
— humanity’s bane
(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)
Do something before you’re stopped by Logic,
Logic: scarcely a good friend of Magic
Rapidly grabbing its territories
Even seizing Magic’s toiletries!
Do something before Logic gets tragic,
The hardest of blows landing on Magic.
I see you side fast with Aristotle
In quest of the same size, same title.
Midcourse, you turn Attacked Helpless Turtle
And this would you out of race hurtle…
Do something before Logic screams LOGIC
Or continues to say “Be strategic!”
There has been a helpful “Just say you can;
I would pass a hotel “Be a man.”
Both, of course, neither Magic nor Logic
But upon test deliver as magic.
Poetics Poem 5
********(Mimesis)******
Dear Aristotle, where, then,
Do the Arts fit?
You say each of them
Falls to mimesis, but their works, to me,
Erupt into present moments
Wearing immediate faces - not masks -
Speaking their own lyrics
Without consideration of what came
Before or will come afterwards,
Presenting a stage for dialogue...
Opening platforms for exchange.
The artworks begin anew each time
The audience receives impressions
Or as the works are relived repeatedly,
They may bring new strokes, viewed as
Potentially new and not, as you say,
“Imitations of imitations.”
Inspiration feeds the audience
As well as the artists, and all
Of time moves to
Impress upon the exchanges.
(C) sally Young Eslinger 2/22/20
O' That Aristotle Should Return To Proclaim
O' that Aristotle should return to proclaim
wise, worldly words written with furious winds.
Reveal more wisdom, garner even more fame
point to history, prophecy - all such portends.
Only if Homer could grace greens of earth again
gift words of heroic deeds, warriors brave.
Hurl lightning bolts and no olden Gods restrain
bring courageous heroes back from forgotten graves.
If only, love and life should find its ancient past
amidst streams of great valor and deepest true.
If but one such Titan set this world aghast
would not millions turn to such light and love anew?
O' dark beast, why hid thy monstrous face from truth's light?
Why ply lost souls to dark deeds, as thee skulks at night?
Robert J. Lindley,7-13-2017
SLEEP AND ARISTOTLE.
How to get a good night's sleep--
Instead of enumerating sheep,
Recline beautifully with Aristotle,
Don't decline, hit that bottle,
What does rhyme with Aristotle?
I ponder passing parades of axolotls,
Maybe Australia's golden wattles,
Driving by, foot on throttle,
Yes, they all rhyme with Aristotle,
Maybe I shouldn't hit that bottle,
I'll curl up with this learned book,
"What is beautiful?" at Aristotle I'll look,
Musing thoughts so philosophical,
Aristotle waxing lyrical and logical,
Far different from enumerating sheep,
Drifting into a good night's sleep..........
Such is the way reason lived fate,
Imprints of thoughts in vivid streams;
Glimpse truth's fond rays through lively gates,
Notions well sought in range and themes;
Strong treatise greets the learned style.
Adjust to show where knowledge stands;
Reach profound meet in gaze worthwhile,
Instruct and grow while learning can;
Success sees truth in clear attire,
Turn the spotlight to unearth thought;
Observe fond proof where mind moves fire,
Touch in clear sight logic and lot;
Learn to discern the vistas wide,
Explore and earn what wisdom hides.
Leon Enriquez
30 April 2015
Singapore
Plato to Aristotle….”you made your bed, now sleep in it”
Aristotle to Plato….”if you lie down with dogs expect to arise with fleas”
Plato to Aristotle….”Ekphrasis makes strange bedfellows”
Aristotle to Plato….”never wake a sleeping blog”
Plato to Aristotle….”no matter how you slice it, it’s still baloney”
Aristotle to Plato…”sleep tight – don’t let the bedbugs bite”
Plato to Aristotle…”ever slept on a bed of roses?”
Aristotle to Plato….”required some thorny removal”
Plato to Aristotle…”let us remove ourselves to the fireplace
and look at some pictures”
Aristotle to Plato….”Yeah, but don’t go asking them any questions”
Aristotle's Poetics
Epic poets quite divine in seriousness of truth's glow,
In the world’s poetic distinctions compared to history,
In “Poetics”, Aristotelian logic did clearly show,
Poetry more divinely scientific than factual glory,
Poet truths outshine history’s particular knack for gory!
For Brian Strand Contest
Aristotle Had No Play-Dough
Aristotle
Never liked to dawdle.
He studied under Plato
But by no means played with play-dough.
© Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
January 22, 2010
Poetic form: Clerihew
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