sagger maker’s bottom knocker from barnsley
one of the last of a now dead trade
famed for his skill and precision
where ever saggers were made
forced to redundancies scrap heap
because of lack of demand for his skill
lack of money and self respect
made him feel tired and ill
took up dwile flonking in somerset
became a regular girter of the team
but regular skilled work remained
his great and longed for dream
flonked by a wanton driveller thrust
which he sadly failed to catch
led to his early demise
and an unfinished match
so take note passing stranger
of his sad demoralising tale
a tragic life so swadged short
by dwile flonking and real ale
he rests beneath this stone
his driveller in his hand
the finest sagger maker’s bottom
knocker ever seen in this fair land
Depart from your accustomed
typically usual routine.
Specialize in being a generalist.
Immerse yourself fully in the whole entirety
of the complete volume.
You’ll be surrounded on all sides
by a myriad and multitudinous plethora
of permanent and long-lasting linguistic verbiage.
Feel like a pedagogical school teacher.
Have an impactful influence on events.
Fly above the earth.
It’s deceptively mendacious,
and fine as French champagne!
Here’s a sneak peek advance preview of
Colonel J. D. Waxwood's Harmonious Concordance
of Repetitive Redundancies, Sufficient Enough Tautologies,
and Irrational Non-sequitors, from BadSeedPress:
AKBAR THE GREAT
AMERICAN INDIAN
ATM MACHINE
CENTRAL CORE
CHICKEN COQ AU VIN
CONCISE SYNOPSIS
CORRUPT POLITICIAN
FLESH COLORED
FREE GRATIS
FRESH FROZEN
GUEST HOST
HAWAIIAN LUAU
MORE PERFECT
ORIGINAL COPY
PIN NUMBER
PIZZA PIE
PRE-REGISTRATION
SELF-CENTERED NARCICIST
SILENT MUSICAL
TINY LITTLE [ANYTHING]
TUNA FISH
WISE-ASS SOPHOMORE
you’re going to tell me how I feel
is this what our friendship has come to
you are actually going to try to
fill the gap the space my head
with your verbose redundancies and platitudes
please don’t tell me you know how I feel
and stop explaining it in great detail
because you don’t
you don’t have a clue
you really don’t
the truth is you simply have no idea
and I need to process things my way
so don’t try to pollute it
with your self-proclaimed wisdom
you can share
but draw the line between
what is yours from what is mine
I’m struggling as best I can
dealing with memories and emotions
I need to do this my way
don’t push your beliefs on me
my spirituality is the product of a lifetime
the waterlily
floats atop
the murky water
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
TEST RUN--
Simplex is simple
Simple is divided
Chosen is the dimples
On my face one sided
Wash those complexities
With soap and water
Ring around the collar…
Soaked with life’s redundancies
Hard is complex
Harder is a test
Chosen by processes
We are chances witness
7/23/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. ©2019
Tautologies always repeat themselves in non sequential order
All philosophies revolve around the suns of tautologies
There are endless suns orbiting Earth all named Henry
Shoes wear feat and feat wear shoes to bed
Vending machines dispense Pez and Pez does likewise
All time machines are created equal
Total eclipses happen seven days a week in Egypt
Egypt is a word without letters or envelopes
Everything is closed in an open universe
Thursdays are open to suggestions of being months
That time of month is not this one but another
All things being equal are equal to one when added to two
All people are one foot tall and only come in one color
Yellow is God's favorite color but not on Sunday
Three thousand pounds of feathers is never enough
Governments are worth their weight in gold
If you sell your children you will go to heaven twice
Everything on this list is true and leads to enlightenment
Why else would someone write it
Why else would anyone read it through
*In logic, a tautology is a formula that is true in every possible interpretation. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein first applied the term to redundancies of propositional logic in 1921.
Boring lackluster monologue
How my skin crawls
When I hear platitudes and...
Six of one and half a dozen of the other
Does take the prize
For the ultimate superlative
Epitome of all redundancies and platitudes
Making my head silently implode
Trying not to draw attention
To how annoyed I become
Hoping the source of my vexation
Will one day fall into oblivion
Really makes me laugh though
Some day I could easily see myself
Become teary eyed with nostalgia
Thinking about my beloved late husband
And how he used to love
Using that most endearing phrase
And how I loved him so
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
You might have noticed that:
Trumpsky has favorite words in his limited vocabulary
"Believe it" and "YUGE" are redundancies in his formulary
But TV Talking Heads have their own words too
When one has an unusual word the others follow anew
"Hacking" of course has been around overly long
And rolls quite easily off a Talking Head's tongue
"War room" of late is an expression often heard
Talking Heads like it and accept another two-fer word
They've concluded "filter" is quite acceptable to use
It fits in nicely when explaining a deception or ruse
They've pushed "Walk It Back", "Pivot" and "Double Down "
To the back of the church where no prayer books are found
But "animus" and "leak" have an edge with an exotic sound
That's why they now insert them in every lengthy speech
When their Thesauri of Lexicons are quite out of reach
But users are reminded "verbum sapienti satis est"
"A word to the wise" is all that's needed and is the best
Engineers know
to build in redundancies
when lives depend
not necessarily exact replicas of the primary unit
but systems whose secondary function
is to carry the load when a primary system
fails.
The principle applies
to all organisms and the inanimate
objects designed to support them.
But the sun
and the rock
that is earth
need no redundancies.
Burning, cooling
one
of each, they disintegrate
without feeling
for the mantle or the planets.
Some individuals
may, it turns out, be irreplaceable.
There is not always another girl singer
this one is the only one for us
at this time, while we're alive
in this place with the random weather.
The one singer, leader
the one who interprets God's words
when she is assassinated, terminated, released
we are not released, velocity
registers a mandatory, momentarily momentous
palpitation that is gone
unlike Shakespeare
so far. She
was not the sun.
But she was found
to be irreplaceable, unique
her song.
Through hub after hub
Opportunities for connection
Or crossed purposes
Wire up.
Messages lose themselves
All the time
And never reach their
Intended destinations.
So why did the just wrong
Signifier happen to
Get through this time?
Exacted its way
Through the complexity
And hit its intended
Target with such
Blunt force
That it overloaded
The system and
Almost broke it…
But not quite
Because it’s resilient
In its redundancies.
(This girl never learns.)
Just a few degrees of
Distinction separate –
Almost togetherness.
It’s like we’re
Waiting – just waiting
– to be moved but
Refuse to budge.
Every millisecond of
Every moment of
Every day,
So much chance for success
And simultaneous failure...
Touchy, this situation.
If You Only Knew
B. Jacobs
8-19-08
Verse 1: Bent and broken
I fake a smile so you can't see through me
I've always been able
To act like nothing's wrong
You said it yourself
That the pain was not worth taking
And as usual
I pull you through
Chorus: Did it ever occur to you
That maybe someone else might see you
As everything that they could possibly want and need
I won't just stand there
On the sidelines, if what I'm feeling is a crime
Then lock me up and throw away the key
Verse 2: Torn and fragile
Every night the same damned dream haunts me
And I'm trapped in my head, refusing to wake up
Swept under the rug
Only good enough when she's not feeling
Half of the feelings she's supposed to feel
CHORUS
Bridge: I'm not asking for much, just an awakening
I've been here for all this time, with nothing to take from it
Over and over again
The redundancies still beckon
And you'll never listen to yourself
If you can't take, why must you fake it
I'm pouring my heart out with not much left to spare
If you only knew...if you only knew...
CHORUS
weeks months days pass by
like strangers on the street
never looking him in the eyes
or stopping to notice the
bitterness behind them
but the seconds the minutes
stall
and he feels them all
like needles in the skin
acupuncture for the soul
but this is all the pain
without the treatment
banality and triviality
and now redundancies
sadly appropriate
for the life he leads
doesnt it stop
hed like to think so
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