tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:/articles/tag/punFrabjous Times : Tag pun, everything about punOriginal fiction and poetry2008-04-09T11:02:03-05:00Typotag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/892008-04-05T19:57:44-05:002008-04-09T11:02:03-05:00Rich MagahizSecret agent moon<p><div class="kufirst">it was here</div><div class="kumid">moments ago,</div><div class="kulast">check your penumbra</div><br /></p>
<p><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">from the Earthlit side</span><span class="righthalf"> some green light blinks</span></div><br /></p>
<p><div class="kufirst">silk wedding gown,</div><div class="kumid">the trim two klicks of</div><div class="kulast">blasting cord</div><br /></p>
<p><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">Bob beams</span><span class="righthalf"> (his front tooth is a camera)</span></div><br /></p><p><div class="kufirst">it was here</div><div class="kumid">moments ago,</div><div class="kulast">check your penumbra</div><br /></p>
<p><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">from the Earthlit side</span><span class="righthalf"> some green light blinks</span></div><br /></p>
<p><div class="kufirst">silk wedding gown,</div><div class="kumid">the trim two klicks of</div><div class="kulast">blasting cord</div><br /></p>
<p><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">Bob beams</span><span class="righthalf"> (his front tooth is a camera)</span></div><br /></p>tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/792008-03-21T09:10:40-05:002008-03-24T20:23:47-05:00Rich MagahizYet Another Vampire Horrorku<div class="kufirst">ever since,</div>
<div class="kumid">next to her bed she keeps</div>
<div class="kulast">a sharp stake</div><br />
<div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">we can prove your guilt:</span><span class="righthalf"> Scythe-Angel-Scythe</span></div><br />
<div class="kufirst">shambling horrors</div>
<div class="kumid">move in next door</div>
<div class="kulast">flanked by lawyers</div><br />
<div class="note"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congruence_%28geometry%29#SAS.2C_SSS.2C_ASA.2C_and_AAS">Congruence</a><br />
<dl><dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You don’t need to explain horrorku to me. It’s pretty obvious that if one can accept science fiction-themed poetry, why not horror-themed in the same form. But what is this “yet another” thing?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>That’s just me getting snarky about cliché. I’ve done <a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/people/milkfish/tags/yetanother,?rating=0">others in this vein</a> before, criticizing the kind of writing which does not take enough risks by avoiding the obvious path. If you read enough verse with vampires and werewolves, blood and carnage and fear, monsters and midnights and other low-hanging horrible fruit in them, you want to see something that has none of those elements in them to see if it can be done.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>Sounds pretty dismal.</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Well it would not be horrorku if it weren’t dismal, would it? Think of the poor dark poetry editors who have to read things like this day in and day out:
<h5 align="center">Bloody vampire</h5>
<div class="kufirst">a bloody vampire</div>
<div class="kumid">waiting by the dark graveyard,</div>
<div class="kulast">a bat flies over</div>
<p>(Which I just made up.) To me, even though that has all the elements of a horrorku, the way it just kind of throws them out there makes it less interesting than it could be.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You mean it just sort of <b>tells</b> you about the subject instead of <b>showing</b> it in any kind of novel way.</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Take a look at <a href="http://baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/haiku/haiku.aesthetics.gurga.htm#13">this list</a>:</p>
<ul><li>It is a poem.</li>
<li>It is a poem limited in length, in English that limit being somewhere between 15 and 20 syllables.</li>
<li>It presents images rather than ideas.</li>
<li>It is intuitive rather than intellective.</li>
<li>It uses observation of nature and the seasons as a basis for that intuition.</li>
<li>Its observations are specific rather than general. </li></ul>
<p>That was written about English-language haiku, not any of these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction">speculative fiction</a> derivatives (thus the item about nature and the seasons which would not apply to scifaiku or horroku), but the esthetic point being made is still useful to ponder. I think the bat poem has problems with the part about being intuitive, more so than the wooden stake poem, which starts out open-ended and ends before the reader really knows what went on.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>Oh, so you’re saying that the original poem wasn’t supposed to be using cliché after all, but is actually an anti-cliché statement?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>You didn’t get that? Yes, the idea is to write a horrorku (or whatever) that takes a hackneyed subject but which itself tries to put a new spin on things. There’s enough <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/art2/flaminghorsestudios/path3.html">trite verse</a> out there that there seems to be no real point to add to the collection.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You mean that</p>
<h5 align="center">Yet Another Mummy Horrorku</h5>
<div class="kufirst">on my way to work</div>
<div class="kumid">I passed a mummy - he was</div>
<div class="kulast">a very strange sight</div>
<p>isn’t worthy of posting to the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scifaiku/?yguid=20177104">Scifaiku list</a>?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Keep working on that, there.</dd></dl></p>
<p><em>The third in a projected <a href="http://frabjoustimes.magahiz.com/articles/tag/prosody">series</a> of discussions on poetry.</em></div></p><div class="kufirst">ever since,</div>
<div class="kumid">next to her bed she keeps</div>
<div class="kulast">a sharp stake</div><br />
<div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">we can prove your guilt:</span><span class="righthalf"> Scythe-Angel-Scythe</span></div><br />
<div class="kufirst">shambling horrors</div>
<div class="kumid">move in next door</div>
<div class="kulast">flanked by lawyers</div><br />
<div class="note"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congruence_%28geometry%29#SAS.2C_SSS.2C_ASA.2C_and_AAS">Congruence</a><br />
<dl><dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You don’t need to explain horrorku to me. It’s pretty obvious that if one can accept science fiction-themed poetry, why not horror-themed in the same form. But what is this “yet another” thing?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>That’s just me getting snarky about cliché. I’ve done <a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/people/milkfish/tags/yetanother,?rating=0">others in this vein</a> before, criticizing the kind of writing which does not take enough risks by avoiding the obvious path. If you read enough verse with vampires and werewolves, blood and carnage and fear, monsters and midnights and other low-hanging horrible fruit in them, you want to see something that has none of those elements in them to see if it can be done.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>Sounds pretty dismal.</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Well it would not be horrorku if it weren’t dismal, would it? Think of the poor dark poetry editors who have to read things like this day in and day out:
<h5 align="center">Bloody vampire</h5>
<div class="kufirst">a bloody vampire</div>
<div class="kumid">waiting by the dark graveyard,</div>
<div class="kulast">a bat flies over</div>
<p>(Which I just made up.) To me, even though that has all the elements of a horrorku, the way it just kind of throws them out there makes it less interesting than it could be.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You mean it just sort of <b>tells</b> you about the subject instead of <b>showing</b> it in any kind of novel way.</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Take a look at <a href="http://baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/haiku/haiku.aesthetics.gurga.htm#13">this list</a>:</p>
<ul><li>It is a poem.</li>
<li>It is a poem limited in length, in English that limit being somewhere between 15 and 20 syllables.</li>
<li>It presents images rather than ideas.</li>
<li>It is intuitive rather than intellective.</li>
<li>It uses observation of nature and the seasons as a basis for that intuition.</li>
<li>Its observations are specific rather than general. </li></ul>
<p>That was written about English-language haiku, not any of these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction">speculative fiction</a> derivatives (thus the item about nature and the seasons which would not apply to scifaiku or horroku), but the esthetic point being made is still useful to ponder. I think the bat poem has problems with the part about being intuitive, more so than the wooden stake poem, which starts out open-ended and ends before the reader really knows what went on.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>Oh, so you’re saying that the original poem wasn’t supposed to be using cliché after all, but is actually an anti-cliché statement?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>You didn’t get that? Yes, the idea is to write a horrorku (or whatever) that takes a hackneyed subject but which itself tries to put a new spin on things. There’s enough <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/art2/flaminghorsestudios/path3.html">trite verse</a> out there that there seems to be no real point to add to the collection.</dd>
<dt><em>Q</em></dt><dd>You mean that</p>
<h5 align="center">Yet Another Mummy Horrorku</h5>
<div class="kufirst">on my way to work</div>
<div class="kumid">I passed a mummy - he was</div>
<div class="kulast">a very strange sight</div>
<p>isn’t worthy of posting to the <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scifaiku/?yguid=20177104">Scifaiku list</a>?</dd>
<dt><em>A</em></dt><dd>Keep working on that, there.</dd></dl></p>
<p><em>The third in a projected <a href="http://frabjoustimes.magahiz.com/articles/tag/prosody">series</a> of discussions on poetry.</em></div></p>tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/742008-03-11T17:07:54-05:002008-03-11T17:14:13-05:00Rich MagahizA world o' pain<div class="kufirst">exquisitely</div>
<div class="kumid">pain tolerant:</div>
<div class="kulast">Venusians in furs</div>
<div class="note"><blockquote>“I imagine the goddess of love as having descended from Mount Olympus for the sake of some mortal man. And always cold in this modern world of ours, she seeks to keep her sublime body warm in a large heavy fur and her feet in the lap of her lover. I imagine the favorite of a beautiful despot, who whips her slave, when she is tired of kissing him, and the more she treads him underfoot, the more insanely he loves her. And so I shall call the picture: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6852" title="Project Gutenberg link">Venus in Furs</a>.” — Leopold von Sacher-Masoch</blockquote></div><div class="kufirst">exquisitely</div>
<div class="kumid">pain tolerant:</div>
<div class="kulast">Venusians in furs</div>
<div class="note"><blockquote>“I imagine the goddess of love as having descended from Mount Olympus for the sake of some mortal man. And always cold in this modern world of ours, she seeks to keep her sublime body warm in a large heavy fur and her feet in the lap of her lover. I imagine the favorite of a beautiful despot, who whips her slave, when she is tired of kissing him, and the more she treads him underfoot, the more insanely he loves her. And so I shall call the picture: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6852" title="Project Gutenberg link">Venus in Furs</a>.” — Leopold von Sacher-Masoch</blockquote></div>tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/632008-02-29T20:17:07-06:002008-02-29T20:17:50-06:00Rich Magahiz(Untitled)<div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">¡toro nosh!</span><span class="righthalf"> lunch with social morays</span></div><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">¡toro nosh!</span><span class="righthalf"> lunch with social morays</span></div>tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/572008-02-18T21:07:54-06:002008-02-21T11:49:16-06:00Rich MagahizSorry, this job just wasn't your cup of blood<div class="kufirst">he smiled</div>
<div class="kumid">a sharp, thin grin -</div>
<div class="kulast">Vlad’s exit interview</div>
<p><br /><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">“plasma” TV?</span><span class="righthalf"> I want a refund!</span></div></p>
<p><br /><div class="kufirst">Hellfrog Chasm:</div></p>
<div class="kumid">our cadres fall back,</div>
<div class="kulast">hemorrhaging</div>
<p><br /><div class="note"><blockquote>Behold the mightiest <a href="http://www.sciam.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=3430E07B-DA97-89FA-8A859EFDB177BF1C&sc=rss">attack frog</a> known to man.</blockquote></div></p><div class="kufirst">he smiled</div>
<div class="kumid">a sharp, thin grin -</div>
<div class="kulast">Vlad’s exit interview</div>
<p><br /><div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">“plasma” TV?</span><span class="righthalf"> I want a refund!</span></div></p>
<p><br /><div class="kufirst">Hellfrog Chasm:</div></p>
<div class="kumid">our cadres fall back,</div>
<div class="kulast">hemorrhaging</div>
<p><br /><div class="note"><blockquote>Behold the mightiest <a href="http://www.sciam.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=3430E07B-DA97-89FA-8A859EFDB177BF1C&sc=rss">attack frog</a> known to man.</blockquote></div></p>tag:frabjoustimes.magahiz.com,:Article/112007-12-21T20:37:37-06:002008-02-09T16:24:09-06:00Rich Magahiz(Untitled)<div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">madness and painful death –</span>
<span class="righthalf">Shaitan KKKlaws</span></div>
<div class="note"><a href="http://themob.1035kissfm.com/djjradio/blog/2007/12/13/kids_hate_santa_photos">Kids hate Santa Photos</a></div>
<div class="split"><span class="lefthalf">madness and painful death –</span>
<span class="righthalf">Shaitan KKKlaws</span></div>
<div class="note"><a href="http://themob.1035kissfm.com/djjradio/blog/2007/12/13/kids_hate_santa_photos">Kids hate Santa Photos</a></div>