Letters for George: Shadormas For Our Times

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Shadormas For Our Times

Dear George,

I don’t intend to make this a coronavirus blog, but it’s all that’s on my mind these days. Mostly I’ve been working on a series of shadormas about the pandemic. A shadorma is allegedly a medieval Spanish poetic form that consists of 6 lines with 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllables per line. One shadorma can be a short poem, or you can string a series together as I’ve done here. I say allegedly Spanish because “shadorma” is not a Spanish word, and no one has ever discovered a Spanish poem from the Middle Ages that was written in this form. One skeptic speculates that shadormas were invented in recent years by a postal clerk who had too much time on his or her hands. Anyway, they are enjoyable to work on. Usually I prefer to write light, airy poems, but the dark side prevailed this time. It is what it is. I wonder if this is how others feel.

Love,

Dave

Shadormas For Our Times

Nasty beast

This COVID-19

Satan’s spawn

Spread by wind

Racing through the populace

Hunting you and me

Wuhan first

And then Seattle

World on fire

Lethal scourge

A lucky few will escape

A roll of the dice

Job losses

Businesses kaput

Store meltdowns

Bankruptcy

Recovery takes ten years

Most will not survive

Stick to rules

We’ll flatten the curve

Hospitals

In distress

Doctors, nurses lacking gear

Medical war zones

The elders

Nursing home patrons

Prisoners

Hispanics

African-Americans

COVID’s after them

Stay at home

The world is closed down

Malls shuttered

No pro sports

Large gatherings illegal

Cities are ghost towns

Keep apart

Six feet, maybe twelve

Handshakes out

No more hugs

In this disconnected age

Friends cannot be friends

Don our masks

Cover up the smiles

Faces veiled

Muffled breath

Neighbors look like terrorists

I avert my eyes

Will we die?

Maybe, we’ll know soon

Eighty-two

Weakened lungs

A profile the virus craves

Hide in the bedroom

At the store

Peril from all sides

Crowded aisles

Few wear masks

Surfaces are festering

Illness resting there

Flawed leaders

Failure at the top

Denial

Nonstop lies

No regard for human life

Politics, that’s it

Drink Chlorox

Bleach will kill the germs

Shrinks them up

Roasts their skin

Covid Nineteen turns to ash

Sadly so will you

This lockdown

My spouse won’t have it

Rambunctious

Unrestrained

Off she goes to Fresh Market

Picking out new germs

Years to go

For this pandemic

Dastardly

Worse than SARS

Worst of all for folks like us

Will our lives come back?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

BLOG POSTING SCHEDULE, CONTENT, SOURCES, FOCUS, ETC.

-POSTING SCHEDULE

-Larger main posts at left: usually a new addition every one to two weeks.

-Short posts in right-hand column: changed every three weeks, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

-SOURCES: Personal photos (e.g., family) are by myself or sometimes by another family member. Nonpersonal photos are usually obtained through Google Images. Nonpersonal factual info most frequently comes from Wikipedia and external links available there or from Google searches. Typically I cite sources at the end of the post. If you want to know a source and haven't located it through info I provide, Wikipedia, Google, or Google Images, please let me know at lundgrdc@gmail.com, and I should be able to help.

-MORE OF MY PHOTOS: www.flickr.com/photos/lundgrdc/

-MORE OF MY POEMS: www.funnypoemsmaybe.blogspot.com

-NAMES: At my family members' request, I use "L" rather than our full last name and sometimes initials for first names. Where there's content deemed personal in a story, I may use pseudonyms.

-MY EMAIL: lundgrdc@gmail.com

MAY 2024 HOLIDAYS

MAY 2024 HOLIDAYS

-Sat. May 4. Kentucky Derby. Held annually at Churchill Downs in Louisville, the Derby is the oldest (1875) and most popular horse race in the world. /// -Sun., May 5. Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo celebrates the MexicanArmy’s victory over the French during the Franco-Mexican War and, in the U.S., celebrates the Mexican culture and heritage. /// -Tues., May 7. VE Day, WW II. Commemorates the end of fighting in Europe with the defeat of the Third Reich. /// -Sun., May 12. Mother’s Day. Julia Ward Howe, author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, introduced the notion of Mother’s Day in 1870. Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation officially recognizing the day in 1914. /// -Sat., May 18. Armed Forces Day. Armed Forces Day, honoring currently serving members of the Armed Forces, was introduced in 1949 to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force Days. /// -Mon., May 27. Memorial Day. Made a national holiday in 1971, Memorial Day honors those who died while serving in the U.S. military (2.7 million service members since 1775). (Source: wincalendar.com)

CINCINNATI HISTORY

CINCINNATI HISTORY

James Presley Ball Sr., a prominent African-American photographer, abolitionist, and businessman, was born in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1825 to William and Susan Ball. He learned daguerreotype photography from John B. Bailey of Boston, also a “freeman of color”. Ball settled in Cincinnati in 1849 and opened a studio with his brother Thomas. Known as “Ball’s Daguerrean Gallery of the West”, the business developed “from a small gallery to one of the great galleries of the Midwest.” Robert Duncanson worked in Ball’s studio, retouching portraits and coloring photographic prints. In 1855 Ball’s daguerreotypes were shown at the Ohio State Fair and at the Ohio Mechanics Annual Exhibition. In the 1870s Ball ended his partnership with Thomas and moved successively to Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and Minnesota. Ball died in Honolulu in 1904. (wikipedia.org)

OSCAR BEST PICTURE NOMINEES

OSCAR BEST PICTURE NOMINEES

In Which We Serve (1942), directed by Noel Coward and David Lean; written and produced by Noel Coward; starring Noel Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles; music by Noel Coward and Clifton Parker; a patriotic British war film based on the exploits of Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten who was in command of the destroyer HMS Kelly; 115 minutes; budget, 240,000 pounds; box office, 300,000 pounds, $2 million (US rentals); nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay; NY Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film. (wikipedia)

LITTLE LIFE STORIES

LITTLE LIFE STORIES

am being driven mad because our downstairs smoke detector chirps loudly every forty seconds and I can’t figure out how to stop it. I tried to open the door on the detector to change the battery but, pulling as hard as I dared, I couldn’t do it. When the TV technician visited I asked him if he could do it, but he checked it out, said it was hard-wired, and he didn’t want to get shocked. That was four days ago. Katja plans to call an electrician but hasn’t gotten around to it. I worry that the c

U.P. HISTORY

U.P. HISTORY

Michigan Technological University, originally known as the Michigan Mining School, began in Houghton in 1885 to train mining engineers to better operate the local copper mines. The school started with 4 faculty members and 23 students who met on the second floor of a building on Montezuma Avenue in Houghton. By 1931 the college had 591 students who pursued degrees in electrical engineering, mining engineering, metallurgy, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and chemical engineering. Post-war enrollment bloomed, and enrollment was 1,789 in Houghton and 384 at the Sault branch. Long-dormant PhD programs were revived in the late 1950s, and Michigan Tech moved from a college to a university. In 2019 Michigan Tech established the College of Computing and began construction for its Health Technologies Complex. (mtu.edu)

TRIVIA: Jeopardy

TRIVIA: Jeopardy

The first episode of Jeopardy premiered in 1964 and the show ran until 1975. “The All New Jeopardy” then ran from 1978 to 1979. Today’s version premiered in 1984. There’s an unofficial fan-run archive that has nearly every clue and competitor from the show’s 37 seasons, and prospective contestants can study up on 412,883 clues. Jeopardy tapes five episodes a day about 46 days a year. By the end of 2019 the show had aired 8,000 episodes. During its run the show has gotten 43 Emmy Awards, more than any other game show. (insider.com)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/22 - Sun., 4/28/24)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/22 - Sun., 4/28/24)

I read my NIL college sports paper at Underground Writers. We got 4 new students at Advanced Poetry. Katja made tasty matzo ball soup. We ate out at Bronte’s and at Trio. I went to the fitness center a couple of times, followed by visits to the thrift shop. I couldn’t hear anything at the OLLI lecture on artificial intelligence, went to Costco to get my hearing aids cleaned. We forgot to bring our most important tax form to the accountant. The cleaning ladies came and cleaned out the basement laundry tub, despoiled by a clogged pipe. We watched the finale of Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office on PBS.