M is for Marie

is for Marie

The reason why the French love bread

Marie Antoinette sat reflecting in a chateau -

deep thoughts on how popularity hits a plateau,

When in ran her aide and said,

“Majestée, the poor get no bread”

“O Foolish One,” she cried, “Let them eat some gateau.”

“No, no” the peasants growled, “we’ll have our bread!

We will NOT be fobbed off with cake instead,

we the French peasants

can get quite unpleasant.”

We all know what happened – the queen lost her head.

Was she just a thoughtless woman, or plain rude?

Or quite out-of-touch with her wider brood?

Her aide lacked for tact

that is a certain fact.

The moral? mess not with ye masses over food.

If you’ve wondered why the French are so passionate,

so finicky about their croissant, and baguette

well, now you clearly know.

It’s that long ago gateau

the French were offered by Marie Antoinette.

M is also for Marionette - very strangely close to a portmanteau of Marie Antoinette, who May or Mayn't have been one of circumstances.  At any rate, there is no historical evidence to support this famous let-them-eat-cake callousness of hers.  She was a very extravagant lady no doubt, but family members of terrible rulers have been known for their dodgy shopping habits in all times, then and now, Imelda Marcos, Suzanne Mubarak, Many examples, only I can't just now think of any More names with M. 

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2016 

L is for Lucy

is for Lucy

Lucy of the hottest curves

Lucy, though quite old, has curves so hot

that folks would die to touch her as often as not -

a lumbar curve and a valgus knee

a pubic arch quite beyond sexy

assets that most other fossils haven’t got.

I'm told that's why there's just a replica -
in the museum, so robbers don't nick her.
you'll get a quick shufti
but no touching that knee!
and totally forget what was in her knickahs!!

I sometimes question what would we find
if we dug into the paleonto-logical mind?
Suppose the knees were a male's
would we get the same details
of limbs and arches, curves front and behind?

L is aLso for Lag : there is a Lag in returning comments here this week. My meticuLous scheduLes have gone sLightLy awry.  The CoLours of Life Poetry FestivaL is this Saturday, and every other evening is taken up with rehearsing. In fact, the dress researsaL is Later today, serious attack of butterfLies! But I digress, what I actuaLLy meant to teLL you was - I am going to Leap right back on track and catch up with you on Sunday.  As soon as the poetry fest is over.

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2016 

K is for the King

is for King

the King’s pickle

The King of Egypt, known as the Pharaoh,

had his innards pickled and his bone marrow

dried after death and preserved;

in Giza his tomb can be observed -

it starts off wide, but then pointedly  narrows.

I wonder why his friend and architect

thought building straight was somehow a defect?

Or was it a monumental

metaphor for the central

premise that all things fall in once they’re erect?

K is also for Knack and Knock and Knee and Knowledge - as a Knon-Knative, sorry, non-native speaker of English, this silent K business used to make me go Knock-kneed and cross-eyed as a child. Utterly, Kompletely Konfusing?  Why is it there if no-one is going to pronounce it? Why is it there at all in the alphabet when C and Que-endings are doing half its work anyways? Why does English have 3 Konsonants which are essentially doing the same job? Any Kind souls here who'll get me out of this Kwandary?

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2016 

J is for Job descriptions

is for Job descriptions

Job descriptions of Johannes et al

Johannes, you know, of the Kepler kind

worried till he went almost out of his mind,

“astrology, astrophysics

or just plain mathematics

how on earth is my work to be defined?”

Job descriptions are the rummest of things

they flummox all, from scientists to kings.

"Must get the Bible translated,"

thought James, "or else I'm fated

to be called First and Fourth, bloody confusing!"

Don't you know a couple Jobs who never fit

their job titles and their defined limits?

They bent and extended,

counselled and befriended -

and went far beyond their official remits.

The job descriptions of letters J and G

never fail to amaze, amuse and confuse me -

G does both George and Gavin

But J’s only job is jabbin’

at one sound with forlorn monotony.


Who's overstepping the line, who's being a slob
who is falling down merrily on the job -
finally it's all a matter
of a juxtaposition of letters
and that doth time and again smacketh me gob.

J is also for Joke : which is what limericks are supposed to be.  If they are somewhat lame limericks, then they are poor jokes and bring about eye rolling rather than all round Jollity and mirth.  Come across any lately?

J is also for Just : as in 'Just one more blog/page/story/whatev, and then I'll stop reading and shut this damn gizmo down and get some rest.' And then when you next look up, the dawn is a hairline crack in the curtains.

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2016 

I Is for Isaac

is for Isaac

Isaac’s obsession and the consequent loss to humanity

How far the apple falls from the tree -

a key issue, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

But Isaac? he veered off

with the direction of the drop,

obsessed with G to an absurd degree.

The result is: we can only declare

that the apple will fall, not when nor where.

It can’t be calculated

how far the fall is slated,

because Isaac Newton just did not care.



I is for Island : which is what I live on, I mean, literally.  Not that I Ingest one as food.  

Island, that no man Is, John assures me.  Yeah, right. I am not so convinced. Maybe in John's time, It was so (he's is bit older than me, born 16th century). Men were mainlands then. Now vastly different story...more and more people are morphing Into Islands It seems to me.  One minute, a human, next minute s/he grabs a gizmo and wham...an Island! It is beyond Imagining.

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2016 

H is for Henry....the Heighth

is for Henry

Henry’s heir raising tale

G is for Gorgonzola and Gorgon

is for Gorgonzola and Gorgon

The difference between Gorgonzola and Gorgon

F is For the French way

is for the French way

the French are way too cool

E is for Euclid

 is for Euclid

Euclid and the science of SMS

D is for Daedalus

is for Daedalus' Design

Daedalus’ design

C is for Caligula

Comfortably rested after the weekend? Caught up with the chores, and your Comrades? Cool, then let's Commence with the Challenge - Currently we are seeing to C, and Coming up is :

is for Caligula

Caligula the straight but bent ruler

B is for Buddha

 is for Buddha

Buddha’s contribution

A is for April...n A-Z ...n Archie

is for Archimedes

Archie’s sparse bathing routine

Before the beginning of April, there came to the making of this woman...In praise of the A-Z

For the past week, I have been too taken up transitioning from a pantser to a planner in the terminal stages of control freakery, and also been up and down and sideways on the theme reveal list, so there's no fresh, smoking, write-it-as-it-comes poetry here today.  For all I know the verses might have come and banged the door down and biffed me a solid one on the back of my head.  But I was too busy to notice, too busy being astounded at the sheer variety of subjects that people choose to blog about – from ancestors to living on a yacht to a wishlist of cities to maths and mythology and metals and alloys that changed the world, I mean wow! It’s a *&^%£@# education, the A-Z is! Incidentally, if you're looking for my theme reveal it's right here.

And in the middle of reading 541 blogs, of which I managed to cover right upto 520, a bolt from the blue! (Some were dud links; some forgot to post the reveal altogether; some warned me off with those skull and crossbones virus alert symbols; and I avoided the AC, because censorship is major where I am, and the definition of what is permissible and what is not is mind boggling!) Seriously chuffed with what I managed to read of the theme reveal,  as I did set myself the goal of covering more than I have done in the previous years.


But for the actual challenge, where all anyone has is one day per letter, and about three times as many blogs, I can tell you right NOW what I am NOT going to do. If I land on your site and can't see your A-Z post right away, I am NOT going to scroll around forever.  If I land on your blog, and am faced with five little cutesy boxes before I can get to the posts, I am NOT going to wait for them to gently implode and let me in. Out in a jiffy, that's me. Same goes for comment boxes and buttons that are AWOL, or have the verification on.  (And what's with these teeny-tiny thumbnails of grass and water anyways?! Not easy on my terrible eyesight!) I am by nature a pathological non-commenter/avid lurker, so you give me an excuse to scoot right out without commenting, you know what's going to happen, right? Yup, out in a jiffy.  


On the other hand, the length of your posts is NOT going to faze me one bit, you can write upto a picture's worth of words, and if you grab my interest I will read to the end, and if your comment button is visible, I will comment if I can, because I am conflicted like that. For the duration of the A-Z, I am absolutely willing to give up my silent lurker persona. I have every intention of returning every comment made here. Please do unto me as you would have me do unto you - leave me your link when you comment. This post tells you how to create a signature for your blog.

Credit

Okay, back to the topic at hand - the bolt from the blue. In the middle of all that reading frenzy, the Bangla-mania struck again, uff uff uff. Not that I gave in or anything, no way.  I have last minute tweaks on my A-Z posts still.  But it did lead to a new Bengali book idea, a brainwave inspired by a combo of the A-Z theme reading and a casual suggestion a blogger friend once made here yonks ago.  


I have, right from the first time I participated, held that the A-Z benefits me in ways most unpredictable and hard to imagine, and to pinpoint. And the Challenge hasn’t even begun yet!! How far beyond cracking cool is that?? 

Not posted for the A-Z, but still besotted with it! 

A-Z Challenge Theme Reveal

Poetry in some form or other, of course.  That goes without saying.  Incapable of thinking beyond poetry for a theme. This year it's going to be Light n Limerick-y.