Sunday, September 30, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

HEROES

"Heroes are immortal, which is why reminders of their mortality must be censored, from the mundane need to be clean to the pressing need to die."

From Chapter 6, On Asymmetry

Saturday, September 29, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From These Truths: A History of the United States, by Jill Lepore

DARK

"'Gentlemen, the world is dark,' Clarence Darrow once told a jury, leaning over the jury box with his broad-shouldered bulk. 'But it is not hopeless.' There remained the question: Where did hope lie?"

From Chapter Ten, Efficiency and the Masses

Friday, September 28, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From As a Man Grows Old, by Italo Svevo, translated by Beryl De Zoete

INDIGNATION

"That indignation procured him the most delightful dreams. Towards morning the tumult of his senses subsided, leaving only an emotional anxiety about his own fate."

From Chapter 10

Thursday, September 27, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Leadership in Turbulent Times, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

FAME

"The fame they craved, the recognition they sought, bears little resemblance to today's cult of celebrity."

From Epilogue, Of Death and Remembrance

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Crazy Rich Clerihew


KEVIN KWAN

Kevin Kwan
Goes on and on
To show the rich
Can be a stitch.




A Caricature


Daily Dose


From The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Robin Buss

SPLENDID

"It was one of those splendid autumn days that sometimes compensate for the lack of the preceding summer, or its brevity."

From Chapter CIX, The Assizes

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Clerihew for the Lost Cause


WALKER PERCY

For the slower
Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Asks for mercy.

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Essayism: On form, Feeling, and Nonfiction, by Brian Dillon

APHORISM

"The origins of the aphorism are both elevated and abject, as fits a literary form of sublime ambition that is at present in a kind of disgrace."

From page 86

Monday, September 24, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Tonight I'm Someone Else: Essays, by Chelsea Hodson

BLAME

"Who could blame me for seeing only what I wanted to see? Who could accuse me of anything? I loved everything that didn't love me back; it was the easiest thing in the world"

From The New Love

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Clerihew in lieu of Prayer


KHALED HOSSEINI

Khaled Hosseini
Stands with the refugees
And cries aloud to the empty air
(See his Sea Prayer.)

A Caricature


Daily Dose



From Sea Prayer, by Khaled Hosseini

PRAYER

These are only words.
A father's tricks.
It slays your father,
your faith in him.
Because all I can think tonight is
how deep the sea,
and how vast, how indifferent.
How powerless I am to protect you from it.
All I can do is pray.
Pray God steers the vessel true,
when the shores slip out of eyeshot
and we are a flyspeck
in the heaving waters, pitching and tilting,
easily swallowed.
Because you,
you are precious cargo, Marwan,
the most precious there ever was.
I pray the sea knows this.
Inshallah.
How I pray the sea knows this.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

A Caricature


Clerihew of Little Failure


GARY SHTEYNGART

Gary Shteyngart
Has a fine heart
And he's funny,
Believe me, honey.

Daily Dose


From Lake Success, by Gary Shteyngart

SOMEBODY

"Barry wanted to punch somebody, preferably a Nazi, but really anyone would do."

From Chapter 11

Friday, September 21, 2018

Clerihew for a Lost Lady Novelist


ELLEN GLASGOW

Dimmed is the past glow
Of Ellen Glasgow,
Long years under the Barren Ground
And lost to memory, time, renown.

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass, translated by Ralph Manheim

SLASHED

"Slashed and baggy and powdered, I stood up, ringing my bells."

From Book Three, Madonna 49

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Clerihew for Idiots


ELIF BATUMAN

Elif Batuman
Found that she could yawn
In English and Turkish
When men were jerk-ish.


A Caricature


Daily Dose


From The Idiot, by Elif Batuman

MIS

"The day after my nineteenth birthday, my mother drove me to the Pakistan Airlines annex at JFK: a narrow temporary building with dusty windows, shared by Air Poland. The air Poland logo was a skinny, malnourished-looking birdlike creature. I kept misreading things. ONLY ENTRUST YOUR LUGGAGE TO UNINFORMED PORTERS."

From Part Two, June

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Clerihew for the Dean


TAHA HUSSEIN

Taha Hussein
Knew the pain
Of mankind
Being blind.

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From A Gay and Melancholy Sound, by Merle Miller

BEEF

"His wife said, 'I forgive you. I forgave you the first time I met you because at the same time that I wanted to kill you, I wanted to kiss you. I was already in love with you, you bastard. Now come have some cold roast beef...'"

From Part Two, Notes Dictated on the Fifth Day, Chapter One

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Clerihew for the Irascible


S. J. PERELMAN

S. J. Perelman
Was sometimes seen to hurl pen,
Paper, typewriter, and ink
Into the nearest drink.

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Evolution, by Eileen Myles

WESTERN POEM
purple clouds
my doubts
iridescent
cream, my
loss
purple mountains
my friends
buzzards circling
overhead
my hopes
birds singing
jagged singing
my indecision
wrecked skinny
tree
my past
photographs
I send home
my indiscretion
amber
street
light
my reading
my appetite
my appetite
red striped sky
my confusion
bright yellow
grey sky
my ardor
car lights
my commo
tion
telephone
pole
my wishes
stop sign
my fear
family dollar
family dollar
court house
my opinion
black cloud
white sky
hesitation
black cloud
white sky
bliss
blinking signals
my intentions
black mountains
too many
suggestions
skipping white
lines
my attention
a young cowboy
first saw
the lights
a young cowboy
first saw the
lights
the horns
on your van
my defensive
ness
that ole train
my dreams
that ole train
-- Eileen Myles

Monday, September 17, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From Goodbye to All That, by Robert Graves

PATER

" That my father is a poet, saved me from any false reverence for poets."

From Chapter One

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Clerihew for the Dean's December


SAUL BELLOW

Saul Bellow
Did not mellow.
Time could not dim
The dislikes of him.

A Caricature


Daily Dose

From Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

SERIOUS

"Sex is child's play; but gender is serious business."

From Chapter 8, There Is No Justice in History, Sex and Gender

Saturday, September 15, 2018

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From If I Were a Suicide Bomber, by Per Aage Brandt, translated by Thom Satterlee

WHAT

"What do I say, what do I do, what
do I mean, I seldom mean anthing
in the world, and when someone
sings salva me, I wonder to myself,
why are you asking the mighty forces
to fish just you out of this soup"

From Poesi, 2010 / Poetry, 2010

Friday, September 14, 2018

Fresh Slops Daily




“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” 
― George Bernard Shaw

Clerihew for the Sharp Point of the Prick


HAROLD BLOOM

The pervasive gloom
Of Harold Bloom
Presumably is mitigated
By the bores he's ventilated.



A Caricature


Daily Dose


From The Sarah Book, by Scott McClanahan

IF I

"If I knew things would have turned out like this I would have been different.  If I knew things would have turned out like this, I would have been nicer."

From page 185

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Clerihew for a Japanese Christan


SHUSAKU ENDO

If Heaven exists,
Somewhere on the lists
Shusaku Endo
Should ascend-o.

A Caricature


Daily Dose


From The Sarah Book, by Scott McClanahan

SHOUT

“I shouted at her and then she shouted at me.  And then I shouted at her and she shouted at me and then we shouted together.  And then we shouted in other rooms.”

From page 34