Is it a question?

To be or not to be
Is it a question?
Whether 'tis more realistic to accept
The linguistic nature of philosophy
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
Binarism! Resolution — and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That thought's aware of. 'Tis a reductionism
Devoutly to be wished... Conceptualize
Perchance problematize — Aye, there's the rub
What complications may arise
If we have so dismissed all this "blah"
Must give us cause
To regret that we ever presumed so far...

    (With apologies to Hamlet, at least...)

Limerick desserts

Just two more...

I tried for a while to avoid
A further reference to Freud
But your nervous relation
To signification
Suggests you may be paranoid.

A chap whose faith in the logical
Bordered upon the euphorical
Found citationality
In his rationality
And structures irreducibly metaphorical.

(You deserved them...)

It's a sign

When I look back upon my verse
It's always with a sense of shame
I can never make things rhyme (?rame)

No matter what I try to think
To speak in words or write in ink
It's the same thing in my mind —

It's a sign!!!

At school they taught me how to be
So clear in thought and word and deed —
They didn't quite succeed!

No matter ...

It's a sign!!!

Everything I've ever said, every word, every line
All that I keep repeating all the time —

It's a sign!!!

Father forgive me, I tried to understand it
I read through deconstruction
Not knowing therein lay destruction
Whatever you taught me, I didn't believe it
Father, you formed me, 'cos I didn't care
And I still don't understand it

So I look back upon my verse
And it's always with a sense of shame,
I can never make things rhyme (?rame)

It's a sign!

Desiderata

DESIDERATA

Whatever you do, whatever you do, try not to repeat repeat yourself. Get real. Make sure you have enough milk in the fridge (and don't buy that awful skimmed stuff.)

Avoid riding a tricycle in the morning. Respect the word. Always quote out of context, except that this is impossible. Never drink Pimms with reptiles or chemical engineers. Use a toothbrush, not a copy of "The Brothers Karamazov".

Lead us not (presumably) into textualization, and deliver us from the sign ...? For, "Metaphor is the logic of contamination and the contamination of logic." Need one say more?

Endeavour not to impose an order on the text. Order not your elders, betters and blubbers. Order a 37 with lychees. Speak clearly from the diaphragm. Spell diaphragm. Discuss. Pass briefly from adverb to conjunct, and the world will see you as you truly aren't. Write limericks till the mourning after.

But the work of mourning is always already (see Freud). At 12:15 p.m. in East Death. Do not buy invisible signatures of Salvador Dalí. Be happy.

Always look on the Sheffield (Brightside). Go to jail — go directly to jail, do not collect $200. Pass the buck. Give us a clue. Don't stand in the middle of motorways. Stop doing that! If you do that once more, I'll be cross.

Start doing this! If you don't do this now, I'll be Maltese. Think carefully before making up your mind. Too many desiderands stain the cloth.

Almost Bowie

Ten thousand thundering typhoons, + VAT (Vegetarians Against Tractors).

1/ It's a godawful small affair
To the girl with mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a [sounding board]¹
For she's lived it 10 times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to [call the song]
[Sea dwarves] fighting in the dance hall
Old man — look at those cavemen go
It's the creepiest show
Take a look at the old man beating on the wrong guy
Old man, wondering if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

2/ It's on the merry ... [orchard] brow
Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck a vein
Lenin's on sale again
See the mice in their million hoards
from Ibiza to the Norfolk broads

(¹ ? bore — ed.)

Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog and clowns
But the film is ...

(That's enough David Bowie.)