Thursday, April 8, 2021

George Starbuck (#NationalPoetryMonth)

 


Last Straw

IHaveNoTimeFor
BanterSirIAmAn
AncientMariner
MyShipWentDown
ICausedItsLoss
TheyTiedMeToAn
AlbatrossItIsA
BigPelagicBird
QuiteWholesome
IfAdministered
InternallyLike
ChickenSoupNot
TopicallyLikeA
StupidPoultice

-George Starbuck

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: the condensed version.

I'm showing it in Courier, a monospace font, to emphasize the lines. Starbuck wrote a series of poems like this, called SLABS, Standard Length And Breadth Sonnets. He wrote a number of other shaped poems ("Sonnet In The Shape of A Potted Christmas Tree") and light verse. And maybe some serious poems, too...

Annoyingly the editors did not actually include this in my selected Starbuck shown above; I have no idea where I first came across it; it's written in an old commonplace book of mine. In googling to check the text, I found it difficult to come by on-line. (Googling "Starbuck Last Straw" turns up worthwhile initiatives about plastic. I had to include a line to get anywhere. And the last few lines I couldn't find at all.) But it seems it appeared in his final collection, Visible Ink, 2002, after his death in 1996.

Bonus Poem: this *is* from The Works and is one of my favorite double dactyls:

High Renaissance

"Nomine Domini,
Theotocopoulos,
None of these prelates can
Manage your name.

Change it. Appeal to their
Hellenophilia
Sign it 'El Greco.' I'll
Slap on a frame."


It's National Poetry Month in the Canada and the U.S.!








9 comments:

  1. a wild and funny guy; Coleridge would have turned green with envy... speaking of the original, i never have been able to follow the last section of that poem; it just doesn't seem to make any sense... i think C was loaded when he wrote it...

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    1. Yes, well, Coleridge was generally loaded...at least he finished Rime, which is more than you can say for some!

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  2. Those are wonderful, and now I want to read more. The double-dactyl reminds me of my own favorite, by John Bellairs:

    Higgeldy piggeldy
    John Cantacuzene
    Swaddled in Byzantine
    Pearl-seeded robes
    Put out the eyes of his
    Iconophanical
    Prelate for piercing his
    Priestly earlobes.

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  3. wasn't that the name of Ahab's harpooner? maybe a decendant?

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    Replies
    1. It is Ahab's senior harpooner. George Starbuck, the descendent of a fictional character? Hmm...in the author photo on the back of the book, he does have his hand over his face.

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