BLEND IT LIKE BECKETT

Poem of the Week

Poe

By David Thane Cornell

The thought of him getting kicked

out of west point

is of no concern to me

I rather praise the Baltimore Sun Reporter

for finding Edger drunk in an alley

inches away from a pauper’s grave

where no one would have remembered him

My mother knew who he was

saddest girl in the orphanage

with no one to read to her

bleaker than a Poe Malady

And I read to my mother

when she was old and dying

wish I had read to her more

I am old now, almost my mother’s age

no one reads to me

and only God knows

why I imagine an infant child

in my arm everytime I read

Annabel Lee

Poe is written by an American author David Thane Cornell. Here we see amalgamation of agonies both subjective and objective in cusp of Edger Allen Poe’s famous poem Annabel Lee. It weaves a poignant aura, inviting the reader to dive into the deepest core. Words shuttling through the tragedical layers are pervading the time. It all makes an everlasting effect. Personal agony, artistic creativity, discreteness of time all comes smoothly without congesting in the poetic traffic. Read below, in words of poet, how he wrote it–

How I wrote the poem, Poe : My mother is an emerging theme in my poetry as we were very close and she called me "the poet in her life.' She, orphaned at the age of three, grew up in an orphanage in Staten Island, New York. It has always haunted me, remembering her telling me that the thing she wanted the most as a child was someone to read to her. Her favorite poem was Poe's Annabel Lee. My poem came very spontaneously after reading a Poe biography. David Bailey, one of my critics in England, I think, accurately describes my poem as 'layers of three tragedies.' Poe's later years, along with my Mom's early years added to my later years make one profound sadness. Still, I am happy with this poem, a combination of fealty and confessionalism.

Welcome 2022

Among the falling fuels of winter it was nice to welcome 2022. Penultimate and previous years would be remembered mainly for corona calamity. The third wave is not knocking at the door but has engulfed many portions of the population in scattered ways. Fortunately symptoms are milder in this variant. Omicron is a mutant variant of corona virus and it is replacing another variant delta virus. The classic symptoms of Covid fever, congestion, breathlessness, loss of smell are absent in omicron. Only headache, running nose, sneezing are manifesting, more alike cold like symptoms. Even vaccinated people are getting infected with omicron but their symptoms are milder and they're more safe in comparison to non vaccinated ones. I got Covid infection working in hospital laboratory in 2021. In my home quarantine I felt the most extreme weakness ever I had felt. When I tried to take the morsel from the platter to my mouth , my fingers and hands trembled and deserted me midway. I slept only for two hours at night and strangely awoke fresh. Duration of sleep was cooling, contracted and post symptoms of insomnia were absent. I saw the whole night going smoothly in front of my open eyes. It was a strange kind of spiritual feeling and I saw multiple fleeting glimpses of my adored Guru around me. I felt like I was sleeping on an alighted mattress and transpiring the cusps. It could be hallucination but it all was sometimes mesmerizing for me amid the tormentic features of corona.

Every lost fearsome moment brings a basking present that it is over now! I pray Omicron will be short-lived and for it’s prevention two things are must –mask and social distancing.

In Light Vein

Being quarantined with a talkative child is like having an insane parrot glued to your shoulder.

This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my dog — we laughed a lot.

Knock-knock! Who is there? Seriously, don’t touch my door and step back 6 feet.

How did the health experts lie? They said a mask and gloves was enough to go to the grocery store. When I got there, everyone else had clothes on.

I’ve gained so much weight during lockdown my bathroom scale is telling me that it can only weigh one person at a time.

( Internet Humor Quarantine )