Hungry Jazzmen: a Graphic Mark

Poetaster Poe Computes or Wonk at Work

 

You Say "Potato" and I Say "Capsicum Annuum": a Sound Limerick

     In most cases, your second reading 

     will likely prove the poet's intended one. 

Linnaeus! Linnaeus! Linnaeus! 

Carl can knee us...filet us...decry us:
un-unsnarl'd, each expression

breeds one gnarly mess -- 'n'

I loathe how in knots our tongues tie us.

Ubu, Rah! A Nonsense Cradled in a Flapdoodle Nestled in a Poppycock

On the Isle of ArUbu, renown'd for its scUbu, where blows the HaboUbu -- 

where flows a cerulean deep blue DanUbu -- there Winnie-ther-PooUbu, 

with Honey-ther-BooUbu and rapper Ice CUbu, promotes JiffyLUbu's

"We patch innertUbus!"...all re-deconstructed by Goldberg the RUbu.

     (image to come: a work in progress)

The Idylls of Ubu, Canto V: OUR BAY

     Canto VI: OUR BAY

     (Guanabara, San Francisco or Fundy...it all depends on who "our" refers to.)

     (a work in progress)  

The Idylls of Ubu, Canto IV: YORUBA

      Canto IV: YORUBA 

Your Ma's Yoruba...? Good for her! My Ma's Heruba, that's for sure.

And as for me...? Myruba, pure. Our two Ourubas we endure.

Do we embrace Theiruba...? No! Now, Ándale! Arriba!! Go!!!

Our furlough in Aruba's due...nay: overdue! I'm psych'd. (Aren't you...?)

     * A West-African ethnicity common in parts of Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

The Idylls of Ubu, Canto III: IOU RUB

     Canto III: IOU RUB

Although I owe but cannot pay, I'll live to pay another day.
You can't pay either...? Join the club of deadbeat cads! Ah-h-h-h, there's the rub,
for ev'ry club imposes dues (I don't suppose that's breaking news),
and you drank yours at Jarry's Pub on payday last. Hah! There's the nub. 

Poe at P&P

 

   On the poetry shelf at Politics and 

Prose bookstore in Washington, DC, 

recent volumes of the Nonsense 

verses and illustrations of Ulysses 

Poe appear between works by Sylvia 

Plath and those of Maya Popa. (Missing

is his title One, Two, Many! Perhaps

somebody purchased it.) Poe's volumes

can be found as well in the store's

humor section, adjacent to the collected works of Amy Poehler.

The Idylls of Ubu, Canto II: RUI BOU

      Canto II: RUI BOU   

Hachimura downhill runs, a-scorin' buckets and "and one"s.

Within the Liga ACB, would Rui be "El Bou...?" Could be.

     * Power forward for the NBA's Lakers. * When a player dribbles past defenders while heading towards the basket in order to score, she is said 

to be "going downhill." * Making a basket is "scoring a bucket." * A single 

free-throw awarded after a player is fouled while successfully scoring a 

basket. * The top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball 

league system. * "The Ox" in the Catalan language. *Do we smell trade 

rumors...?

The Idylls of Ubu, Canto I: UBU ROI

 

King Ubu today
(after Jarry's illustration)

     Canto I: UBU ROI

     Alfred Jarry's word for poo...? 'Twas 'ubu.'         (Ev'rybody knew.)

  Ubu Roi offended all who that night sat in Al's   famed hall.

  (Brits employ'd a diff'rent word, translating 'Ubu   Roi' 'King Turd.')

     Fat, dishonest, greedy, cruel -- a cowardly   mendacious fool --

  Herr Ub' der Boob blends Modern Man with traits   of Tân 'n' Taliban.

  When Ubu hits, the fan base farts non-stop...and   modernism starts.

     * December 10, 1896. * Which is not to say in London's Albert Hall, of course, nor one 

particular hall of fame, and certainly not any hall owned by Jarry himself, but instead in the Theatre de L'OEuvre at what's today's Theatre de Paris. * Except for a lack of reference to hair color (or hair at all), this list of the several character traits of King Ubu doesn't fail to bring to mind a similar one matching up item for item with that of a twice-impeached 

ex-POTUS. * Tân is short for Viet Tân whose activities promote non-violent 

political change in Vietnam. (Without a caret over its a, 'Tan' might also refer 

to the dreaded Black and Tans, brutish British recruits enrolled in the Royal Irish Constabulary during the time of the Troubles. The Vietnamese organization is outlawed there, where it's considered a "terrorist force." (It seems one man's \

shoe bomber is another's freedom fighter.) 

     (a work in progress; additional cantos will be displayed in separate posts)

     

A Clothespin Before Ozmosis