Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, March 31, 2009
Books Submissions For the People's Poems
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Slog tipper Will in Seattle points out this press release for anyone who might be inspired to make Lenin-themed poetry:
Having moved to Fremont, very near the Lenin statue, it has come to my
attention that we’re lacking something significant— a Lenin poem! A
poem in brass, a verse to lift and root Lenin. No time to waste!Emma Lazarus saw the Statue of Liberty as a beacon to the world. When
you look at the Fremont Lenin, what do you see? In conjunction with
nothing in particular, I am requesting commemorative poems for the
Lenin statue. I’ll put the winning poem on a plaque and the (best of
the) rest in a chapbook. I’ll “publicly pour” copies of the chapbook
onto the statue on July 4th 2009.This isn’t a call. This is a challenge. Write the Lenin poem. The
statue may go, but the poem will stay. All ages, languages and genres
accepted, but plaque-sized please, brass ain’t cheap. If in another
language, provide an English translation. No previously published
works. Send your poems on or before 1 April 2009. If by e-mail, send
here with the subject line “The Lenin Poems.”
Need I remind you that tomorrow is April 1st? If you have a great Communist sestina lurking inside you, tonight is the night to unleash it on the world. Thanks to Will in Seattle for the tip.
12
There once was a commie named Vlad;
Whose 'Fantile Disorder was mad.
Sending in the Red Army,
Did declare oh-so-smarmy,
Free Speech? For Baltic Sailors? How Fab.
Whose 'Fantile Disorder was mad.
Sending in the Red Army,
Did declare oh-so-smarmy,
Free Speech? For Baltic Sailors? How Fab.
16
@leek- The apostrophe exists in my intentions.
@ the haters- Jeez, y'all don't get irony, do ya? The Lenin statue of Fremont is fun because Lenin would hate Fremont. Communist dictators are the opposite of hippies. A Bush statue in the same Socialist Realist style would just as well...a few decades after Bush dies.
@ the haters- Jeez, y'all don't get irony, do ya? The Lenin statue of Fremont is fun because Lenin would hate Fremont. Communist dictators are the opposite of hippies. A Bush statue in the same Socialist Realist style would just as well...a few decades after Bush dies.
17
I started to write a poem, but the only thing that came to mind was The Name Game:
Lenin, Lenin, bo-Lenin,
Banana-fana-fo-Fenin,
Fe-fi-mo-Menin,
Lenin!
That will probably do just fine.
Lenin, Lenin, bo-Lenin,
Banana-fana-fo-Fenin,
Fe-fi-mo-Menin,
Lenin!
That will probably do just fine.
20
While the Right loves to repeat that hippies=commies, very few people on the left in the USA have admired Soviet communism. As soon as it became widely known how the communists were running their country, the American left dropped them. Yes, there are the idiots in Che shirts, but most of them probably don't know Che was a communist.
Of course, people on the Right can't tell the deference between democratic socialism and Stalinism. That's because they're idiots.
Of course, people on the Right can't tell the deference between democratic socialism and Stalinism. That's because they're idiots.
21
@20: I think adulation of figures like Che and Lenin is more widespread on the left than we might be comfortable acknowledging. At the same time, it's always struck me as being about their revolutionary spirit rather than their specific visions of the ideal state.
And, I wish this were needless to say: the American separatists of the 18th Century are admired for pretty much the same reasons. It was their willingness to fight and die for a noble cause that is their enduring image, and not the land seizures, taxes, and abrogations of the bill of rights that occurred after they gained power.
Revolutions are always ugly. But people love their origin myths.
And, I wish this were needless to say: the American separatists of the 18th Century are admired for pretty much the same reasons. It was their willingness to fight and die for a noble cause that is their enduring image, and not the land seizures, taxes, and abrogations of the bill of rights that occurred after they gained power.
Revolutions are always ugly. But people love their origin myths.
22
I'm gonna go smoke my bong and jack off to my Che poster while I listen to Rage Against The Machine!
25
Um, unless you are a native speaker of Japanese, haiku is silly. I never quite understood the fascination with them, even though I've written a few. Though we might like to think otherwise, the format just doesn't work with english words, and leads to hopelessly pretentious word combinations.
Do Japanese folks write poetry in iambic pentameter? How about rhyming couplets?
Do Japanese folks write poetry in iambic pentameter? How about rhyming couplets?
27
@25- It does work with English words, it just works differently. Also "pretentious word combinations" are the essence of poetry. If you aren't using pretentious word combinations, you are almost certainly writing prose.
28
Oh fuck, Paul. Why did you have to give Will props today? First the Times sucks him off as their "most prolific commenter", now this. He's going to be insufferable for weeks.
30
You've got to be kidding me -- Will is the Times's most prolific commenter? Why can't he stay over there?
32
Lenin's likeness should be replaced with one of John Maynard Keynes, since neither the right, nor the liberal left, know that there is a difference between the two people.
34
Old Lenin, he is not alive;
Bald head before he's twenty-five;
Thirty-one, What Is to Be Done?
The question is a bloody one.
No peace, land, or bread,
By fifty-four, he was dead.
Bald head before he's twenty-five;
Thirty-one, What Is to Be Done?
The question is a bloody one.
No peace, land, or bread,
By fifty-four, he was dead.
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