| Author | Message | ||
| W.F. Roby
Intermediate Member Username: wfroby Post Number: 655 Registered: 03-2008 |
Woke up this morning, shook the cobwebs out of my hair, and checked my email. The email service I use runs headlines at the top of the page. This morning's headline was: "AT&T calls on Twitter during outrage" I was intrigued. Outrage over what? I had to see what was happening. Turns out, the link was supposed to be about an OUTAGE, and not an outRage. I love when things like that happen. The simple addition of a consonant changes the entire meaning of a sentence, and spirals it into mystery. Another example -- the parking lot at my apartment complex has a sign that reads as follows -- PERMIT PARKING ONLY - VIOLATORS WILL FIND $50 Anyone have good examples of accidentally poetic happenings? Perhaps you've seen a sign in a store window that was spelled incorrectly, or you've gotten a piece of spam email with a wonderful gem of haiku-like blue prose. Let's hear 'em. | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 33798 Registered: 11-1998 |
Here's one from Elizabeth Bishop, Roby, along with many Wild members' poems based on mistakes: Man-Moth Also, I was just reading this in Sage Cohen's book Writing the Life Poetic: "I also like to collect mistakes. My friend Austin brought a jacket home from Japan that says 'angel potato.' This linguistic faux pas sums up for me the happy accidents of poetry; some phrase is fumbled completely, and an entirely unexpected new possibility is born. Angel potato. I see a kindergarten project, where toothpicks sunk deep in weeping, white flesh support withered tissue-paper wings. I have always been a devotee of the potato -- that otherworldly root vegetable. So unassuming and receptive to interpretation. What might happen next? Ecstatic orange? Its navel puckered into a contemplative heaven. Or shatter lamb? A history of cruelty and farmland. I want to know how far words can go." I don't know if Sage ever wrote the angel potato, the ecstatic orange, or the shattered lamb poem. I'll have to ask her next time I see her. Here's a small snippet of a poem she wrote from spam e-mail: the shelf double-diamond formation, wingtips almost overlapping. They came across, died, mostly the old people and not too many of them. I, for one, think "space." She says, "By using source material that I didn't write, I felt liberated from my typical thinking and writing patterns that can become dull and predictable. These poems didn't sound or feel like me. What a relief!" And here's some Wild members' poems written using junk e-mail subject lines as their titles: One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure Love, M | ||
| Ron. Lavalette
Advanced Member Username: dellfarmer Post Number: 1548 Registered: 05-2007 |
Signs I have actually seen: >>>"Do Not Bring Books Into Library" >>>"The Owners Are Not Responsible" ..and one of my faves: your home and your order will be ready when you arrive. --Ron. Eggs Over Tokyo | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1462 Registered: 11-2007 |
at a local maxi mall, in huge letters--not exactly a fox pass, but it has intrigued me ever since i saw it: lids on sale, half off and this that remained on the marquee for nearly a year outside a country church: BLESS GOD, AMERICA A truly poetic use of English, by a direction-writer in Pakistan, on the box my new hairdryer came in: Do not drop in water. Dropping in water will cause sparking. Afraid of the Dark | ||
| Packrat
Intermediate Member Username: harolyn_j_gourley Post Number: 401 Registered: 02-2008 |
*LOL* I used to be Sec't/Treas. of a small black-powder club, and after having a few "sea-lawyer" problems, I attempted to modify and update our club' Memorandum of Association (rules and running-regs., etc/aka "constitution", "paperwork" etc.) by calling for and comparing the various "paperworks" of other, similar clubs and associations. In my final edit, I discovered a real "gem" inadvertently buried in the lines of regs. determining the method of dealing with unacceptable behaviour at competitive-marksmanship events, commonly referred to as "shoots"...: "The Association reserves the right to remove from any event, or shoot, disruptive or unruly participants..." [my emphasis] *LOL* It seemed such an appropriate ambiguity that...I left it in, without further modification!! (I've always wondered if succeeding Sec't/Treas.s, coming across it, ever caught it and did a quick double-take--their faces must have been priceless!!} --Packrat. (Message edited by harolyn j gourley on April 11, 2009) | ||
| W.F. Roby
Intermediate Member Username: wfroby Post Number: 656 Registered: 03-2008 |
Awesome, all great examples. My favorite is when signs seem like poems -- the lines "broken" by necessity, as in this gem from my nearby gas station. Only three student allow at any given time, thank you for cooperation. | ||
| Zefuyn
Advanced Member Username: zefuyn Post Number: 1006 Registered: 12-2006 |
Roby, if I squint my eyes, my email provider's advertising tells me this: Bargains join today, will you marry now? Melanie | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 5866 Registered: 05-2006 |
In the years right after the Fair Credit Reporting Act was passed in 1970, banking institutions -- which previously had extended credit to women when married, but denied it to those same women after their divorces -- tried to comply with the Federal Law by providing newly divorced women with credit cards with very small limits. About 1975, I received an enclosure in my monthly credit-card statement (I was obviously a guy, but they stuck the slip in everyone's statement.) It instructed divorced women on how to send back their old card. I was taken by the unintended double-entendre. I am enclosing my card in my former name, which I have cut in half for my protection. * * * * * YOUR FOOTNOTE ADVERTISEMENT HERE. Call 1-555-555-5555 and ask for Fred. 10% discount if you mention Wild Poetry Forum. | ||
| Lazarus
Senior Member Username: lazarus Post Number: 4835 Registered: 10-2005 |
These are so much fun. I always think of that Man-moth poem. It's so great. Sometimes when I think I have something really unique and good I ask myself, is it as good as that man-moth poem? that usually puts me in my place! -Laz | ||
| W.F. Roby
Intermediate Member Username: wfroby Post Number: 659 Registered: 03-2008 |
Thanks for sharing the Bishop poem, M -- and for linking me to that old challenge. Think I'll give it a go just for fun. By the way, on the way back from a concert tonight, I passed a pawn shop. One of the letters in their sign out front had fallen, to reveal the following: WE BUY GO D | ||
| Christopher T George
Senior Member Username: chrisgeorge Post Number: 7497 Registered: 12-2004 |
Hi W.F. Yes it's great to seek out newfound meaning in unexpected place. Great fun. An example might be a sign I saw on Marc Train approaching Union Station, Washington, D.C., a couple of Christmas's ago, where the red sign was missing a letter "S" and read, "ELF STORAGE." All the best Chris Editor, Desert Moon Review http://www.thedesertmoonreview.com Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review http://www.lochravenreview.net http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/ | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 164 Registered: 07-2008 |
Okay, here's one (and some others): 1. (This one's a visual) I was visiting my daughter's first grade class, here in Vermont, and noticed a Martin Luther King Day celebratory arts-and-crafts decorated bulletin board. I was startled by the irony of a series of projects that used cotton balls (snow) as a border [!] to decorate poems entailing the various student's "dreams"... I don't think it was intentional, only oblivious. 2. In Park Slope Brooklyn there is a street sign, formerly: HONK FOR DANGER. The R is missing (fell or was pushed?), so it reads: HONK FOR ANGER. 3. Also Brooklyn, the Carroll Street station has some creative erasures, leaving it: "Car oil Street". 4. But my favorite is at a pier in Manhattan where you can visit the USS Intrepid. There is a sign directing visitors toward "INTREPID PARKING". Thanks. I feel better now. Z (Message edited by ziggy on April 13, 2009) | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 165 Registered: 07-2008 |
Oh, one more: At a recent county fair I purchased a child's pretend cell phone [manufactured in China, Fred...], showing a Barbie-esque fashion doll with hand raised in salutation. The name of the item? Benign Girl - Super telephone. Thank God, at least those tiny plastic women armed with cellphones aren't dangerous. Z | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1466 Registered: 11-2007 |
Years ago I was at a craft show held in our local mall; the place of honor, of course, is along the wall directly opposite the front doors. At that time the Green Mountain Crafters were holding court, under a huge 30 foot painted banner that read, GREEN MOUNTIAN CRAFTERS which had been constructed by the president of the group. I said to his wife, has anyone told him yet? she smiled and said, no one has the heart to... And signs along the interstate which proclaim, "Officers on duty when flashing" Afraid of the Dark | ||
| Tina Hoffman
Senior Member Username: tina_hoffman Post Number: 3747 Registered: 05-2007 |
Random is great. Maybe even good. Except, of course, you may never know how great you are until someone pronounces you posthumous. And great. "Love truth, but pardon error." ~Voltaire~ | ||
| Tina Hoffman
Senior Member Username: tina_hoffman Post Number: 3748 Registered: 05-2007 |
Is that bad? "Love truth, but pardon error." ~Voltaire~ | ||
| Christopher T George
Senior Member Username: chrisgeorge Post Number: 7512 Registered: 12-2004 |
In London, during the 1967 "Summer of Love" I noticed two signs in Euston Station above a bench on which some long-haired guys were sitting. When combined, the signs read "Way Out Gentlemen." Chris (Message edited by chrisgeorge on April 13, 2009) Editor, Desert Moon Review http://www.thedesertmoonreview.com Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review http://www.lochravenreview.net http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/ | ||
| Ron. Lavalette
Advanced Member Username: dellfarmer Post Number: 1552 Registered: 05-2007 |
Local ice cream parlor, in order to encourage keeping the counter trade moving along & the walk-in trade walking back out (I guess): "Cones At The Counter Served In A Dish" --Ron. Eggs Over Tokyo | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 182 Registered: 07-2008 |
from the Upper Valley's It's Classified... "Lifesize Michael Keaton cardboard display. Stand alone or mount. Best Offer." Z |
