Monday, December 14, 2009

I Was Feeling Blue

Here’s a little slice of life, how love is not license.

I Was Feeling Blue

Then that gal came by
and began to tell me how
I should feel as if
I didn't have someone
inside me telling me that
all the fricken time!

But I love you so
is all the reason she could
give to invade me.

March 8, 2009 8:03 PM

23 comments:

  1. But I love you so, Christopher ;)

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  2. Me too :D

    Lots....I like this very much.

    xxx

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  3. Interesting text, a couple of great thoughts where provoked here.
    You know what I think bluntly?
    That is bulshit, that is not love, that is the ego, the selfishness, exercising the power you have over others.

    But well, there is always the pig, and the one who feeds the pig. Both are playing the same.

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  4. Yes indeed, Michelle. If we can't have a little fun there is very little point.

    Mariana, this post and its comments were not expressions of bullshit, of anti-love masquerading as love. Instead we have constructed a shared joke. We played with each other.

    Of course this poem does not express love. As I wrote in prologue, it is "slice of life" meaning "expect the following to reflect what commonly happens", but is license, not love. So indeed you get it, the main sense contained in the reversal of my post and poem.

    Using reversal like this is a common form of light hearted expression.

    This poem is not presented as a value but as an anti-value, not as something to intentionally choose but as something that is commonly chosen anyway. Then in the comments after we laughed in mutual recognition, we pretended to extend it to our personal relationships with each other. That was a kind of verbal dance.

    That four comment exchange from New England and Sydney Australia environs to Oregon and back to Sydney was an expression of joy and freedom, of relief that none of us are doing that at the moment with each other, not at all. The fourth comment by Michelle, expressed that she understood how if I was actually in this situation I would get the hell away from it. I expressed it in a lampoon, a false expression of black American English that has been used for a long time in American entertainments. That was the point of "Feets", a form found in Black American English instead of "Feet", which would have been proper English across most dialects. It is also a forcible expression of a double positive, as "feet" is plural and so is (s)which emphasizes the sentiment. "Feets, do your stuff" means "I am running away." It amused her how I expressed that and she signaled me she understood it.

    That fills in the blanks approximately right, and it demonstrates linguistically how English can be practiced in it's expression through euphemism and connotative understanding.

    The poem was of course written, as we say, "tongue in cheek". I am confident the joke works easily, East Coast American English to West Coast, and across the wide Pacific to the Eastern shores of Australia, quite a different English dialect. I am also confident my friends in England and France would also get the spirit of the joke even as they speak yet other dialects of Anglican English. I am less sure of my friends who speak Indian dialects of English, but if they are sophisticated enough at understanding American and Anglican dialects then they should do all right.

    This lengthy linguistic explanation demonstrates quite precisely how to attempt to explain a joke kills it completely.

    RIP

    (may the joke Rest In Peace, be properly buried, interred in the joke graveyard)

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  5. Triple snort and then she chokes.....ummmm, well said :)

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  6. Christopher, fist I want to thank you for explaining it to me.

    I thought that it was bulshit because I never understood the implicit understanding you two have regarding what commonly happens and how you can play with words around it. I thought it was a dialogue from a mediocre and frustrated couple.

    I feel good now that I understood that you where talking about a dialogue between two persons that
    are comfortable in your relation that you can laugh about love related issues and difficulties,
    which are usually well taken, and refer to them from a lighter and less dense atmosphere.I also got what you meant by slice of meaning now.

    You say "...Then in the comments after we laughed in mutual recognition, we pretended to extend it to our personal
    relationships with each other. That was a kind of verbal dance". Think this is a fantastic way of observing things, accepting our not so cool things, and reflecting about them, with the help of the other.

    Got what you meant by the "feet" sentence, thanks a lot for explaining, I got it totally wrong. But I love learning
    what it was about.

    Explanation killed the joked once more. My fault this time, hope it won t happen again.

    I guess this could be followed by an interesting reflection regarding language, message and understanding. But it will be left for the next comment.

    Pleasure hearing you
    M

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  7. Hooah! {{{Michelle}}}

    Yes, Mariana, we live and die in the connotations. If we had to explicitly fill in all the gaps we would never have time for all the rest of it.

    Humor would die a strangled death.

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  8. I think now ...after having a lovely laugh... I love all of you more -- But I promise not to invade anyone's space :D

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  9. What was that song,

    ...but if it feels this goood being used,
    then baby...use me up!

    See, that's the deal. It has a certain charm. Sometimes the short term pleasure turns into long term hell. It is not so odd that mainstream pop music is full of this sort of relationship if you look at it closely. So many people live here for real. They support this music, buy it and live it out. It's no surprise that over half the marriages end in divorce, and that more than half of the remainder should end in divorce. Mariana has that part of it dead right. It really is bullshit.

    It's just that we know better, right? :D

    Uh oh.

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  10. i'm not sure which is better - the poem or the comment thread.

    great to visit here.

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  11. I'm with Kim. All of this makes me remember what I've been missing lately.

    And if I may...the colors of your blog are really pretty - whatever they may be! ;-)

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  12. Ahhh...but knowing better is not a good enough deterrant at times.

    Sigh...

    *grin*

    I have such fun here sometimes...

    xxx

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  13. Kim! I ran across you at Melissa's blog, checked you out but didn't follow through because I can only do so much. You are welcome here. Thank you for liking the comment thread. Some truly beautiful people like to visit here.

    Melissa by the way is one powerful poet.

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  14. {{{Karen}}}

    I caught that fungo. I will only say this. There is no green on this site.

    Ghost, I tried to go to your picture but was told it was an invalid address somehow. That's the first time I recall it happening from your links. Maybe one other that you caught.

    Michelle, of course knowing better is no deterrant. It is really hard to give up old beliefs, especially when they sort of work sometimes. That's the worst. That has you sure it's you that screwed it up when in fact the old belief only works most of the time all by itself, no matter who believes and tries it. That leads more or less directly to insanity. They have proved that in labs with birds. Chaotic partial reinforcement leads to crazy critters.

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  15. comes up for me.... not sure what's going on.

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  16. I know what happened. I normally save the address off and run it in a new window to not lose the comment window. That save off is what didn't work. It worked fine for me just now too. Oh well.

    I will assume it a self portrait.:)

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  17. I left a comment
    but it didn't take
    i guess if i was an angel...

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  18. Jozien, if you changed into an angel you would have to give up being God's favorite. I was talking with Him the other day. He said, "Jozien is my favorite!"

    Of course last week He said someone I don't even know was His favorite. There was a guy told me He says this often and about everyone, "So and so is my favorite."

    But He never says that about angels.

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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