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Friday poem
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“XI Mon. January [1736] hath xxxi days” by Benjamin Franklin
Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion,
Instead of Truth they use Equivocation,
And eke it out with mental Reservation,
Which to good Men is an Abomination.
Our Smith of late most wonderfully swore,
That whilst he breathed he would drink no more;
But since, I know his Meaning, for I think
He meant he would not breath whilst he did drink.
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End of an illusion
I see this poem lived out on a daily basis and must watch myself for it.
Equivocating is the nature of man; truth isn’t. So, Mumsee my friend, you are certainly not alone.
How very appropriate during the campaign for the 08 elections!
Man.. is this about politicians or what?
That’s funny!
I love Benjamin Franklin, read his autobiography in Jr. High.
Don’t think he ever swore off of drinking though. I’m going to badly mangle it, but have read that he said, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
WOW. Ben was not known as a poet but even he could rhyme a line or two rather than passing off bad prose as good poetry.
See, it is not that difficult Harrison
Well Mr. Llama da Llama - Let’s see some of your poetry!!!!!!!
Oh, LLAMA, I post a rhyming poem about every other week or so. I do it for you. I do it all for you.
If it were up to Llama,
we would all speak like Obama.
All poems would have meter,
But none would be sweeter
than chocolate candy
served with brandy.
#& Harrison,
If you would drop the other none rhyming ones for me that would be great. After that, you could drop the whole Friday Poem thing completely and replace it with a NASCAR thread.
If you promise to do it, I will write a rhyming ditty titled NASCAR. It will be just for you and celebrate the end of my poetic misery
VS,
Don’t get your hopes up. For some reason, I think Harrison won’t kill the Friday, Sometimes Poetry thread and replace it with a NASCAR one to make me happy and you get to see one real NASCAR poem that rhymes.
Harrison,
And don’t think that just because every 15 or 20 lines a poem might accidentally rhyme counts either
Very good Peter. You are giving Harrison a fine example to work toward.
Oddly, I do really like writing Haiku - as long as it doesn’t follow the rules of Haiku poetry. It’s harder to do it wrong than you think. I know it is strange that Llama wouldn’t want to follow poetry rules exactly, especially ancient Japanese ones, but there you have it - some things are just unexplainable - like prose being passed off as poetry.
They might make a pill for all of these afflictions now.
I like it, Peter.
Mind if I offer my own edit:
If it were up to the Llama,
then we would all speak like Obama.
All po’ms would have meter,
But none would be sweeter
…
(than DA da da DA da da DA DA)
than lemons in flat seltzer water?
than black eyes and massive head trauma?
than Hillary’s tears and her drama?
Friday WMB Haiku
ChristianLeftist, you got it exactly right.
Here are other Franklin quotes:
“A mob’s a monster; heads enough but no brains.”
“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.”
“Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.”
Of course, wasn’t it Franklin who coined the line “God helps those who help themselves”? Or was that some other misguided person?
Yes. It was also Franklin who launched on a program to make himself morally perfect by keeping a little pad of twelve or thirteen vices, and correcting one each week, building on his earlier progress. He intended to be perfect in three months time.