Saturday, March 19, 2016

Poetry Break: One-Liner Foreseen

That Trusty Saw
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What did Tennessee? She saw what Arkansas:
That Trusty Old Saw
As the old saw says, "Old saws sever rust."
If you stare long enough at the saw, a forbidding word appears . . .

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7 Comments:

At 11:01 AM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

"If you stare long enough..."

For what it's worth, I see the "Colourbox" watermark. If I tilt my head to the right while staring at the rusty saw, I can see a stretched-out letter "D," sort of. If I stare at the old saw made of prose, my mind changes "sever" to the forbidding "never," and that's about all I can see while staring long. I think I didn't stare long enough.

 
At 1:34 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

I meant that the watermark itself, which is hard to make out on my screen, is perhaps intended to imply that one shouldn't use this image. I apologize for my misleading manner of expression.

But I did want "sever" to switch from "sever" to "ever," back and forth in one's reading.

Jeffery Hodges

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At 2:05 PM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

Nothing to apologize for! Academics often have a charmingly oblique sense of humor; it's in their nature, and it's up to the reader to do the work of unpacking meaning.

As for "Old saws sever rust" versus "Old saws ever rust"... yes, the phonetic sleight of hand works as long as the reader doesn't notice the sly transition from "s" to "z" in the sibilant connecting "saws" and "(s)ever." It's similar to the French punning between "ils sont" and "ils ont."

 
At 3:28 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Well, I always appreciate your sense of humor - even your Irish jokes, you anti-Irish friend-of-a-ligament who would probably enjoy puerile humor like "The Bastard from the Bush"!

Jeffery Hodges

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At 12:37 AM, Blogger Kevin Kim said...

Amazing poem. I read it aloud to myself in an Oyrish accent... then saw the comment that the poem was "true blue Aussie" in spirit. Guess I'll have to change accents and reread da bloody thing.

 
At 8:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well Kevin so long as you're rereading anyway ... gaze closely at that watermark.

It's sagu!

JK

 
At 12:23 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Kevin, you'll likely also like this one: Hell's Bells.

Jeffery Hodges

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