"Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come." (Julius Caesar)

.....Well, the World Cup games have been interesting and weird. Whoever heard of a team like Brazil losing 7-1? Who would believe that Spain, England, and Italy would not make it out of the group stage? How could the number one team, Spain, lose to Chile of all countries? I thought Chile was a Mexican appetizer.  Well, let me say that I filled out a bracket before the games and I picked all the winners, with the exception of Spain.  I picked Germany and Argentina to be in the final, and I picked Argentina to win the World Cup.  I hate Germany as much as Brazilians detest Argentina.  Argentina claims that Maradona was better than Pele. I don't agree. I just love the lyric, "Don't cry for me Argentina...".  (I have no idea why Ruthie Grimsley, my adopted cuzzin, is setting the poems of William Barnes to music. What then? Has the Apocalypse come?)

 

.....As long as we have just brought Ruthie into this monologue, she claims in a comment on the previous post, that no one has ever succeeded at defining poetry. I never sat down with the purpose of writing a definition of poetry, but I know it when I read it and hear it. There is a difference between a poem and poetry. Hallmark cards are loaded with poems--but are devoid of poetry. "...the moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. Nor all your piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line; nor all your tears wash out a word of it." is poetry. But "...poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree" is not.  If Omar had written the words, "bring it back" instead of "lure it back", the whole phrase is damaged.  If he had (perish the thought) written the word "erasers" instead of "tears", his poetry becomes a bad poem. If he had used the word "hand" instead of "finger" you could send it to the dumpster!  From what I have written here, one can begin to define poetry. 
...And, someone, tell Ruthie that I can succeed in defining poetry, and if no one else has, then I'm the first!  But then, again, who cares?

 

.....I can say for certain that aging is not conducive to writing poetry, except perhaps, the poem "Death be not Proud" (John Donne) or "Do not go gentle into that good night." (Dylan Thomas). But when Woody Allen says, "It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens," I can't say for certain that what he says is "poetry"! Perhaps Ruth Grimsley can give us her opinion. Who else, but Woody, can come up with an expression like that?