Toylit for March 30, 2012: 2 Poems & Some #Combatwords

Toylit for March 30, 2012: 2 Poems & Some #Combatwords

Combatwords will be here from now on. To play, just post your composition in the comments section: http://toylit.blogspot.com/2012/03/combatwords-march-30-2012-trayvon.html

Snake & Mercury Oil by•••/@ten_ten_ten/TJEdge: http://toylit.blogspot.com/2012/03/quacks-lament-todays-news-poem-by.html

My Soul is a Fish: http://toylit.blogspot.com/2012/03/last-news-todays-news-poem-by-khakjaan.html

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Combatwords, March 30, 2012: Trayvon Martin vs George Zimmerman

Combatwords, March 30, 2012: Trayvon Martin vs George Zimmerman

Do you see Trayvon Martin & George Zimmerman waving you over here? They're directing you to the new CombatWords arena. Do you even need a primer? Some pics should do it. I guarantee it. 

Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 4/2/2012

Bonuses/Penalties: Time: +1 if posted before 2am PST, 3/31/2012. -1 if posted before 6am 4/2/2012

Updated Rules:

Scoring: +1/-1 under the WITS structure:

Wit: wordplay, cleverness, clumsiness, choppiness etc

Ideas: good/bad, whatever. Got to be a cut above the ordinary poem.

Taste: Liked it/hated it

Structure: Is the sonnet a sonnet or the essay an essay? Does the structure help the composition? A bonus would go to an outstanding structure, not just a competent one.

The highest score any one critic can give could be a +4 & the lowest could be -4. Scores are cumulative.

Finally, you need to defend each portion of your WITS score. Either the composition has or doesn't have wit. It either does or doesn't have good ideas. Etc. These are not objective traits, but they can be calculated somewhat by the readers/critics.

Critique: Any critic can question any part of another critic's WITS score. Majority rules in deadlocked cases.

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The Quack's Lament [Today's News Poem by •••/@ten_ten_ten/TJ Edge, March 30, 2012]

The Quack's Lament [Today's News Poem by •••/@ten_ten_ten/TJ Edge, March 30, 2012]

By ••• (TJEdge)(@ten_ten_ten): http://tententen.posterous.com/

in the year of mercury rising
i ate white calomel
and applied salves to syphilis biding
in bodily alleys hid well
as we'd lie to patients sizing
up nostrums to sell

by the coarse cloth of night
we lit pine fat torches
danced hi-diddley-red blue and light
on coal dust-folded porches
stacked in burlap bags of blight
children smearing scorches

the taxman etched lines on my tongue
as into glass i bottled
white mercury powdered with a black lung
from a cracked skin infant who waddled
where mud and meat and flies were hung
and whores were manured and mottled

and in that year of mercury retrograde
we carved in dung and dust
diagrams in the skin of the sun to aid
us in assuming a more fatherly trust
and of many young girls women were made
to satisfy our daughter’d lust

’til faces caked with tar and feather
we rode across the briar
horses whipped in blood and lather together
barely escaping the ire
of townspeople writ in cork and leather
with wings of broken fire

we let blood into smoke and chill
and round an empty mine
they strung us up and did their will
packed our bodies in brandy and brine
without even a hole to fill
fated thus, born under a mercuric sign

holding hands with mercury and sun we go

where hell wobbles to and breathes us fro

“Mercury may be hiding water ice, NASA spacecraft finds”

—MSNBC, Space.com, 3/27/2012 3:28:39 PM ET

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46871204/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T3Yvsl1lJF8
“Retired Pharmacist Arrested in Albany Mercury Poisoning Case”

—Paul Grondahl, Times Union.com, Updated 01:57 p.m., Friday, March 30, 2012

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Retired-pharmacist-arrested-in-Albany-Med-mercury-3447572.php

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Angels With Nets [Today's News Poem, December 13, 2010]

Angels With Nets [Today's News Poem, December 13, 2010]

I cannot imagine the purpose of lights that they summon,
Nor understand how they have managed to capture the morning,
Nor how is it rock got so shiny, nor how it can hurtle
Above all those reefs that they've built on the edges of water—
And how is it eyes made from substances pulled from the shoreline
Have seen the obscurest of shelters and how is it magic
Has yanked our most vigorous out of the ocean, beyond us,
And how do we fly? Does it hurt? And what meaning's behind it?
Depleted—I've heard it from trenches that moan with exhaustion,
I've heard it from stones that just vanish from beaches, to pebbles,
I feel that a limit's been reached, that our purpose is simple:
Survival. Although it is hopeless and we will be captured
I wonder what's there on the surface; they must be the angels
For we are important—we must be to earn such attention.

"A South Korean fishing vessel sank in waters near Antarctica today, killing five sailors and leaving 17 others missing, the government said. "
—Bomi Lim, Bloomberg, Dec 12, 2010 10:45 PM PT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/south-korean-fishing-boat-sinks-in-antarctic-ocean-four-dead.html

Buy the Q1/Q2 2010 Report right now:

You can get it as an E-Book at Amazon as well http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004AYDHXY
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Retire on Bycatch [Todays's News Poem, October 16, 2010]

Retire on Bycatch [Todays's News Poem, October 16, 2010]

Rescue your credit and salvage the debits.
Appreciate surplus and transfer your best rates,
Best days—whatever it takes to obstruct and belay
Your ruinous dotage, so stay firm and don't edge
Off of a precipice, think of that late grace:
Your schooner set sail on some wetness in our pails.
Lapping elixirs of dolphins—those tricksters
You've lapped, but who escort the one who lays traps:
Pitting the planet against a new fish net
Discretionless rations surpassing greed's passions,
Feeding at bottom. The last fish? We caught them.

"Just as inflation scarred a generation of Americans, deflation has left a deep imprint on the Japanese, breeding generational tensions and a culture of pessimism, fatalism and reduced expectations. While Japan remains in many ways a prosperous society, it faces an increasingly grim situation, particularly outside the relative economic vibrancy of Tokyo, and its situation provides a possible glimpse into the future for the United States and Europe, should the most dire forecasts come to pass."
—MARTIN FACKLER, The New York Times, Published: October 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world/asia/17japan.html

"Fishermen argue that the limits on some species are set too low and could devastate their industry. Under the rules, if fishermen exceed their limits for some species, they must stop fishing other species in the same group -- an attempt to protect overfished stocks from being pulled up as bycatch."
—ALLISON WINTER of Greenwire, The New York Times, Published: October 15, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/10/15/15greenwire-obama-admin-shows-willingness-to-relax-fisheri-71389.html

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The Main Course [Today's News Poem, June 4. 2010]

The Main Course [Today's News Poem, June 4. 2010]

The scales of the fish are of welds and of rivets.
Its gills are atomic, its fangs are its missiles.
And skipping the swells and the waves in migration,
It hunts for its prey—since the rule of the ocean
Is 'eat what is smaller.' Composite-hulled eagles
Observe from the sky, with their eyes made of lenses—
Their talons of gatling. A shark in the water
Was launched by a whale, and this shark drinks the bubbles
That form in the tide. With a turbine, it's speeding;
All teeth and no brain—and it's perfectly suited
To dine on the metal, to play with explosions.
The liquid is churning. The predators gather
Their forces together: the feast is beginning.

“It was not clear what action South Korea was seeking from the Security Council for the sinking of its warship, the Cheonan, which the South says was torpedoed by the North in March. But any Security Council action would have to be approved by China, an ally of the North, which holds a veto in the council.”
– Aubrey Belford, The New York Times, June 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/world/asia/05korea.html

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