Saturday, March 23, 2013

CDLXXXV - A Poem for Louise

dVerse Poets has a prompt on 'negative capability'.
What could be more negatively capable than homeopathy?


A Poem for Louise
On learning that you had
homeopathically vaccinated your daughter.
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..
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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013
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A critic’s review: this is one of the great works of poemeopathy.

Reduced to where it no longer has a single discernable letter, it resonates with the distilled memories of the great lyric poets of yore and beyond and even before.

Underlying harmonics speak to us from the mouths of the giants of philosophical discourse, from the great minds who have crafted words into the most tangible representation of clear thinking, logic and reason and then failed to recount them to others.

Overlaying and, indeed underlaying, this is the essence of the hearts and minds of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – Rossetti, Millais, Stephens and especially Hunt.   It touches the heart, warms the kidneys, and irritates the sphincter while leaving the mind alone, to echo in quiet repose.

This is a work of great import that will shape and direct the work of other poemeopaths for decades to come.


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27 comments:

  1. Quite possibly your finest work.

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  2. A Country GentlemanMarch 23, 2013

    My mind has encapsulated it's meaning. I find at times, its underlying tones echo through my own thought processes
    with succinct clarity.

    I'm sure that with the passage of time, my mind will focus forever on the
    meaning contained therein and when I am moved to prose I will remember and
    be able to, with uncompromising accuracy, embellishment and personal
    experience, deliver a rendition of this to an audience which will leave them
    with a memory long forgotten .....

    A message she will never grasp .... sigh.

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  3. ha. that is truely brilliant...and your critique gave me a chuckle, but def made me think as well....smiles.

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  4. Looks like a very clever take on "The Emperor's New Clothes" (written with wit and verbal dexterity) which I will, of course, use "to shape and direct" my work in the future.

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  5. I have never experienced a warming of the kidneys.Hope I'm not missing out!

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    Replies
    1. The original phrase came from a 19th century article on the properties of Galangal, a cousin of ginger. Amongst other things it 'warmed the kidneys and excited the semen'.

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  6. I have grown galangal in my garden when I lived in the tropics.I had no idea. I thought the balmy nights and cocktails were responsible for that kind of excitable activity.I hope geraniums are safe!

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    Replies
    1. Don't let them breed with a yew tree or you will get a yewranium plant.

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  7. I've suddenly gone blind!!

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  8. DO I have to be vaccinated..... ;)

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    Replies
    1. Would you go to a third world country without a cholera shot?

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  9. I wasn't aware homeopathic vaccinations even existed :o

    This was clever and thought-provoking :)

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  10. Thought provoking poem. I couldn't take an entire book of them, though, without filling in the blanks.

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    Replies
    1. But they would all have different memories - Keats, Hardy, Wordsworth, Flecker, Carroll...

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  11. If I decide to become a poemeopath in this or a later decade, I will look to you for instruction and guidance. Meanwhile, I appreciate your offer of shaping and directing. :)
    K

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    Replies
    1. No problems. Let me know when you want tutoring. Just send me a vial of infinitely diluted money as payment.

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  12. Thought provoking.

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  13. ..I was so looking forward to a poem for Louise ;(

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  14. Dude, you inspired me to a poetic reply (hope you don't mind):


    I am an ex-homeopath
    whose still on the wrong path
    but for whom placebo
    is still a great pleasure

    Yet for cholera and AIDS
    it still really fades
    when compared to
    new medical treasures

    You little heartless cuss
    Your poem was percussed
    past even Avogadros'
    smallest dilution

    Poemeopathy is best
    for all of the rest
    but for me
    I'd rather a solution

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    Replies
    1. Of course I don't mind - anything that encourages you to wax your lyricals is to be encouraged.

      A limerick from last year:

      The global food shortage is past!
      Homeopathy has saved us, at last!
      Pass ‘round the word:
      We can feed the entire herd
      On a drop of infinitely diluted grass.

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    2. Thanx Cosmo,
      That was a cute limerick.

      I actually practice Homeopathy for 2 years in a clinic and saw lots of people get miraculously better -- about 30%. Recognize that number? The stories of my stupidity abound and now are good poetry material.

      Concerning your limerick: miraculously feeding the masses from a small amount is a myth well honored, it seems. But all these are myths that many people buy into. Some are just a little easier to pick on than others. :-)

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    3. Two placebos work better than one. Injected placebos work better than oral ones. The human mind has great potential to be fooled and to work on regardless. One of the saddest aspects of all this is that the lady in question, sweet as she is, is a science teacher. Beggars belief.

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    4. Indeed. And we know that the power of placebo is amplified if the person administering it believes in their bullshit.

      My son's science teacher is trying to get her students to feel creationism has credibility -- we are fighting that now. It is amazing how partitioned people can be -- very rational, objective and fair in most areas of their life but they suspend that in other areas of their lives. Heck, we all do it.

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  15. I am amused, enlightened and entertained by not only your post, but also the ensuing discussion. I love the exchange of ideas and perspectives. Makes me consider a recent experience with topical chemotherapy. A gruesome as bloodroot, for sure.

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  16. Thank you for introducing me to this new type of poem. I hope to give it a go.

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