Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
when I was wont to greet it with my lays?
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
there are ordinary women
and then there is something else that wants to make you
tear up paintings and break albums of Beethoven
but that wild music burthens every bough.
Not that the summer is less pleasant now.
Our love was new and then but in the spring
and let’s not over-rate the obvious decency...
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
and who is to say the rose is greater than the thorn?
not I, Henry.
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud
and sweets grown common lose their dear delight
and when your love gets flabby knees and prefers flat shoes,
maybe you should have stuck it into something else.
That night I couldn’t destroy her,
such civil war is in my love and hate,
and it ended in the bedroom: desire, revolution,
nonsense ended, and the shades rattled in the wind.
This week's Poetry on Wednesday Prompt challenged us to write a "cento," which is like a mash-up. The lines, unaltered (except for capitalization and ending punctuation) come from the following poems:Charles Bukowski
- i wanted to overthrow the government but all i brought down was somebody's wife
- a 340 dollar horse and a hundred dollar whore
- the weather is hot on the back of my watch
William Shakespeare
- Sonnet 18
- Sonnet 35
- Sonnet 102
You can read the full text of the Bukowski poems on the Poetry Foundation's website. To look at the entirety of Shakespeare's written work, go to Open Source Shakespeare.
8 comments:
Oh Francis this is so good. Great lines choices and you have concocted an interesting tale from
them . The second last stanza had me in stitches. Must do something about my flabby knees! Still laughing.
This is super, Francis; amusing, poignant, profound. One can imagine Will and Buk having such a conversation!
funfunfun
You've done this before, I'm thinking.
Francis
Perfect and seamless!
I am with Barb you must have done this before!
And about those flabby knees too funny!
Pamela
this is greaaaaate!
i was reminded of this...
The little prince was now white with rage.
"The flowers have been growing thorns for millions of years. For millions of years the sheep have been eating them just the same. And is it not a matter of consequence to try to understand why the flowers go to so much trouble to grow thorns which are never of any use to them? Is the warfare between the sheep and the flowers not important? Is this not of more consequence than a fat red-faced gentleman's sums? And if I know--I, myself--one flower which is unique in the world, which grows nowhere but on my planet, but which one little sheep can destroy in a single bite some morning, without even noticing what he is doing--Oh! You think that is not important!"
His face turned from white to red as he continued:
"If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself, 'Somewhere, my flower is there . . .' But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened . . . And you think that is not important!"
He could not say anything more. His words were choked by sobbing.
Oh my...I was laughing from the second line. What a wonderful wit, the way you took those Bukowski and Shakespeare lines to make a completely sane and insane poem. I'm hooked on this talent of yours.
You brought a smile to my face. I'd say flabby kneed and fat bottomed girls alike, make the rockin' world go round.
@Rall I don't think Bukowski had a very romantic sensibility, which makes him such a great pairing with Shakespeare's overly romantic sonnets.
@Derrick If I had a time machine, I'd definitely pluck them from the past and organize a dinner party.
@Barb First time I've tried a cento, and I'm not sure if I'll ever try another :). Actually this was a lot of fun, but I get caught up in reading the poetry so it takes a long time to produce.
@Pamela You gotta love Bukowski's sense of humor.
@hb I'll have to revisit the Little Prince. I haven't read it in a long time.
@Linda I think I was mostly channeling Bukowski's wit with this one.
@Stan Maybe I can work some Freddy Mercury into the next one :).
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