A poem without a point
leaves but an ‘em’ and a negative ‘int’;
and of what use
is a letter with a negative number?
Author notes
a silly thought I had
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 13 of 13
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Silly? Maybe. I think it's tremendously clever and witty-- you pack a lot of slyness in a few short lines.
I especially like how you slipped "leaves" into this piece.
A fun little piece.
Cheers,
Pie
language: 5, rhythm: 5, subject: 5, tone: 5, form: 5.
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thanks cpie, glad you liked this one...'tremendously clever' made me blush >.<
nish|81|
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Heh I like this poem and I like mint. It's short and... I was gonna say sweet but I think I'll go with minty.
Pretty unique poem there. -
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haha! i think you caught the spirit of the poem perfectly. glad you liked it
nish(81)
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hey nish
a silly thought well taken, what is the point. acamidics write this type of poetry on purpose then when your shaking your head they can blame your lack of intellect for not getting it. to make it worse others imiatate them if they do it must be good.
dave -
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i hope I'm not like an academic though. heh, had no clue that people wrote this sort of poem on purpose. thanks for that!
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Clever, clever, nish...
...and not silly at all. This little ditty makes a helluva good "point." I think lots of so-called poems, even fancy published ones, are so garbled (trying to impress) that their message is missing - the point is blunted to a stump. So, the title is very sharp, and it goes just right with the poem: M without the int of po-int is useless.
The only thing that doesn't work so well for me are the last three words: "number" doesn't quite fit the poem's theme - tell me if I'm missing something there!
Might this be better - only a suggestion?:
"...is a letter that's minus a muse?"
You'd get a nice rhyme with "use" too. But that's only a thought - it's entirely up to you. I LIKE the quirkiness of this one.
Lad
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glad you liked it Lad, and yeah, you caught what I was thinking off when I wrote this poem.
I can feel what you mean about number, and I was thinking of using 'integer' but thats too similar to 'int'. I'm not sure I 'get' the ending you suggested, what d'you mean by a letter that's minus a muse? >.< If only I was as sharp... -
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You're welcome, nish.
As I say, I really like the quirky brevity and "point" of this one.
By "What good is a letter without a muse" I meant that I couldn't make a connection among your main images of "letter" "point" and "number" - and it's "number" that causes the snag. In other words, I don't get the meaning of "a letter without a number". I just don't know what that means - probably my density! - unless you meant the "-int" of "po-int" as an abbreviation for "int-eger"? That would make some sense to me, but it seems to be an unnecessary over-stretch of language.
So, taking your overall meaning as "what's an alphabetical letter without any context within a word (that is, a point) that has meaning" - I thought that "muse" might work. Muse is, as you know, one of the ancient Greek goddesses of poetry, of meaning, of communicating feeling. And poets often speak of their "muse", their inspiration, the "point" of their writing.
So, I thought "what's the use of an alphabetical letter without a muse" might work, especially since "minus" is the negative sign that's the same as a hyphen, as in your title "M-int."
Whew, that's complicated for sure - a sign of my sometimes fevered mind! But your little poem is plenty complex in its brevity: the sign of not only a good poem, but a sharp mind - yours.
Lad -
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Ah, now i understand what you meant! well actually, you got it right in one part of your comment - the bit where you thought i meant 'int' to be 'integer' - that's exactly what I mean. you're right, it's probably an overstretch, but it fit in with the theme.
you see, the whole poem is just a mathematical equation:
poem - point = em - int
the 'po' gets subtracted, the 'em' from 'poem' is left over, as is the '-int' from 'point' - since point was the word being subtracted, the int is negative. 'em' sounds like the letter 'M', so what we get is a letter and a negative number.
like you said, maybe an overstretch -
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And now I know what YOU meant.
How dense of me not to see po-em the same way I saw po-int. Now I experience the poem as even more clever than I first thought. Nice work, nish. Yes, it's all a bit of an overstretch, but why not? I think of Browning's poetic line (a little more cosmic than what we're talking about, but still a good one): "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what's a heaven for?"
Lad
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Hey,
I like this silly thought.
A very witty ending and play on words.
A joy to read
Bill
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Thanks Bill! just a random thought that popped into my head
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