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In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

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Tracy Mitchell
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:58 pm

In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Tracy Mitchell » Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:04 am

~

In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

What is it you’re looking for? The clerk asks.
What is it for which I look? I chastise.

She seduces I must be a writer.
Depends on what you write, she says.

Some take the absinthe, but their seedy texts
slosh in the placenta, and their greedy characters
only grow uglier. Kafka knows. Poe suspects.


Pointillists do gin, she says, and are usually quite adroit–
but their task is the tedious rush to finish a draft
before the question arises – what’s the point?

If you wish to entertain your mates with Irish verse
which will seem to predate Yeats, then poteen –--
poteen will blend your Irish blood and lead your pen
into a glen in Aghadoe, Aghadoe, Aghadoe
a deep and secret glen in Aghadoe.


Contrarily, Vodka Jello Shots will launch your perfect leap
to a raging screed, while Meade will plunge you deep
in legend – soggy saga-bound predilection to score
the generations to pulp and sleep with fantasies of yore.

SciFi inevitably follows from Tequila; romance and horror
of course from the untoward, unchecked swilling
of Cabernet. And Hemingway, you see what that
got him – the goblet of black Cuban rum he kept refilling.


She pauses and furrows her brow:

Which brings me round to you, my dear– I can tell,
I can smell the verse you are dying to smear
through journals and websites and in every ear

to steer poet folkways toward image and tear,
toward digital darknesses quaint and queer
to serve up nonsense on the point of a spear –

the mixture for you I deduce without fear –
to write your Dada - doo-doo, the prescription is clear –
one bourbon, one scotch and one beer.


~

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Gyppo
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Location: UK

Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Gyppo » Sun Dec 27, 2020 1:46 pm

Tracy,

Thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the styles, both to read and recite aloud.  Although I suspect a misplaced finger in the third line ;-)

Favourite line?  'to serve up nonsense on the point of a spear'.

Gyppo



 
I've been writing ever since I realised I could.  Storytelling since I started talking.  Poetry however comes and goes  ;-)

indar
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:00 am

Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by indar » Sun Dec 27, 2020 3:59 pm

Gertrude and Alice B.
screaming from the balcony 
with gyppo we do agree
and whilst you down that one last beer
have a brownie, Tracy dear

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Colm Roe
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Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Colm Roe » Mon Dec 28, 2020 5:22 am

:lol: :lol: :lol: Fantastic Tracy, loved it.

Tim J Brennan

Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Tim J Brennan » Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:03 am

It's a perfect two or three minute play. There are "contests" out there for such things. I have a couple from GI60 (Gone in Sixty Seconds). They are on youtube. 

I only drink Gin & Tonic (Hemingway, but I can't write prose worth a damn). Go figure.

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Tracy Mitchell
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Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Tracy Mitchell » Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:32 pm

Gyppo – You are right about the third line, at least partly. It was initially a typo, but then it grew on me, and stayed. And the line you note – that is the apex of my self reflection / self-revelation for the year. :D

Indar:
Before summer’s harvest is tapped for stimulation,
exhilaration, relaxation, or intoxication
a trip for the weed to the oven is required
to timely effect it’s decarboxilation.
Then I grudgingly retire to seclusion
to await the stovetop transfusion– the resultant
conclusion of the butter/oil infusion– the illusion
of my contusion, my neuro-diffusion– yes:
something from which to make the brownies,
to make the brownies electric. Something electric
to stir the pen? Corn meal muffins, lemon truffles
and finally the pride of Minnesota – electric Lefse!


Colm:
Glad you like it. Did you get the John Todhunter ripoff I artlessly effected?

Tim:
Wow. I had never considered that. What a marvelous suggestion. There is a flash-play competition locally, which was bagged last summer because of the pandemic. I will keep an eye out for its revival. It is conducted by a local theatre company. You have me excited - thanks for the idea.

Cheers all.

T

indar
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:00 am

Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by indar » Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:47 pm

Wow---impressive especially that ending:
electric Lefse!

lefse, a party in your mouth!

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Tracy Mitchell
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Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Tracy Mitchell » Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:10 pm

8-) 8-)

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Colm Roe
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Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Colm Roe » Wed Dec 30, 2020 7:32 pm

Aghadoe do do... I do now  :lol: :lol:

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Gyppo
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Location: UK

Re: In All Earnestness at the Liquor Store

Post by Gyppo » Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:59 pm

Can't resist it...  Tried to...  New Years Eve, the barriers are down...

Just a short clip ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG8_UCYv0ic

Gyppo
I've been writing ever since I realised I could.  Storytelling since I started talking.  Poetry however comes and goes  ;-)

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