The Poetry Of Health Care Reform

William Carlos Williams, Poet and Physician

In my poetry blog, I talked about haiku and sapphic verse forms:

 ---------- notes: 
...However, what is interesting is the use of the Sapphic verse form - at least, I think it's interesting. Sappho was one brainy gal. 

Anyway, as I thought of doing this particular thing at 4:30 am, I also thought, why not use haiku? Then I immediately flashed on a potentially long poem of haiku, which would be ungainly...like a tower of small objects ready to fall down any moment. So, why not Sapphics? 

The traditional Sapphic verse is two lines of eleven syllables, followed by a third which starts with eleven and adds on five more at the end...for good measure. For my purposes, I wanted something like a haiku...only larger...so I used three lines of 11 syllables, then a fourth line of 5. The fourth line should stand alone and sort of make a commentary of what's gone before - much like the third line in a haiku. 

Two examples of Sapphics: Swinburne So the goddess fled from her place, with awful Sound of feet and thunder of wings around her; While behind a clamour of singing women Severed the twilight. 

Allen Ginsberg Red cheeked boyfriends tenderly kiss me sweet mouthed under Boulder coverlets winter springtime hug me naked laughing and telling girl friends gossip til autumn 
Notice that Ginsberg's easily transforms into my version of the Sapphic - if we scan it like: hug me naked laughing and telling girl friends;  gossip til autumn
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And I thought that there is so much BS all around us, why not strive to be precise, precise, precise; use an excruciating precision to say what we mean. I mean, why should we be like Sarah Palin, who talks and talks, yet cannot say what is going on in her head:

Pretty lady Governor; 
conservative like Reagan; 
Reagan did not quit. 

I think that sums it up...unless she intends to be the new conservative intellectual - like Pat Buchanan - but that , too, has a few problems, the number one of which being that she's a fisher-folk type of person, been salmon fishin' and campin', but she seems to fish "in shallow waters", if'n ye catch my drift here.
What else?

 Illness does not take a summer vacation; 
Death will not adjourn his unending conclave; 
Fever and the Flue still wish to visit us; Health Care summer recess!
(O.K. So the last line is too long. )
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