tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4990892400523747815.post1773488301544914958..comments2024-01-11T07:18:07.398-05:00Comments on PoemTalk (episodes 1-41): a few good words (PoemTalk #29)Al Filreishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17361573484797020525noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4990892400523747815.post-52421748914988719132014-06-02T11:14:12.879-04:002014-06-02T11:14:12.879-04:00Perhaps the "return" keyed on a "wo...Perhaps the "return" keyed on a "word" document…<br /><br />in any event…there is no there here.<br /><br />How about a real political moment?<br /><br />CONFERENCE-CRAZY<br />(1922)<br /><br />Vladimir Mayakovsky <br /><br /><br />Scarce night’s transformed into dawn,<br />with the same daily sight I’m beset:<br />folks go forth to their offices – each to his own:<br />to glav,<br />to com,<br />to polit,<br />to prosvet.<br />Barely passing the establishment porter,<br />they’re piled with papers like snow;<br />selecting some fifty –<br />the most important! –<br />to conference people go.<br /><br />You peep in:<br />“Couldn’t So-and-So see me, eh?<br />I’ve been coming here God knows how long…”<br />“Comrade Van Vanich’s gone off to confer<br />on a merger of Theo and Gukon!”<br /><br />The umptieth staircase.<br />You’re done for, you think.<br />Yet again:<br />“You’re to come in an hour.”<br />Damnation!<br />“They’re in conference:<br />the purchase of a bottle on ink<br />for the district cooperative association.”<br />In an hour:<br />neither secretary<br />nor clerk!<br />Great hell!<br />All under 22 –<br />blonde or dark –<br />at a conference of the YCL.<br /><br />Again, perspiring, already towards dusk<br />to the top of the seven storey building I come.<br />“Has Van Vanich arrived?” I ask,<br />“No – in session<br />at the a-b-c-d-e-f-com.”<br /><br />Enraged,<br />like an avalanche in full might,<br />I tear in,<br />wildly cursing.<br />Gosh!<br />Only halves of people in sight!<br />“Where are they,”<br />I holler,<br />“the halves that are missing?<br />Murder!<br />Manslaughter!”<br />I rush about roaring.<br />Horrendous, the picture’s driving me nuts.<br />Then I hear the secretary’s calmest voice: “Sorry,<br />they’re attending two conferences at once.<br />At ten sessions daily<br />we have to appear,<br />so willy-nilly,<br />in half we tear –<br />down to the waist<br />we’re here,<br />and the rest of us –<br />there.”<br /><br />The shock brings insomnia.<br />Yawning and yearning.<br />I meet the dawn with a dream of bliss:<br />Oh, for just one more decisive conference,<br />concerning<br />the abolishment of all conferences!stormnemesishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11176778911355352751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4990892400523747815.post-18936956291663968002010-03-22T03:27:42.819-04:002010-03-22T03:27:42.819-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4990892400523747815.post-40206741530893458142010-03-04T10:42:37.609-05:002010-03-04T10:42:37.609-05:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com