in between, the news
A forum friend once calls his out-of-the-blue, spur-of-the-moment short poetry "instant poems". One day, on opening a cup of instant noodles and reading the papers while waiting for it to cook, the idea of an "instant poem" came to mind, and the below poem is the result.
colour pencil and ink sketch by dsnake1
in between, the news
Open packet, pour in hot water, wait 3 minutes.
In the meantime, there was the usual bleak news from Iraq, female hostage pleads for her life, Feb 1 2006, damn, dropped cigarette ash on floor, splattered like a dead moth, cowboy gay love story won 8 Oscar nominations. Dad beats up mum what can a child do? Homeless man living under flyover bridge for past six months.
Ah, excuse me, my noodle's ready.
01/02/2006
**********
Magaly at Poets and Storytellers United invites us to write poetry or prose that includes a list of things we love, of things we hate, ...of anything we wish. I am writing this list poem of newspaper headlines. They are actual headlines in a newspaper on a particular day.
“I spent my time drinking and staring at a television in the airport bar. More death and destruction. Crime. Pollution. All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn´t need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
in between, the news
Open packet, pour in hot water, wait 3 minutes.
In the meantime, there was the usual bleak news from Iraq, female hostage pleads for her life, Feb 1 2006, damn, dropped cigarette ash on floor, splattered like a dead moth, cowboy gay love story won 8 Oscar nominations. Dad beats up mum what can a child do? Homeless man living under flyover bridge for past six months.
Ah, excuse me, my noodle's ready.
01/02/2006
**********
Magaly at Poets and Storytellers United invites us to write poetry or prose that includes a list of things we love, of things we hate, ...of anything we wish. I am writing this list poem of newspaper headlines. They are actual headlines in a newspaper on a particular day.
“I spent my time drinking and staring at a television in the airport bar. More death and destruction. Crime. Pollution. All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn´t need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.”
― John Twelve Hawks, The Traveler
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
Labels: list poem, news headlines, prompt
posted by dsnake1 at 12:05 AM
21 Comments:
Wow, instant noodles, instant news, instant poetry. Very clever, how the poem makes the point which is further elucidated in that excellent quote from Mr Twelve Hawks.
Nice! A cup of instant muse, we never know when and where it’ll come.
Rosemary,
Thank you!
I too like the way the poem progressed. :)
Su-sieee,
Thank you!
So you noticed the brand of the cup? :D
Quite brilliant of you!
Thank you, Helen! :)
I love the stream/steam of consciousness instant poem. I wait for that flow that goes the way it goes.
Wonderful writing!
I like this. It reads like controlled stream of consciousness--I know, a contradictory description. I enjoy the tone, ease of behavior, and how it feels like we are right there with the speaker listening to the world's madness while waiting for noodles to be done.
Very grounding! A sad state of affairs, but well imagined and penned!
Yes, the news, the news, why so many people want to ignore the news. But should we?
Colleen,
Thank you!
may that flow arrives like a river. :)
Christine,
Thank you!
Magaly,
Thank you!
i know that feeling. An ordinary guy waiting for his noodles to be done mulling over the woes of the world..
Margaret,
Thank you!
yes, nothing much nice in the news. :)
Thank you, Yvonne!
I think the news is still relevant. I like to keep track of politics, technology, medicine, even entertainment. With lots of media leaning far right and far left and outright fake news and propaganda, the trick is to navigate safely.
Somehow, you comment was offloaded to my spam folder. This is happening quite frequently now as others are also directed there.
Love this
Thank you, Rajani! :)
What Rosemary said. Really clever poem and love the drawing too.
Thank you, Sunra!
Glad that you like the drawing too. :)
This is very touching. Yeah sometimes what we can do is very little, our attention away with immediacy
Thank you, jossina.
yes, now with smartphones, our attention span is even shorter.
This poem flowed out and was instantly wonderful!
'instantly!'
Thank you, Sara. :)
Post a Comment
<< Home