FALL 2013
It’s been a while, but I have lots of snippets in notebooks. For now, I present some dactylic hexameter purloined from reading Horace.

— I am a book in fashion, with praises from the reviewers,
Soon to wander stalls, or end my day in the refuse.

* * *

— Wasting time in vulgar adversarial comments
— Death alone can halt the blazing destruction of envy

* * *

—Take away his wine, and the worthy poet is silent.

—I was asked to introduce an unworthy person

—I’d make do with even less, as long as it’s steady.

—There is a friend with a treasure chest, and full of opinions

Full of success who knows what is best for his lowlier minions.
—If you want to be my friend, then what is the matter?
Warn me of myself, my friend, take care not to flatter.

—Only vicious people find delight in such honor,
based on falsehood, fragile glory, bright for an hour.

—By a word we receive an office, rising in fortune,
by a word we lose it all, by evil detraction.

—Strumming musical harlots, music people can dance to,
too far away, half a day, for such a prodigal fellow.

—While his soul is abroad, the cattle graze in the corn-field
Ordinary matters don't disturb his reflections.

—We who live on the rural routes are kings in our wood-lots
Streams run fresh unlike the city’s poisonous sewage

—On my land I relax and wear my stockings in stitches
Not to exchange my liberty for Arabian riches.

—What I know can change again in my sleep before morning

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(more snippets derived from Horace)
— How long in the earth should a poem ferment to be ready
to be appreciated by these connoisseur critics?

— In learnéd prayers, the choir begs for aid. (Iambic pentameter)

(based on book of Sirach, dactylic hexameter)
— All things in doubles, and He has made nothing defective.

(based on reading from Amos)
— With our boxes and devices, endlessly idle
Finest ointments, endless ointments, sumptuous parties,
Joe’s in jail, and no one cares, no one bothers to see him.

(more Horace, dactylic hexameter)
— Hammers and nails and funeral trucks with lively commotion
overpower the voice inside with total distraction.

— Critical intellects manufacture genuine verses
by removing weightless phrases, stupidity, vagueness.

— Hellebore removed my melancholic disorder,
Leaving me saddened by the loss of my fondest delusion.

— No such thing as perpetual possession it passes
heir to heir like waves push waves to the line of the beaches.

— Second-raters behind me, I’m the last of the first-rate

— Are you free of fear of deadly autonomous train-sets,
mocking nocturnal goblins and magical dreamscapes?

— Are you forgiving to your friends and milder in manners?
Do you number your birthdays and truly show you are grateful?

— Who could refrain from laughing at depictions of mixtures,
pigs with wings, impossible things, and Dalian creatures?

— Simple stories satisfy, not wrongly embellished,
Needless details are removed by the time they are finished.

— Fear of mistakes can lead to a blunder of opposite species,
Careful not to be too cautious, hiding from stormclouds.