Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Ketchup Wars

Red Blurred Lights by Petr Kratochvil 







the ketchup wars 





whooping warriors of bloodless pretend wars

we ran, mugging fierce faces at each other as

we fell, graceless as bowling pins in faked suffering
the kind seen in the silence of marble chilled cinemas 

the kind of ketchup killing 

where rugged men rode ranges of firing rifles
stuffed with celluloid splendor of grace and always 
always lived to ride home with clean hands 
to some sweet lady holding her hair off her face
and their cows safe in the fence she had fixed 






28 comments:

  1. Lovely, Pearl!! You touch on so many things here and so beautifully!! So many great images, but the one I like best is this one:

    "always lived to ride home with clean hands
    to some sweet lady holding her hair off her face
    and their cows safe in the fence she had fixed "

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    1. Aww thanks Barbara... wasn't there always that "gal" and usually she as running from the kitchen or hanging laundry - but the breeze was always blowing :)

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  2. Enjoyed your stream of consciousness here, Pearl! Your title alone captured my attention.

    (visiting from Poetry Pantry, as I did not have time to do the wordle today....)

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  3. Innocence and pretend violence mixed.
    Original.

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    1. Yes "anything" that was precisely the feeling! Thank you and I do so very much appreciate your seeing this as 'original' - very moving for me:)

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  4. Wonderfully whimsical today with this one, Pearl. This was such a true representation of my youth. Living in the country, such images hit home harder than for most.

    Great job, my friend. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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    1. Oh Claudsy so happy that you did relate and enjoy. I so deeply appreciate your comments and stopping by! :)

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  5. Really like this, especially those final lines. Hard to compete with life on the big screen, but there is always that part of us that wants to believe,

    Elizabeth

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    1. Aw Elizabeth - Different take - but so very lovely - I'm looking at the words in a different way which is always wonderful. Thank you!

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  6. Very imaginative, Pearl! Such vivid and complex imagery. That is why I love wordles - they manage to take out what's best in a poet :-)

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    1. I agree with you Mariya - 'wordles' do manage to take me to places that come fast and vividly - I wouldn't presume to say 'best' but certainly grand fun and extraordinarily releasing - I look forward to Brenda Warren's words each week! :) Thank you so much for stopping by!

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  7. What a clever poem... "whooping warriors of bloodless pretend wars"... You've inspired me to check out 'wordles'...

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  8. Takes a woman to fix the fence! I enjoyed reading this.

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    1. Aw thanks Annell - those old Westerns seemed to always have some strong slender woman who had taken care of everything:)

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  9. Thank you Serena! I enjoy them tremendously! They open up flashes of story poems that for me seem to arrive basically whole and ready for "transcription" thanks for stopping by! :)

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  10. Oh Pearl - when you let your consciousness stream, the places you go ... this is so much fun and wonderfully wordled

    http://thepoet-tree-house.blogspot.ca/2012/09/plain-faith.html

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    1. Awwww Sharon...your words are do very deeply appreciated. Thank you:)

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  11. PEARL, Que paso no te veo! (long time no see in spanish)

    Nice ketchup wars! So Cute.

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  12. Hola Benjamin ( and thus ends the Spanish portion of this reply). Where have you been? Hope all is well with you and yours. Thank you for stopping by. A new poetry collection came out by some poets familiar to you... It is publicized elsewhere on this site. Thanks for stopping by - stop in anytime :)

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  13. Benjamin would adore having you in online closed poetry group...I know you're not on FB couldn't you join under a pseudonym just for this purpose? Email me at drpkp.com

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  14. this is a great one. really enjoyed it.

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  15. Love it, such a fun little poem. They do rarely come hone dirty.

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  16. Pearl this filled my head with it's vividness loved it

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  17. What a wonderful tribute to the days of play and make believe. Sheer joy!

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  18. I remember playing like that...with my cousins when we were all just a bit closer. The tag your it, or bam, I got ya, now you gotta fall down and play dead. And those movies too. Mostly the still black and whites of the Lone Ranger or Zorro.

    Thanks for a gentle read in my book of memories.
    I'm here:
    http://julesgemsandstuff.blogspot.com/2012/09/sunday-whirl-73-pause.html

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