New poetry contest: anything touching upon the life of corporations. Less than twenty-one lines, written specifically for the contest.
Inspiration: "[Wallace] Stevens' question lies near the heart of the ontological problem of 'the corporation' -- one reason why, as we shall see, the representation of the corporation in poetry becomes a central problem in the Modernist epic" from Money and Modernity: Pound, Williams and the Spirit of Jefferson, by Alec Marsh (Tuscaloosa: U. of Alabama Press, 1998): 159.
Deadline, Saturday the 29th of May, midnight. Any number of poems can be contributed, but only one vote per commenter. Votes collected on Sunday the 30th of May from 12:04 AM to 11:57 PM.
THE CORPORATION IS FARMING THE MOON
The tractors' wheels like Roosevelt dimes
Roll over the rills
The Rolls Royces in the craters
Undiscover the reels
In the suburbs toward the core
The stores are open 24/7 (except for Mother's Day)
And at the heart of the moon
Sits the corporation:
A city of darkened glass
Where the magistrate passes
Legislation that streamlines the administration.
15 comments:
A poem to corporations should not rhyme,
Nor have meter. Maximizing shareholder value
Is its only constraint.
But it should sell itself,
Promise you wisdom, whiter teeth, and better sex,
With a more beautiful partner.
It's just a subscription.
$19.95 a month,
Charged to your credit card.
So sorry you weren't satisfied.
No, I can't remove the charges.
22 more months on the contract.
It's not personal.
Just business.
New Babylon Baptist Church, Inc.
“To stand for office, one must have religion.”
Wal*Mart said to Microsoft and Coke,
“So I’ve retained a priest to make us one.”
The Father smiled, but thought it all a joke
until the Board eliminated sin
and actuated parachute salvation.
With scripture set aside and doctrines thinned
“New Babylon” was “Built for Corporations.”
His contract made the Father’s conscience lurch:
philippics vitriolic filled his cup
and every one disparaged the poor church.
Despite their might, no one could shut him up
until he was impaled upon the steeple
screaming “Corporations are not people!”
GM,
Very nice!
Stu,
Thanks! All but one of the poems I've written this year have been for LS. It hurts my "real" publication chances with them (that is, they'll have to go in a book instead of a magazine [not like that happens much anyway]) but I'm 1) having a blast and 2) having a blast and 3) probably having more readers than all but the top lit mags anyway.
I say Kudos to Kirby for his contests!
you have your corp of engineers
you have the trumpet corp
you have your french mercenaries
you have your backwater boys
you have the corpus christi
marine corps
rand corp
surreal corporations
with secretaries and style
logos that smile
slavery pays
we make it pay
give the man your breath your day
corpus mundi
corpus mundi corpus mundi
there is no king
not since elvis died
a den of rattlesnakes
a school of fish
johnhanson
Fascinating move by JH at the end of his poem to bring corporations back into the natural world, and to show that schools of fish, dens of rattlesnakes, and I suppose herds of cattle, bison, antelope, and troops of knuckle-dragging gorillas, have something like a corporate structure.
If we give animals rights, can we also drag them into court?
If so, will the gorillas respond by resorting to lawyers, as if they're a bunch of animals like the mob?
A corporation
Is a curiously talented dog,
Perhaps one
With a secret cave,
And a cape.
People grab it by the nape
Of the neck
Or kick it in the tummy.
"Why's my life so crummy?"
Must be the dog's fault.
But then the dog goes down
Into the cave
And sits there,
pensive and grave.
"Aha!"
And productivity springs
And the cash till rings.
Corporations are a dog,
Curiously talented,
Scapegoat enabled,
Neither good nor bad at heart,
Just playing its part.
poem #II
sucked asunder
you drive to the parking lot
you park in a slot
you move like an elctron
to a niche' in a room of niches'
you tap words that make sense to the other people in the niches'
you answer the phone you make drafts
you listen serenely to the woman
who has taken charge
you know your anonymity in your gut
you drive on forgotten streets
you wonder if it's not time for a change
you know you need the money
you know your way around
you know it's all mechanical
you know no one knows any joy
you think you know more than
the bigwigs
who pull down millions
you stop at a bar
you take a drink
not bad
nothing ever happens
you go to work on monday
you park in the same slot
or one nearby
you awake to realize your whole neighborhood
is hardwired by the company you keep
you lose your sense of you
you cannot withstand the tedium
of imagined excitement
you cannot trust the false evocations of solidarity
you know it's a scam
but the niche' calls you home
you may golf one day with the big cheeze
le gran fromage
but until then
you smell the odors of the corporation
every christmas there is sparkle
and then well
you get a watch and then you die
agahst at the sterility of it all
johnhanson
Some very nice contributions: Kirby, GM, WB, JH *2, but my vote goes to GM's, "New Babylon Baptist Church, Inc."
I'm voting for JH #1. Couldn't quite agree with the extreme cynicism of GM's, or JH#2, or Stu's, or my own effort.
I think corporations can be decent. McDonald's is moving in the right direction. Booger King's vegetarian BK even better.
We do need to eat less boogers and more vegetables, but maybe I'm just being a snot.
Voting closes at midnight tonight.
i do like the way gm
pulled together some graphic imagery that lends itself to
the insanity of it all
even though i must say
the image of a priest
flailing to his death
on a steeple is...
well....
disturbing
but i guess that's the point
a poignant point
gm has my vote
jh
GM's outrageous poem wins. It's midnight, or three minutes til midnight, so the voting closes in three minutes (votes coming in after midnight will be DQ'd).
Thanks for a fun contest. There wasn't a lot of participation in this one, but the poems were quite good.
Could anyone summarize what GM's poem is actually saying? I'm not sure I understood it.
11:58
i couldn't figure out the
sense of gm's poem either
i simply like the way the words all connect
and the rhymes
gm could be getting a fat head if he starts winning all the poetry contests
hey WTF
hasn't gm won the last three
this frigggin thing is rigged
ah well
everybody sing
beautiful loooooooooser
your so beautiful indeed
beautiful loooooooooooser
yer the swellest loser of the breed
i remain a little distressed that my 2nd effort did not get much play
penguin corporation
join the penguins
fly like a bird underwater
hold the corporation dear
anyone for some fish on ice
jh
hey stu
remind me to describe for you
the "phuq you" principle of american economics sometime
i think i may have happened upon the
catalytic principle for sustaining monetary flow
;)
jh
Kirby et al,
More tomorrow prob. But the whole notion of corporate personhood scares/fascinates me.
So I imagine corporations doing people things. I'll link to a poem tomorrow about a Corp running for president.
That's pretty much it. How would corporations form a church, etc.
jh,
the image of a priest
flailing to his death
on a steeple is...
well....
disturbing
Isn't the notion of a Baptist priest already disturbing enough?
And I though GM was kind, in naming the church "New Babylon," channelling the Apocalypse. "New Rome" would have been more appropriate, no reflection on the RCC, but rather on Rome as the Imperial capital, and as what the Apocalypse's "Babylon" was encoding. "New Laodicea" might have been even better still (cf. Rev. 3:14-17), albeit just a tad obscure.
While I'm on the subject... I heard Stephen Jay Gould give a talk at Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. He referred to it, with considerable justice, as "the world's only Baptist cathedral." I remember him calling out "fiat lux," and being disappointed that the lighting crew didn't understand. He said, "I figured if it would work anywhere, it would have been here."
hey stu
remind me to describe for you
the "phuq you" principle of american economics sometime
i think i may have happened upon the
catalytic principle for sustaining monetary flow
Go for it :-). You can get my email through my profile if you don't want to traffic in blog comments.
Peace...
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