The Poetry Challenge
Can you write a poem rhyming "infatuated" and "superannuated"?
posted by R at 12:27 am
Tuesday, August 14
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7 Comments:
The first order of business is for me to feel comfortable using the word superannuated.
superannuated \soo-pur-AN-yoo-ay-tid\, adjective:
1. Discharged or disqualified on account of old age; retired from service, especially with a pension.
2. Old; no longer in use; no longer valid; outmoded.
I spent a lot of time in my car today and a poem started coming to me. I have to run and go running right now...
but could you give me more context to this request? Why infatuated? Why superannuated? Those definitely aren't happy words.
discombobulated?
Oh wait, I thought you were just looking for words that rhymed with those two. An entire poem is a good deal trickier.
I am
Happy to say
Superannuated
I did
Five at one oh five in forty five today
I am
Happy to say
Infatuated
I did
Five and fifty-fifty five stay alive today
I am
Happy to say
Not discombobulated
Blood thickens
Heart pounds
Pores pour
Adapt or
OK. Here's the poem that came to me while driving. Maybe if I write it down, it will go away. In running, in writing, in everything, I'm looking for a breakthrough. Maybe this will help.
However, for future reference, the word infatuated always stirs up bad memories for me.
We were never friends
After all these years,
let me repeat myself.
We were never friends.
You were the butt of my jokes.
We never went to the movies.
We never studied together.
We never walked around the lakes.
We never ate together in the dining hall.
We never hung out together in my dorm room.
We never talked about the sayings
from old Sufi masters that I wrote on post it notes
and stuck to my walls.
Peace to you from my heart to my heart.
All your suffering comes from desiring things that cannot be had. Stop desiring and you won't suffer.
We were never friends.
We never held hands.
We never hugged.
We never kissed.
We never made love.
Do not say that I
screwed with your mind.
Do not think that I
care.
Do not think that I
remember.
My name is not Rejane Cytacki.
Do not think that you know me.
You never knew me.
You were never anything to me.
Forget, forget, forget
and go away.
Disappear forever.
It was all a joke and
yes, we laughed.
You never belonged anyway.
This is all so superannuated.
You were just infatuated.
Your feelings weren’t real.
None of this ever happened.
It was all make-believe.
I got drunk once or twice.
I had a good time.
I laughed and I laughed.
Sigh.
After all these years,
forget, forget.
It was only a joke.
And we were never friends.
damn.
that was a heckuva poem. bravo.
yeah, I came across a poem with that rhyme, and since it was by a poet who doesn't usually rhyme things at all, and it's such a rich rhyme, it just stuck with me for awhile. I did a google search with those two words, and saw a lot of links to pages that I didn't want to read.
I don't think it's just you. I think those are somehow, objectively, unpleasant words. After all, superannuated isn't retirement... it's obsolescence. It implies worthlessness. And infatuation... is never love. It implies immaturity and impossibility.
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