Drawing on the previous post, I think that blog poetry readers need to get more involved. So, I’m also offering a read-aloud poem for you. Don’t read it silently. This is one that begs to be read out loud — to have your tongue twist around the words, sensually caressing each syllable. It makes a difference; trust me, your officemate or your cat (or both) would love to hear your rendition.<\/p>\n
Ode to American English<\/strong>
\n ~ Barbara Hamby<\/p>\nI was missing English one day, American, really,
\n with its pill-popping Hungarian goulash of everything
\nfrom Anglo-Saxon to Zulu, because British English
\n is not the same, if the paperback dictionary
\nI bought at Brentano’s on the Avenue de l’Op\u00c3\u00a9ra
\n is any indication, too cultured by half. Oh, the English
\nknow their dahlias, but what about doowop, donuts,
\n Dick Tracy, Tricky Dick? With their elegant Oxfordian
\naccents, how could they understand my yearning for the hotrod,
\n hotdog, hot flash vocabulary of the U. S. of A.,
\nthe fragmented fandango of Dagwood’s everyday flattening
\n of Mr. Beasley on the sidewalk, fetuses floating
\non billboards, drive-by monster hip-hop stereos shaking
\n the windows of my dining room like a 7.5 earthquake,
\nEbonics, Spanglish, “you know” used as comma and period,
\n the inability of 90% of the population to get the present perfect:
\nI have went<\/em>, I have saw<\/em>, I have tooken<\/em> Jesus into my heart,
\n the battle cry of the Bible Belt, but no one uses
\nthe King James anymore, only plain-speak versions,
\n in which Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead, says,
\n“Dude, wake up,” and the L-man bolts up like a B-movie
\n mummy. “Whoa, I was toasted.” Yes, ma’am,
\nI miss the mongrel plentitude of American English, its fall-guy,
\n rat-terrier, dog-pound neologisms, the bomb of it all,
\nthe rushing River Jordan backwoods mutability of it, the low-rider,
\n boom-box cruise of it, from New Joisey to Ha-wah-ya
\nwith its sly dog, malasada-scarfing beach blanket lingo
\n to the ubiquitous Valley Girl’s like-like<\/em> stuttering,
\nshopaholic rant. I miss its quotidian beauty, its querulous
\n back-biting righteous indignation, its preening rotgut
\nflag-waving cowardice. Suffering Succotash<\/em>, sputters
\n Sylvester the Cat; sine die<\/em>, say the pork-bellied legislators
\nof the swamps and plains. I miss all those guys, their Tweety-bird
\n resilience, their Doris Day optimism, the candid unguent
\nof utter unhappiness on every channel, the midnight televangelist
\n euphoric stew, the junk mail, voice mail vernacular.
\nOn every boulevard<\/em> and rue<\/em> I miss the Tarzan cry of Johnny
\n Weismueller, Johnny Cash, Johnny B. Goode,
\nand all the smart-talking, gum-snapping hard-girl dialogue,
\n finger-popping x-rated street talk, sports babble,
\nCheetoes, Cheerios, chili dog diatribes. Yeah, I miss them all,
\n sitting here on my sidewalk throne sipping champagne
\nverses lined up like hearses, metaphors juking, nouns zipping
\n in my head like Corvettes on Dexadrine, French verbs
\nslitting my throat, yearning for James Dean to jump my curb.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drawing on the previous post, I think that blog poetry readers need to get more involved. So, I’m also offering a read-aloud poem for you. Don’t read it silently. This is one that begs to be read out loud — to have your tongue twist around the words, sensually caressing each syllable. It makes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n
blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Drawing on the previous post, I think that blog poetry readers need to get more involved. So, I’m also offering a read-aloud poem for you. Don’t read it silently. This is one that begs to be read out loud — to have your tongue twist around the words, sensually caressing each syllable. It makes a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"soe\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"headline\":\"blog readers’ poetry slam\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374\"},\"wordCount\":523,\"articleSection\":[\"arts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374\",\"name\":\"blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=374#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"blog readers’ poetry slam\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"sprite writes\",\"description\":\"broodings from the burrow\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\",\"name\":\"soe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"soe\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes","og_description":"Drawing on the previous post, I think that blog poetry readers need to get more involved. So, I’m also offering a read-aloud poem for you. Don’t read it silently. This is one that begs to be read out loud — to have your tongue twist around the words, sensually caressing each syllable. It makes a […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374","og_site_name":"sprite writes","article_published_time":"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00","author":"soe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"soe","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374"},"author":{"name":"soe","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d"},"headline":"blog readers’ poetry slam","datePublished":"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374"},"wordCount":523,"articleSection":["arts"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374","url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374","name":"blog readers' poetry slam - sprite writes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-02-02T05:18:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=374#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"blog readers’ poetry slam"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/","name":"sprite writes","description":"broodings from the burrow","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d","name":"soe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"soe"},"url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}