Manganese, “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem from Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

Manganese

Janet Kuypers

from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#025, Mn)
(stemming from “Became a Jungle”, written 05/17/10,
with references to “Everything Lives With Her”, written 9/2/06)
3/28/13

I wanted plants around.

She always had plants around,
everything thrived with her.

Ever since she died
my home has become a jungle.

Let me have control over this.

Let me add water nearly daily
to the plant I bought when I visited her,
or to the tree she gave me years ago.

Add plant food to the water.
Because I don’t want anything to die.

Trim the dried leaves,
because they would remind me
that even nature misses her.

Keep plants near windows,
they need their light.
Their Manganese needs it
for their chlorophyll production.

Actually, their Manganese assimilates
the carbon dioxide in photosynthesis.

So breathe in our carbon dioxide
and give me more
of my precious oxygen,
so we can realize
how we depend on each other so.

Actually, I should stock up
on Manganese plant supplements.

I’ll make sure you get everything you need.
I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.

Invictus Poem by WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

invictus

invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

No Kiss, a Poem by Seymour Shubin

Kisses

 

No Kiss

I’m sure, she said, you understand,
no kisses tonight
I have this cold, and so much
to do this week
And we have, you and I,
so much time, really now
well,, just a hug, she agreed,
Our heads to the side
Just this
Until
Where are you? she said

 

Why Me

Why Me? Shubin asks, wondering why he is still here when so many other loved ones have gone before him. But every reader of this book comes away with the answer: “It’s because we need the insight and wisdom you give us in this beautiful book, Seymour Shubin—and we long for more.”……. Barbara Brett

Mac the Knife.Poem.Berthold Brecht.(1898-1956)Translated John Willet.Reader Tom O’Bedlam.

 

 

Editor’s Note: these comments below accompany the text. ‘Not Mack the Knife’. It’s a later translation by John Willet and truer to the original score and it’s not known of anyone who sings all of it. Brecht was impressed by John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ 1728 , and wrote his own musical version in German, ‘Die Driegroschenoper’ (The Threepenny Opera) in 1928. Like the original it is set in London, McHeath presumably is a cockney. There’s an epidemic of knifings  amongst London teenagers, yet Mack the Knife is popular and sung as a jaunty little number. If you listen to the version of Brecht’s musical you realise that it wasn’t meant that way. He’s become a folk hero. We accept he’s a thief and a murderer, so why should it come as a surprise he’s a child rapist too? Why leave that out?

 

robin@artvilla.com

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Sodium, Periodic Table poem by Chicago poet Janet Kuypers

Sodium


from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
8/31/12

It’s funny that something
so common on this Earth,
the 6th most abundant element,
something so common
that it’s usually found
mixed with the ocean water…
It’s funny that something
so common on this Earth
was actually used as currency,
given to ancient Roman soldiers
in addition to their wages.
The English word for it
was even derived from “salary”,
derived from “salarium”
for the wafers for payment.
In Medieval times, “sodanum”
was used to relieve headaches.
And the element name
is probably derived
from the Arabic “suda”
for headache…
It is in the soaps we make,
and we add it to the food
we eat. It has been used
in making and bleaching paper,
it’s in water softeners,
it’s used in compounds
for industrial cleaners,
or even as a tissue dissolving agent.

It’s funny, how we have it
in kosher, iodized and rock forms
in our kitchen.

So I guess it’s fitting
that this silver-white element
(which does not occur in nature
but is derived from it’s compounds),
it’s amazing that
this abundant element
has been used in so many ways,
from creating soaps
to industrial cleaners
to even dissolving tissue…
To even flavoring our food.
In us animals, Sodium
is even needed for nerve impulses
generated in our cell membranes.
So yeah, it makes sense
that if Sodium’s so needed,
and Sodium’s so abundant,
we’d use it in as many compounds
as we possibly can
to make our lives better.