Echo-Chamber Chant

 "I study social media. Which means that to a first approximation, I watch people argue." 
~ Clay Shirky

Echo-Chamber Chant


(Rhythm: Calypso Andante)


Yelling in a tin can

Imbalanced between yin and yang

One can't be right all of the time

Our two cents aren't worth a dime


Opinions are like sphincters

Too vulnerable to pranksters

If you feel that facts don't matter

Then you're madder than a hatter


Quit craving biased confirmation

It's all just monkey imitation

What we think is nothing major

Stunted thoughts like a teenager


The Fake News has taken over

It's better now to run for cover

There's no wiz behind the curtain

Let's accept Being uncertain


* Repeat it ad absurdum *

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Auto-Critical Critique

Auto-Critical Critique

For starters: this writer usually adopts the voice of an entire chorus; a stance that wears on one quickly. Royal We remains prevalent but the first person is frustratingly nowhere to be found!

His compositions are topical and tend toward metaphysical abstractions, which hold only loose relations to their titles. That is likely the result of having read too much John Donne or Andrew Marvell.

Additionally, there is an acrimonious overuse of verbosity running throughout his strident phraseology. Prosaic sentences seem to go on indefinitely while poetic dalliances devolve into nothing more than mere drivel.

Alliteration becomes campy deconstruction ~ Punctuation is eccentric to the extreme — following a logic all its own¡ Grammarians would wince as arrant arrogance flies in the face of traditional technique. Here even rhyming rings untrue due to syncopated timing ...

Such pretentious devices instantly turn off most readers. Yet for some unexplained reason, their forced application seems altogether deliberate. Perhaps said fact corresponds to the conceited claim that this is indeed "Anti" Poetry.

Regardless, he will never amount to anything in a world where book sales mark success. Long gone are the days when people actually analyzed writing and considered it an artful pursuit. With attention spans waning away rapidly, each l e n g t h e n e d letter hammers another nail into his categorical coffin.

* clang - clang - clang *

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Asomatous

Asomatous

~ Operand at the periphery ~

Like Don Giovanni's opera

It gives rise to an epiphany:

Bridging wide gaps within

A rich binaural symphony.

So let the players sing and

Take you by both tympani.

Such scores are highly rated

Among the annals of infamy.

Donna Elvira love him not —

For he goes beyond polygamy:

Over two-thousand bodices

Removed in crass indecency!

Even statues spring to life

Moved through sheer indignity.

Audiences are often duped

By the libretto's filigree;

Thinking it has something to do

With inborn nobility or pedigree.

The evanescent is nascent mid torment ...

Image: Don Giovanni Dragged Into Hell by Pietro Bini (1796).

---

Author's Note: If you enjoyed this piece, then you might want to take a look at its poetic 'prequel': Rhizomatous

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Gruß Vom Krampus!

Gruß Vom Krampus!


Jolly old Saint Nicholas?
An outdated yuletide hymn —

With more naughty brats than e'er
This season's ripe for him ...

Christ-Mass eve approaches;
Come now feared old goat,

Quit flipping those channels
(Give up that darn remote).

It's all commercials anyhow
After the clock strikes twelve:

Advertising crap to wrap
Like woeful workshop elves.

So stuff these stockings full of coal;
Bad boys and girls beware —

He'll spank you with birch branches
Or box your ears mid-air!

Johnny wants an iPod touch,
Susy's dreaming of VR.

Nellie thinks a 'Selfie Mic'
Will make her a big star.

As for us with half a brain
We still need to smarten ...

Send out our reminder
Via vintage Krampuskarten!

Image: And the Children Shall Inherit the Earth (Krampus) by Chris Buzelli.

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