OTI:two poems and notes:2/17/17

Open To Interpretation

Dreadful

Petra and Ishmael
Sat by the Creek on a boulder,
Lost in thought,
Their bare feet dangling in the water.
Dana came along
And slowed his pace
And stopped quiet
So as to not disturb their
Reverie.
A family of ducks swimming
Brought Dana to their attention
And they smiled shyly.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
Said Dana.
"Oh, oh, it was my being dreadful
That I put to sea to be away from."
Said Ishmael.
"Shipboard I was with my like,
In town, dangerously strange."
"Just so, I too,"
Said Dana.
"After my fashion,
Left off town for the sea."
"And he was dreadful
When I found him,"
Said Petra.
"And his companions!
All washed up they were
On a wild shore,
So much debris from some great storm."
"And now?" said Dana.
"Now, "
Said Petra,
"Now the sea
A shady creek
With murmuring ducks."
Dana sat down
And took off his socks
And cowhide boots,
The Creek numbing cold to his toes.
"Have we left off with adventuring?"
Said Dana.
"Not likely!" said Pip
Bounding about the Creek stones,
Quequig following on.
"Nemo comes."
Said Pip,
"And Nemo ignores Time."
"Where away?" said Ishmael.
Nemo stood before them,
Arms akimbo.
"'Tis the season, and the time,
To gather black roses,
And neither here or now
But then and there
Grow such flowers."
Sang Pip.
"Just so," said Nemo,
"Have you three, Time,
Or is this Creek side dalliance
Eternity?"
Petra smiled.  Pip and Quequig feeling left out.
"Of course." said Nemo.
"We're off!" Said Petra. "I must tell Pet!"
"No need," said Nemo,
"The Nautilus and I
We'll have you five
All back before now!"

Pierre

Poe said,
"Hmmmph!  And just like that
He filled the plot hole: whence came Ishmael?"
"Rescued by Nemo?" said Twain,
"Across Time?"
The under the Dodona Oak gathered
All looked at Verne.
Twain said,
"Time Travel isn't in your oeuvre!
And yet,
You had a countryman,
Surely his efforts in you notes.
I just gave a sleeping pill to my Yankee.
And you, Poe, well,
What can I say,
You're my countryman."
Everyone turned from Verne, to Poe, then Twain,
Then, eyes wide and innocent,
They all leaned back like poker players
Caught with cards up their sleeves.
"Oh, haven't we all,
Now and then,
Found a book, a note, something,
From the museum of eternity,
Timeless as it is?
Everyone swiveled about to hear,
And see, Boitard's sudden appearance.
"Just so,"
Said Verne, smiling.
"Pierre is a fine name."

DolphinWords

Notes: reference the movie The Black Rose...reference Pierre Boitard, (surely Verne knew of him!?), reference Pierre Aronnax, Verne's professor aboard the Nautilus...reference Twain's Connecticut Yankeee in King Arthur's  Court, Poe's Pym, reference Melville Moby Dick, chapter 44 (I recall a passage that suggested Moby Dick had been seen in two different places at the same time, but I'm likely confabulating the Sufi notion of a guide being in two places at the same time)...reference James Gleick's new book, Time Travel: A History...Gleick found as I did in my brief web search, in the literature, the notion is very recent, like  the words 'time' and 'travel' are never seen together, and 'machine' added by H. G. Wells...once that happened...Pierre is Peter in French, the masculine of feminine Petra...ral...

quote

Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that his name is "Utis" (ουτις), which translates as "No-man" or "No-body". In the Latin translation of the Odyssey, this pseudonym is rendered as "Nemo", which in Latin also translates as "No-man" or "No-body".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea

unquote

:)

DavidDavid