Wrapping Both Sides of the Brain Around Chooch -- Part 2 (right brain)

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 21, 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Too hot for any fan on the planet. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Consider the isthmus

Consider the isthmus: A narrow, tenuous connector
of giant continents. Overlooked at first, over time
critical, inevitably a flashpoint of commerce, control, war,
and malarially bad craziness.

Its cure is a young man forced into a position of trust prematurely
out of violence or stupidity. At once he is valorized and not thought much of.
He begins to dig in the dirt, using a plan to seek his own level
connecting epochs of tears,
using graft or larceny, bits of luck at hand on the ground.

Panama's son was born to make Teddy look ridiculous
with an inner dignity transcending enthusiasms.

Somehow he winds up holding the ball.

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Comments

Outstanding.

He also eats iguanas.

by taco pal on Sep 21, 2010 11:02 AM EDT reply actions

proof

http://www.zoowithroy.com/2010/09/chooch-will-have-iguana-with-side-of.html

by taco pal on Sep 21, 2010 11:03 AM EDT up reply actions

I may have to incorporate that into a revision. Srsly, how did I miss that?

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 21, 2010 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow… that’s pretty damn original. Me likey. And thanks to your links, I just learned that the isthmus forced the atlantic currents northward creating what is now known as the Gulf Stream. I like to go fishing in the Gulf Stream in the summer. So, the isthmus giveth me both Chooch and tasty bluefin tuna. Yay guys.

by Boundforbeach on Sep 21, 2010 11:16 AM EDT reply actions

I like to go fishing in the Gulf Stream in the summer. So, the isthmus giveth me both Chooch and tasty bluefin tuna.

Bluefins don’t hang out in the gulf-stream. They prefer much colder water. At least the adults do.

by Bilzo on Sep 21, 2010 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions

also….Bluefins aren’t prevalent on the mid-atlantic east coast in the summer.
I think you meant Yellowfins (and if you want REALLLLY tasty stuff, go after a blackfin…yum)

by Bilzo on Sep 21, 2010 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions

? Bluefins are in the Washington, Baltimore, Poor Man’s, and Norfolk canyons in June and early July (sometimes closer), albeit not in great numbers as years past. I think yellowfins are even rarer last couple of seasons. I’ve never heard of anyone catching a blackfin in the mid-atlantic. The occasional long fin or big eye maybe, but where can you catch them?

by Boundforbeach on Sep 21, 2010 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Hmmm….they’re generally down here in NC from Jan-Mar and then they disappear. Little guys show up (like the 1’ variety) in late summer through winter.
I guess with the colder water you get (and the Gulf Stream being so far offshore as opposed to in NC) they come chill out up there in the summer.

We get blackfins down here in the fall and winter. Most of ’em <15 lbs, but very tasty.

by Bilzo on Sep 21, 2010 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Would be neat to visit Panama someday. Looks like a fascinating country.

by taco pal on Sep 21, 2010 12:09 PM EDT reply actions

it’s definitely on my short list. I went to Costa Rica a few years ago and had the time of my life. I’ve heard many people say Panama is even more scenic and downright fun.

by Boundforbeach on Sep 21, 2010 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I would like to as well, but I’m a third world pansy. I get fearful of forced bribes and my wife’s safety in sketchy places. Dominican Republic at age 13 ruined me for life.

by Bilzo on Sep 21, 2010 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions

On that point, I’m not sure I would even go to Mexico anymore. I guess the uber-tourist places are safe, but it sounds like that country is on the verge of a collapsed state. Kind of scary.

by Boundforbeach on Sep 21, 2010 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions

when bullet proofing cars is a big business in your country….you got issues

by j reed on Sep 21, 2010 5:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I lived there, too, probably long before you did, 1981-83. In those days there were still stories of the really scary times, when Trujillo was the dictator. They sure love baseball there, don’t they?

by phillyinportland on Sep 21, 2010 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m continually fascinated by the WL form of poetry, with its pertinent links making the whole thing a truly interactive experience. Well done again, WL, and God bless Chooch.

by PhillyFriar on Sep 21, 2010 3:13 PM EDT reply actions

thanks and apologies for those who followed all of them. I inadvertently linked to the same WS game 3 video twice, which was unintentional, but gave me an opportunity to fit in TP’s ZWR reference to “enthusiasms,” which seems appropriate.

But the wider point about the medium of Hyperlinked Poetry, yeah, the more I play around with this, the more I believe it has an unlimited capacity to make verse way more accessible.

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 21, 2010 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions

also

h/t to KreiderDesigns. No wholly right-brained approach would be complete without a nod to really impressive fan art from the visual media.

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 21, 2010 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Thank you much, sir!

Flyers Fans: We've survived Lock-outs, Lindros and Cooperalls. If you want to get rid of us, you'll have to split an atom or two.

by KreiderDesigns on Sep 22, 2010 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions

you sir… are a trail blazer!

by Boundforbeach on Sep 21, 2010 4:23 PM EDT up reply actions

otoh I am fully cognizant of the fact that the stat heavy left side of the brain post by my associate schmenkman garnered 10x more comments, if I don’t include myself. Poetic progress comes on little cats’ feet. Ever ’twas thus. ’Twas!

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 21, 2010 4:28 PM EDT up reply actions

comments?…you don’t need no stinkin’ comments.

As to the links which I think are pretty innovative, it’d be cool if you all you had to do is roll the cursor over them and a small pop up window would open like Windows Live or Bing. Might create a more seamless feel. Don’t know if that’s possible within the SB Nation format.

by j reed on Sep 22, 2010 7:37 AM EDT up reply actions

You should if anything take pride in your work’s inaccessibility. Any more comments would = selling out.

by taco pal on Sep 22, 2010 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions

This is the essential paradox of poetry. The exemplars of the form fall on the edges of the spectrum of accessibility. On the one hand are the ultra-accessible folk – think Seuss, Silverstein, Robert Frost. On the other hand are decidedly impenetrable poets or works – think T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” or Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” which, while you might understand the English words in the works, really take a lifetime of reading to get the references. Eliot’s use of footnotes, moreover, was a kind of intellectual beard-pulling in the same manner I use hyper-links: sometimes they explain everything, sometimes they underexplain, and sometimes it’s just a good laugh.

I tend toward poets like Ted Kooser and W. S. Merwyn who use simple language to get at a guiding metaphor that can be explored or deepened. In this case, a catcher from an equatorial country can works on many different dimensions, which at this stage I feel I sketched out, but didn’t fully color in. “Consider the isthmus” is about three drafts away from getting it to a final form, but I consider good starts triumphs, in a way.

by Wet Luzinski on Sep 22, 2010 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Meaning?.....you don't need no stinkin' meaning!

It’s just a matter of time before my effing cat can start doing Cy Twombly knock-offs. Pay day! He still has a hard time understanding what I mean when I say, “It’s about the paint”. Stoopid cat.

Words, can also be material just like paint – beautiful and utterly useless. Meow.

by j reed on Sep 22, 2010 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions