Blinking Like Ferrets
I've been too busy
the last two years to chat
with anyone in the office.
Today, however, I pause
at the pencil sharpener
while my co-workers
calculate and jot.
It makes no difference, you see,
if I remain silent until retirement
or if suddenly I start talking again.
All we must remember is
that we decay together,
that this charade
we give ourselves to
doesn't require that we speak,
that all we must do, really,
is calculate and jot.
If we calculate well,
if we jot well, the charade
will carry us through.
In the end, we'll see what is true
when blinking like ferrets
we emerge in sunlight,
gaping and gasping,
free of this maze created
by the family of man.
poem by Donal Mahoney
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
I think that we have to be constantly asking ourselves, 'How do we calculate the risk?' And sometimes we don't calculate it correctly; we either overstate it or understate it.
quote by Hillary Clinton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Long Division
Did somebody try to catch your eye
And almost change your sad expression?
Did somebodys hand linger too long?
Must I now make my confession?
But youll never know
What suspicion is
Until you lie awake
And every night you ask yourself
What am I to do?
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
Theres nothing left over
Hows it gonna feel? this time its real
Its not a temporary fracture
This is what you get, the stage is set
For you and your attempted rapture
Is he gonna smile
That indulgent smile
When you come running home?
And every night you ask yourself,
What am I to do?
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
Theres nothing left over
What am I gonna say? you turn away
And you leave me here despairing
What am I going to do? I look at you
You seem to be so long past caring
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Only to find out now that its a joke
So ask yourself,
What am I to do?
Can it be so hard to calculate?
When three goes into two
Theres nothing left over
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
Did somebody say,
Can we still be friends?
song performed by by Elvis Costello
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Mental Arithmetic
Twice two is four twice four is eight.
I do not need to calculate.
I learnt my tables long ago.
I need not think because I know.
The check out girls rely on tills
because they do not have the skills
Which I was taught in junior school.
They’ve always been a useful tool.
Without the till they would be lost
they cannot calculate the cost
of groceries I want to buy.
I think I know the reason why.
They don’t learn tables any more
and consequently can’t keep score.
Friday,16 July 2010
http: // blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
My Past Speech
Your statements dangerously inhibit the brain,
Its confidence casts a shadow of complaint;
You speak and I calculate the regions and destinies
Of the real centupled conversation, an old speech.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
We don't know what we're doing. We don't have a plan. We don't sit down and calculate it.
If there really is a complete unified theory that governs everything, it presumably also determines your actions. But it does so in a way that is impossible to calculate for an organism that is as complicated as a human being. The reason we say that humans have free will is because we can't predict what they will do.
quote by Stephen Hawking
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
Jonah (Chapter 10, Verses 5, Holy Koran)
I ask for refuge to Allah from Satan the exiled evildoer.
In the name of Allah the Kind and the Merciful Giver.
None but Allah has made the sun
Glowing brightness
And the moon dimly dazzling
And ordained for it mansions
To enable you to calculate the years and reckoning
Allah hasn't created even a single a thing for nothing
Allah shows His signs for the people
Who want to know it all.
poem by Asif Andalib
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
When traveling do not calculate the distance, at dinner don't think of how much.
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
quote by Isaac Newton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.
quote by Isaac Newton
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
God Is So Simple
God is in you
God is in me
God is in what you feel
And God is in what you see
Don’t fret
Don’t calculate
Don’t get into much trouble
Because God is so clear
And God is so simple!
poem by Tsegaye Hailesilassie
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.
quote by Gian Carlo Menotti
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
It's quite complicated and sounds circular, but we've worked out a way of calculate a Web site's importance.
quote by Larry Page
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Speeeeeech!
does it make difference you speak in front of many people or alone
does it make difference you speech in historic place or in your toilet
does it make difference you are charismatic leader or unknown beggar from streetside
it makes difference you speak to clash conflict or for better world
it makes difference you speech bonded by past or to move forward
it makes difference you depend by fact or just soap service
does it make difference you read from text or speak fluently
does it make difference you speech in busy market or deserted mountain
does it make difference you write words yourself or scrap it from books and paper
it makes difference everybody exitedly listens or sleeps peacefully on their seats
it makes difference you have freedom to speak or prisoned by intimidation
it makes difference it gives effect or just a long boring speech
poem by Maria Sudibyo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
We cannot calculate the numbers of people who left, fled or were fished out of Europe just ahead of the Holocaust.
quote by Gene Tierney
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
quote by Alexander Hamilton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Blown Away
My mind is full of doubts
Like the head
of a dandelion ripe
to be blown away
always. Though
I know
I can calculate
and two
and two
is always
four.
And full of surprise
like a child's eyes
that Momma's
still there
after each
peek-a-boo;
And when building so tall
with blocks
just to see
so easy
it all
fall
down.
I still wonder why
after I
built a house
calculating all
putting in
cement,
2x4's
a roof
a floor
it doesn't
fall.
So with wonder fear surprise
as we go over the rise
back home from a day
away
we find
the house
stayed whole
again
today.
poem by Joe Oppenheimer
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I have some strategical vision, I could calculate some few moves ahead and I have an intellect that is badly missed in the country which is run by generals and colonels.
quote by Garry Kasparov
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!