George Lang
@xerxesxerxes.bsky.social
Ancien doyen des arts #uOttawa | Erstwhile wine merchant | Known to versify
Reposted by George Lang
20 LETTERS
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
November 16, 2025 at 7:26 AM
20 LETTERS
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
Swift on Struldbruggs:
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Swift on Struldbruggs:
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
A thoughtful reader’s contribution to a debate which deserves attention: the academic publishing “racket”
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
Financial Times
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication
digitaleditionapp.ft.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
A thoughtful reader’s contribution to a debate which deserves attention: the academic publishing “racket”
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
Dolphins share waves with surfers at Rincon!
YouTube video by Surfline
youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:01 AM
A brilliant topical palindrome. Use a translator if you don’t get it !
November 5, 2025 at 5:25 AM
A brilliant topical palindrome. Use a translator if you don’t get it !
Turn not your eyes, leaves though they be,
to dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light
transformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun.
to dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light
transformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun.
October 19, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Turn not your eyes, leaves though they be,
to dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light
transformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun.
to dazzle or blaze. Live off not light but light
transformed, simple, eccentric, stoic in the sun.
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken, 1920
October 14, 2025 at 3:13 PM
As a public service I offer this brief wiki note on Hitler’s Storm Troopers. Any similarity with the current configuration of ICE is maybe not accidental.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmab...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmab...
Sturmabteilung - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 11, 2025 at 7:16 PM
As a public service I offer this brief wiki note on Hitler’s Storm Troopers. Any similarity with the current configuration of ICE is maybe not accidental.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmab...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmab...
Had a surprise lunch with Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah today. He is a scholar, a poet, and an academic administrator par excellence. Wiki him to see.
So many memories from Edmonton, the African Literature Association, and our shared networks of friends and colleagues. We’ll be meeting again, Inshallah!
So many memories from Edmonton, the African Literature Association, and our shared networks of friends and colleagues. We’ll be meeting again, Inshallah!
October 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Had a surprise lunch with Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah today. He is a scholar, a poet, and an academic administrator par excellence. Wiki him to see.
So many memories from Edmonton, the African Literature Association, and our shared networks of friends and colleagues. We’ll be meeting again, Inshallah!
So many memories from Edmonton, the African Literature Association, and our shared networks of friends and colleagues. We’ll be meeting again, Inshallah!
Sit still during earthquakes,
better to see what breaks.
This shudder of Gaia
comes like an idea….
October 3, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Sit still during earthquakes,
better to see what breaks.
This shudder of Gaia
comes like an idea….
I’m grateful to have two haiku in the inaugural number of the Berlin-based e-journal Big Fat Toad. The list price is $4.95. It’ll get delivered via email
October 1, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I’m grateful to have two haiku in the inaugural number of the Berlin-based e-journal Big Fat Toad. The list price is $4.95. It’ll get delivered via email
I don’t subscribe to the New Yorker so can’t read Shteyngart’s actual piece, but it did remind me of a poem I wrote in 1977.
Please forgive my piggy-backing, but the coincidence was almost too much to bear:
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
bsky.app/profile/shte...
Please forgive my piggy-backing, but the coincidence was almost too much to bear:
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
bsky.app/profile/shte...
September 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
I don’t subscribe to the New Yorker so can’t read Shteyngart’s actual piece, but it did remind me of a poem I wrote in 1977.
Please forgive my piggy-backing, but the coincidence was almost too much to bear:
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
bsky.app/profile/shte...
Please forgive my piggy-backing, but the coincidence was almost too much to bear:
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
bsky.app/profile/shte...
Seems like a good moment to evoke again Mandelstam’s “Stalin Epigram”. The poem hit home, enough to have cost him, not a job rather a three year exile, which was followed by his death in the Gulag.
At least Stalin had fat wormy fingers, not little penile ones ;-)
At least Stalin had fat wormy fingers, not little penile ones ;-)
September 19, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Seems like a good moment to evoke again Mandelstam’s “Stalin Epigram”. The poem hit home, enough to have cost him, not a job rather a three year exile, which was followed by his death in the Gulag.
At least Stalin had fat wormy fingers, not little penile ones ;-)
At least Stalin had fat wormy fingers, not little penile ones ;-)
A song of lost love.
September 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
A song of lost love.
For some late Sunday fun here are some atrocities from Richard Wilbur’s little chapbook of the same name.
September 15, 2025 at 5:23 AM
For some late Sunday fun here are some atrocities from Richard Wilbur’s little chapbook of the same name.
Reposted by George Lang
September 12, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Nowadays none of us is much
for rites, pagan or not. We make lists,
get by on pills and illicit days off….
I have dated the title because the event itself is over a half-century old.
From another country. Related to #talkingpolitics.
#poetrycommunity #AChristening
for rites, pagan or not. We make lists,
get by on pills and illicit days off….
I have dated the title because the event itself is over a half-century old.
From another country. Related to #talkingpolitics.
#poetrycommunity #AChristening
September 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Nowadays none of us is much
for rites, pagan or not. We make lists,
get by on pills and illicit days off….
I have dated the title because the event itself is over a half-century old.
From another country. Related to #talkingpolitics.
#poetrycommunity #AChristening
for rites, pagan or not. We make lists,
get by on pills and illicit days off….
I have dated the title because the event itself is over a half-century old.
From another country. Related to #talkingpolitics.
#poetrycommunity #AChristening
A ditty I wrote for Paul Wilson after a fantastic week in Prague in 1976.
September 3, 2025 at 10:57 PM
A ditty I wrote for Paul Wilson after a fantastic week in Prague in 1976.
An old poem I recently rediscovered. Based on a real event.
September 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
An old poem I recently rediscovered. Based on a real event.
What should be the demeanor
of the one who wants you?
She’s chaste: you say she haunts you.
She’s not: you demean her.
..
Another redondilla from Sor Juana's Silly Men (Hombres
necios).
Full translation plus a great reading of the Spanish at:
alteritas.net/pastis/you-sil…
of the one who wants you?
She’s chaste: you say she haunts you.
She’s not: you demean her.
..
Another redondilla from Sor Juana's Silly Men (Hombres
necios).
Full translation plus a great reading of the Spanish at:
alteritas.net/pastis/you-sil…
https://alteritas.net/pastis/you-sil…
August 28, 2025 at 11:16 PM
What should be the demeanor
of the one who wants you?
She’s chaste: you say she haunts you.
She’s not: you demean her.
..
Another redondilla from Sor Juana's Silly Men (Hombres
necios).
Full translation plus a great reading of the Spanish at:
alteritas.net/pastis/you-sil…
of the one who wants you?
She’s chaste: you say she haunts you.
She’s not: you demean her.
..
Another redondilla from Sor Juana's Silly Men (Hombres
necios).
Full translation plus a great reading of the Spanish at:
alteritas.net/pastis/you-sil…
My love for you is an elephant
calved in Paris or Berlin
who stamps on padded soles
into his keeper’s room.
Ii had no idea that Nicolai Gumilev could be so charming until -- well, you can read it for yourselves.
calved in Paris or Berlin
who stamps on padded soles
into his keeper’s room.
Ii had no idea that Nicolai Gumilev could be so charming until -- well, you can read it for yourselves.
August 26, 2025 at 12:11 AM
My love for you is an elephant
calved in Paris or Berlin
who stamps on padded soles
into his keeper’s room.
Ii had no idea that Nicolai Gumilev could be so charming until -- well, you can read it for yourselves.
calved in Paris or Berlin
who stamps on padded soles
into his keeper’s room.
Ii had no idea that Nicolai Gumilev could be so charming until -- well, you can read it for yourselves.
The moon is warm tonight, not breeze
enough to stir the vanes of the wind mills
grouped in groves of their own out beyond
the manicured lawns and stands of palms
which ring this landscaped spa oasis.
Inspired by Nicolai Gumilev's Жираф. No, I don't know Russian but:
alteritas.net/pastis/giraf...
Giraffes at San Gorgonio – Pastis @ Bandol
alteritas.net
August 16, 2025 at 11:02 PM
The moon is warm tonight, not breeze
enough to stir the vanes of the wind mills
grouped in groves of their own out beyond
the manicured lawns and stands of palms
which ring this landscaped spa oasis.
Inspired by Nicolai Gumilev's Жираф. No, I don't know Russian but:
alteritas.net/pastis/giraf...
This felino-centric poem, for #InternationalCatDay, depends on a certain knowledge of things boreal, that is Canadian.
August 8, 2025 at 11:10 PM
This felino-centric poem, for #InternationalCatDay, depends on a certain knowledge of things boreal, that is Canadian.
August 7, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Dreams, they say,
repeat till understood.
What is it about you
I haven't understood?
repeat till understood.
What is it about you
I haven't understood?
August 6, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Dreams, they say,
repeat till understood.
What is it about you
I haven't understood?
repeat till understood.
What is it about you
I haven't understood?