Saturday, September 12, 2015

It Is My Call



It Is My Call

I shall then rotate
and float in the darkening
night sky, a remote
caretaker's handle.

Like a sharpening function
and alert for heat,
I'll grind the blade down
to razor's edge, that special
twenty degree hone,
that angle, that keen
repose -

I am resistant
to all blandishments
from the head of state,
from his aging cabinet,
and, my love, from you.

‎February ‎3, ‎2011 4:49 AM

I am feeling my age...and no sleep last night at all...not cool. Whinge.

We say "whine" and the Brits say, "whinge". To put a fine point on it, they do not really mean the same thing. Whine means more precisely a humming high pitched sound while whinge in the the British English is a false grief. American English has dropped the "whinge" and now lets whine carry the whole load. Both words were in the English before 1300 AD. Technically "whine" is pronounced like wine with a breathier "w". Whinge is pronounced just like hinge but with the added "w".

2 comments:

  1. love the picture, and the poem, and the explanation. I always think of "whinge" as being smarmier than whining, with the "whinger" doing that twisty motion, like a little girl might with the hips rotating one way and the knees the other. .
    Both are apt to be annoying, no matter who whinges and who whines.

    had one of those (rare) restless nights too, and that kind of disaster dreams that get so out of hand and complicated you know theres no resolution possible, so you wake up all sweaty and exhausted.

    I blame it all on the dark of the moon. You might consider that too. But the poem is still very cool.

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  2. I have never looked up either word, but I have read soooo many books, in both propper english (as the Britts put it) and American english that I pronounced either word propperly and knew what both meant...I do not get caught up in the little differences, partially because my spelling is so frigging atrotious! Good poem my friend!

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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