h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can you be sure that anybody (anybody else except you, that is, because you're good like that) will read it if it's poetry?

It's part of my mission in this place to get people reading poetry. Without chucking people out of space ships, preferably.

I applaud your restraint in not chucking people out of spaceships, MVP...

And I know what you mean. They need to stop resisting poetry...resistance is futile...

I can at least guarantee that any Olympic poetry we get will be prominently featured in .

Because we want people to notice.

What is more poetic an idea than the Olympics, anyway? The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat (old catchphrase in this country)...surely this can't be left to colour commentators of the ath-u-letic variety?

I'll see what I can come up with.

This is an interesting conversation. (takes notes in orange crayon. haha. just said that. although its true .)ahem. I think I might have some ideas to contribute, in fact, but wait! wait! I have to go drink sherry. I will return.

Ah poetry. I learned two things about poetry in the last 24 hrs. One concerns The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, of course, haha, and the other concerns Tintin in Tibet, which isn' really poetry I know, but the story I just learned about what Herge, the writer, was going through when he wrote it is very poetic, in a strange way.

Are you curious? No? No? haha. Hmm. Well, I will return anyway.

cc

CC, although the depth of my disinterest in that Tintin business is fathomless, anything you choose to tell us will be so fascinating that I will be rapt, nonetheless.

I think 'The Rime of the Modern Olympian' would be a great idea.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Elektra had an idea which I must moot with you two, as you are two of most stalwart poetry people on h2g2.

She thought of a way you could combine poetry and the Olympics.

How about a haiku project/ A haiku for each sport represented in London?

Now, I can never manage to write haiku, so you might want to pick another form if you're not haiku fans. Or no form at all.

But how about it?

The Rime of Modern Olympian? Oh! Oh! Oh! yes I love it.

Oh, wait, I have to go again. . Now I have to go eat green beans and vegetarian pie. The spouse chef is getting annoyed here. .

Now, I have many ideas I must moot with you three, concerning your ideas which you must moot with me, in fact I must do more mooting in my life , and I will return. And the Tintin fact is still intact.

Moot away.

Eat green beans first.

Note the FP. There's a Guide Entry on Vegetables. Just for you.

Do NOT look at the other entry, the one with the sausages...this is not for someone who eats vegetarian haggis...

ah vegetarian haggis. . now I think of tartan Christmas, with mock gravy. heheh.

wait, I have to change posts because I can't see the other post to which I am replying, after I reply to this post. I got distracted by the haggis. mmm. delicious. enough! this is a poetry thread. I shall muster my moots.

Haiku! Or haiku type. Splendid! That's the longest poem I would write these days. Haiku style. I must think about haiku. A haiku for each Olympic sport. That's a great idea! Put that one out on the Post, and I reckon the poets will flock to you, in a feathered frenzy.

I wish I could write to themes. Every time I try and write to a theme, I end up walking round in circles, eating jumbo packets of salted peanuts, and hearing bird sounds that aren't really there. . I think it might be a psychological block. . No, really?? .

Ah yes, poetry. How extraordinary is poetry. The other day I was flipping through an anthology in the bookshop, and I came across The Way Through The Woods by Rudyard Kipling, which my mother used to read to me.

. Rudyard Kipling

and all day I was haunted by the rhythm, and the dream like quality and the power of poetry.

My Dad used to say that, to him, poetry was like psalms or sacred texts, that somehow transport the soul, even though you don't understand the language word for word.

That's well put.

PS. Tintin! Yes. I saw this documentary the other night about Herge (who wrote and drew the Tintin books). During a stressful time in his life, like a breakdown, he started having nightmares in white. Everything went white. So, although the doc told him to rest, he created the drawings for Tintin in Tibet, with white mountains everywhere. White snowscapes. Vast white landscapes. And then the white nightmares went away.

Great book, Tintin in Tibet. My favourite. The Dalai Lama said it was good too, because it introduced people to Tibet.

Is this relevant to poetry? erm. hmm.

OK, so we watched this other documentary about Antarctica, and how it has inspired writers and artists and explorers, and there were all these quotes from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and it seems that Coleridge was inspired by Antarctica when he wrote it, which explains a lot of the imagery.

I didn't know that. I am gutted. Why am I gutted? Its a good thing, surely. I thought it was an opium dream. Antarctica on opium. hmm. Perhaps I'm not gutted after all.

The coldest dream I ever had was in Rekjavik. At 5 am.

The Rime of the Modern Olympian? Sounds an interesting idea.

Haikus for each sport sounds a good idea for a kind of collaborative project.

But it's actually hard to write a good haiku - it requires a very concentrated image.

I'll go and think about it.

Hey, that's a great line! You're getting into a sort of Haiku space already. That's like a story in one line. What were you doing in Rekjavik?

(heads off to write one line poems and eat salted peanuts)

hullo mvp. I've heard that, you know, that its a tough discipline, to write Haiku. hmm Interesting.

See? You guys have a project. Rope some more peots in.

What was I doing in Reykjavik? 24-hour layover with Loftleithir. Wonderfully weird country.

A couple of haikus (though I suspect they work better in Japanese.)

Wheels flash in sunshine,
backs arch, leg muscles piston,
cyclists flow onward.

Diver pauses, swoops
downwards, swallow in motion,
water receives him.

Thanks, Dmitri.

But how can I get other people to join in?