Friday, 16 November 2007

Wordplay

What happens when you
  • have a boring paper coming up
  • want to sleep (but can't)
  • like simple math
  • love playing around with words and
  • are an amateur poet?
You challenge yourself to find a
  • mathematical relationship between numbers which have homonyms,
  • create an overarching theme including all three
  • in a poem!

(I wanted to demonstrate to myself that when you force yourself to look for ways when you think none can possibly exist, you can almost always find them!)

I found it to be quite a daunting task, but eventually came up with this:-

"When I was just one,
I almost never won :-(

We became two,
and only sometimes managed to :-|

We became four,
and came new strengths to the fore :-)

And finally, while eight?
Our problems, we just ATE :-D

How could this be true?
Alone I fail, and succeed in a crew?

I thought all I could,
and then I understood.

Every time we were double,
half was our trouble!

Into reality turned all our dreams,
it's just the wonder of teams! :-) "

I'm pretty proud of this one, as I am of the earlier one, which came into existence when I had set myself up a similar challenge about including paradox and wit in a four line poem :-)

17 comments:

Unknown said...

hahah.. that puts a smile on my face.. great poem!

Aditya said...

you need some serious help
with your poetry
it doesn't make much sense
to all including me

Unknown said...

aditya - believe it or not, your comment is one of your *better* attempts at poetry...
a few thousand more attempts, and you'll be where i was when i was born...
best of luck :))

Aditya said...

ah, which is why I posted only one poem - one thousandth of the degradation of my skills is not significant...

Anonymous said...

ooh..nice poem. I hold poets (even amateur ones) in high regard...it's something I just can't do (or haven't tried??)

Moushmi said...

I think it is great!!!! it makes the most sense to me I think cos I am at a place where I am starting to understand the importance of a "team". That's y the poem totally clicked with me :) Cheers for this one!!! keep up the good work..

Unknown said...

i loved it!!! good work!!! :)

Aditya said...

erm.... what changed?

Anonymous said...

When he was one
His parents thought he'd be fun

He became two
They still clung to their hope true

He became three
Sent him to school they, to be free

Moushmi's comments do not hold
In her eyes, this rascal is gold

Rid us heavenly father of this curse
Little Kneekey and his idiot verse

Amen

Unknown said...

Vishy, your poem is better than mine... You stole my thunder!!! :))
(Aditya - just look at the enormity of the task in front of you!)

fareedom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
fareedom said...

Hey Nicky, Fareed here..
Nice one man, good theme.. here's my take.. feeling a little senti from inhaling car exhaust and desert sand all day, so here goes a sappy, sleepy attempt..

Graced by His divine light, the Benevolent One,
Blessed is thy soul, thine troubles past, all battles won,
Sheltered mine innocence as I grew, by His guardian angels two,
Called mom and dad, they were friend, confidante, teacher and adviser too,
Say the wise, our life is days and nights four,
Love is the answer, the way out, a reason to live for,
But beware of those treacherous trixsters eight,
the seven deadly sins and Lucifer himself, the Apple that Adam ate,

the moral of this little sermon, 'less is more'can indeed be true,
be thankful for all you have, faith and love will see you through...

Unknown said...

whoa man! good job, fareed :)
i'm proud i'm bringing out the poets in so many :D

Firebringer said...

"amateur poet" - you mean there are professionals?!?!?!?!!

M said...

once upon a time, in a land not so far away,
little knee-key went happily about his day.

he said a big "hi" here, a soft "hello" there,
he earned some warm nods and many an envied stare.

skippety hop hop, on his way to his class,
he slipped on a banana peel and fell on his arse.

since knee-key was a fatty, it was a cushioned fall,
but he felt humiliated, and wanted to escape the hall.

just then a little girl came to him and offered her hand,
little knee-key forced back his tear, and managed to stand.

"dont worry", she said. "it happens all the time.
throwing a banana peel should be made a punishable crime."

little knee key smiled, he already felt better.
the girl patted his back, and dropped milk on his sweater.

"oh, no!" the girl cried, "what have i done?"
"dont worry", kneekey said, "surf excel hai na!"

... hehehe.. sorry.. dont kill me.

Unknown said...

this post is turning out to be a big embarrassment! the poems in the comments are definitely better than the one in the post :)))

Firebringer said...

Nicky - The bard (bad) that launched a thousand verses (worses)?