Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Comparisons


image by Emily Blincoe over at http://www.emilyblincoe.com


Comparisons

“Personality begins where comparisons leave off.”
--Shannon L. Alder

Pessimism bitch slaps optimism.
The earth & its moon tend to hide their dark side.
Comparisons are inevitable,
night and day,
yin & yang,
monochrome images juxtaposed to color ones,
perfect smiles vs. broken teeth,
athletes competing with the crippled,
molotov cocktails vs. tiger tanks,
men from Mars--women from Venus;
gods of war vs. nymphs of love,
bare knuckles compared to boxing gloves,
50’s shoe skates vs. roller blades,
dusky moths fluttering beside Monarch butterflies,
a 1949 Packard alongside a Nisson Leaf,
a garden spade vs. a steam shovel,
bare hands vs. an industrial crane,
a wheel barrow competing with a box car,
mountains towering over foothills,
a mud puddle in sight of the sea,
a sperm whale swimming with sardines,
& the Donald pretending to debate Hillary.

Art is so vast, it
surrounds & inspires us to
interpret its face.


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub


15 comments:

brudberg said...

Where would be without the contrasts... probably saner, but probably bored as well... maybe we need to find a passion or a purpose when we've grown fat.

Grace said...

I specially love the last lines:

a mud puddle in sight of the sea,
a sperm whale swimming with sardines,
& the Donald pretending to debate Hillary.

My hubby stayed up late watching the debate and Donald was hilarious. Thanks Glenn for your support~

De Jackson said...

I LOVE the image you found. And holy cow, does this spectacular line ever want to be a new poem's title:
"a mud puddle in sight of the sea"
Let me know if you're gonna do it. If not, I might like to, and would of course give you title credit. ;)

Kim M. Russell said...

Wow, you've gone to town on this one, Glenn. I didn't see the debate, only highlights, but those last lines made me chuckle - I have an image of a sperm whale with Trump's face embedded in my head and I can't shake it off!

Anonymous said...

Gosh, you really extrapolated on the theme! My mind feels like it's been led a merry dance every which way!

tonispencer said...

I didn't watch the debate, didn't care to. they didn't let the Libertarians in and my mind is made up on them rather than the Distillery and the Donald. Nice bunch of contrasts in this.

annell4 said...

What a delight!

Marilyn Cavicchia said...

I love your laundry list of things that can be contrasted, many of which are unusual but make perfect sense.

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Oh man you really hit it out of the park with this one!! Brilliant ❤️

Mish said...

Wowsers..I didn't want the comparisons to end! However I can't get this strange image out of my mind...a steam shovel somehow taking care of my whole garden, as I drink lemonade on the patio. Thanks for that.

Stacy M.S. said...

an amazing collection of comparisons...and truths!

Marina Sofia said...

I liked the way you took comparisons but really presented contrasts, and so made us, the readers, aware of just how much leeway there is between the two extremes. All this stark contrasting black/white is unhelpful, everything is in-between those two end matches, isn't it?

Kathy Reed said...





What an array of subjects came from that shot of matchsticks!! From one end of the spectrum to the other. I also thought about it more literally, the scorched earth (process of).
sometimes I think Trump really started out as half - serious and once he caught on he decided to play it to the hilt...as a joke to make us look in the mirror, that he was willing to be the troll under the bridge as long as he could without actually winning. Now after seeing his early life in TV, I believe he really is seriously demented.

Victoria said...

Enjoyed this, Glenn--a display of opposing forces. And isn't that a lot of what life is about? Somehow coming together in the middle.

Mother Wintermoon said...

Comparisons abound! Great work on the photo prompt.