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March 27, 2008 |
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Heart and Cater
FOUND by Kid Karo
in White Settlement, Texas
This is the front of a note I found on the curbside.
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Something Naughty April 01, 2006 |
Mr + Mrs ? September 07, 2006 |
Like a Hyena May 16, 2006 |
So Are You a Seeker... December 30, 2001 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
first
2nd.
and that's pretty damn beautiful, I think.
"Love water flows"?
Is that what they're calling it these days?
i wish someone would cater to me. forever.
phrases i like in this note:
angry ground baby
love water
I feel like they have tapped into my soul with these lyrics. Or maybe just reminded me of a day when I thought my friends and I would start a band, and I labored over the lyrics to a half a dozen songs like these, only to realize that none of us owned, let alone could play, musical instruments. Oh...it was a lovely dream though.
Ah, the stomping heart and the flowing love water. Claptrap, even for journalwork. Dreck.
I gotta agree with the Farmer, it sounds like someone's been reading too many books from the "self-improvement" shelf. Turn off Ophrah, already!! LOL
White Settlement, Texas is the most intense part
I third the Dreck judgement. I've read more insightful on the bathroom wall.
This reminds me of an excercise my old writing teacher used to make us do to jumpstart the day we'd be given two words or pull some from a hat and be given maybe 5 or 10 min. to jot down a poem or feelings / thoughts that come to mind quickly when one read those words. It wasn't important what was written or how it just helped with writers block. We would also be told to do an excercise where we were not allowed to stop writing for a set amount of time even if you couldn't think of anything you had to keep your pen moving writing blah blah or i can't think etc.
Makes me miss school days sort of at least a few teachers ...
Interesting... funny how these treasures can be found on the side of the road just waiting to be found!
"It doesn't need the extra beats"
I freaking loveee it. I wish I wrote that line.
Poems are beautiful, but they would be better without all of the fragmented phrases.
Rogue Pirate: I used to do those excercises too, wayy back in 7th grade. I remember one of mine being concerned with a plane crashing into my middle school (it was right after 9/11). It makes me laugh thinking about how self-centered a 12 year old's world is.
Kid Karo, in White Settlement, Texas?
Wow. This is terrible. Is it too much to ask for a love song/poem that excludes the words heart, love, passion, or happiness?
This is your heart on drugs.
The last one sounds like a mother mourning for her baby who died, who she had named Carter postmortum. What makes me think this is phrases like "love water", "this cycle will turn", "covers up the ground beneath", and "angry ground". How very sad.
Can anyone out there recommend a good caterer?
Not the best ever, but they show some promise. I like how instead of saying "love me" or somesuch she uses "cater to me". Interesting.
@ Beth - reading it with your interpretation turned it into Toni Morrison's Beloved.
(124 was angry.)
Holy... I knew it was Texas, likely of the western persuasion, before I read where the author was from... I know other people throughout the U.S. use this odd and totally incomprehensible dialect, but not nearly as often as in Texas... All this language that sounds odd to you guys, yeah, it has common usage around here. Before the debate starts up about boy/girl; make no mistake, this is a female. The male dialect of this particular language is way different (even for effeminate guys)
Ps... This dialect is typically derived from an odd fascination with country music. Since country music tends not to alienate and appear superior tp its fans (rap: I'm richer than you hoes ; rock: I'm a drug using overconfident jerk and I can get away with it ; techno: da da da do do do) its fans tend to imitate and create thier own country music in everyday communication. She is forming her verses based on key principles presented in the title of the respective paragraph. Her sentences are cut short to fit a long hold of every syllable requisite of the style (dissenters take note of one "Blue-Hearted Memory"). She tries to take poetic ideas that do not fit and place them as if they are deep, meaningful phrases to their relationship... Trust me, the guys has never heard these before... If he is the typical Texan of western persuasion (I am not saying he is, mind you) all the note means to him is that he shouldnt go to church while he is still drunk...
My favorite line ever is kira's - "...all this note means to him is that he shouldn't go to church while he is still drunk." So good.
I have hope for the writer. Maybe she was re-reading a diary, realized what crap her poetry was, tossed it, and wrote something worth saving.
from wikipedia:
"On the October 14, 2005, City leaders announced a plan to have local voters decide on a possible name change for the town from White Settlement to West Settlement. In the November 8 election, the name change was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 2388 to 219."
nice.
Liza... You misunderstand the culture... Nothing you create is crap because it is part of your soul. I would have hope for the writer but I have known (and yes dated one, shudder) people who wrote just exactly like this... Your hope would severly diminish if you had ever been exposed to the true culture of Texans of western persusaion... You are safe up in Boston, I am still surrounded by them plotting my escape... You are sooo lucky...
For some reason I can't stand to read this.
It's just to much.
@hilary: from wikipedia:
"On the October 14, 2005, City leaders announced a plan to have local voters decide on a possible name change for the town from White Settlement to West Settlement. In the November 8 election, the name change was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 2388 to 219."
That is nice.
@Lance Pants: I hear "Baby" is a good caterer. You should write him a poem, he'll bring you love water.
Kira may have been being sarcastic but Southern culture is a wee bit older than the recent country music wave. I was born and raised in West Virginia and we didnt have accents (and some "dialect" differences) because the music did :)
Might just be the fog of cold meds through which I am currently drifting (ooh look. a pink elephant.) but for some reason I thought it was “the love you take is equal to the love you make.” Glad I’ve been straightened out: “The love you give hinges upon whether or not you’ve been catered to, and only give in proportion to what you receive.” Got it.
*sneezes*
I need some love water…
I can't say I'm a major fan of these particular poems, but I do feel that this find might have been saved for April, which is National Poetry Month. April 17 is National Poem in Your Pocket Day (http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/406). On that day keep a favorite poem in your pocket and share it with others around you! I think I'm leaning toward something by e. e. cummings...
@Amanda: Point duly noted and agreed... For clarification, I would not describe "Texans of western persuasion" as southern. Trust me, they are a highly distinct race... They suffer from a malady known as Texas pride, a love of large belt buckles, rodeos, and beer... Most of these things (with the exception of beer) are spurned and rejected by true Southerners. Southern culture may have spawned Texas culture, but trust me, it has evolved...
Ps. If anyone would like a translation of the odd phrases, I can provide it (based on the assumption that she was using the standard colliquialism).
I actually went to midnight mass last Christmas and I was totally hammed. We got there a little late and had to sit at the very back on the very end of the pew. There was that little water thing right next to my also drunk friend. I sooooo wanted to dip my finger in it and give him a wet willy. Jesus Christ, that would have been hilarious.
Oh yeah, I hate Texas. Egotistical bunch of wangs.
I agree with Farmer, DRECK!
And Ghost in the Lost and Found, let's get married...
@Kira - Of course, if you are NOT a fan, country music does tends to alienate. Country music says to me: I am a bible reading, god-fearing, heterosexual, white, conservative republican american and I am morally superior to liberals, non-christians, non-whites, gays, and non-americans.
Ummm, yeah that was kind of my point... It doesnt alienate the people you described, which, for the most part are Texans of western persusaion. Personally, the stuff make me have serious headaches and want to puke (basically the effects of a hangover even though I never even drink alchohol)...
Oh. I am so slow.
Anyway, I think the author of this note is having a mental breakdown. I mean: "Cater to me for I am in need"! Maybe it was written while she was in rehab, hoping that the boy she left on the outside will still love her now that she has reconciled her heart for the past and is focused on what is good.
trite.
Monkeywrench, get well soon! :-(
'ppiness is all you see'... oops. sorry, I'll put it away.
I’d guess Rogue Pirate is right -- a writing exercise, write the first thing that comes into your head when given two keywords. I thought maybe a non-native-English speaker (‘reconciled for’??). (Don’t know about Texas dialects and stuff.)
Kira: uh uh, not everything you ‘create’ is worth preserving. Self-criticism is a valuable asset! Lawrence Sterne, in ‘Tristram Shandy’ – greatest book ever! – quotes a French writer talking about someone who ‘created a work the day he was born:--They should have wiped it up, said my uncle Toby, and said no more about it.’
kira, what about NASCAR?
You have to understand, this phenomenon which you describe is not restricted to or exclusive of West Texas. (down in the west texas town of el paso..)
You might feel that way because you are stuck there, but seriously- it's all over the place.
@crystal:
what? i can't decipher the meaning of your response.
I don't like these "poems", though I do find them to be an interesting find...
I do like this poem from Richard Wilbur:
In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.
I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.
Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which
The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.
I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash
And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark
And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,
And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,
It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.
It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.
The self-centeredness of these 'love peoms' made me think the writer is male. You all are referring to the writer as a she. Hmmmmmm
Kira: fascinating. More more. Also agree poems are 'dreck', but the analysis has made them worth reading.
Kira, you might be better at planning an effective escape from the ignorance of Texas if you would at least learn (or care enough) to spell correctly. Then someone might take you seriously in life. But, then again, there are some areas of the country where condescension and arrogance are an art form valued above literacy and grammar. I hope you can find your way back there soon. Sounds like you're working on a plan.
I agree, it's dreck ... but I doubt that the writer expected it to be published to the masses and critiqued by individuals who can't find their way to the airport. Delta is ready when you are.
In support of Kira's theory (did I really just say that?) I once saw a guy with a t-shirt that read 'Fuck You I'm From Texas'. Sums it up well I think.
@Jonathan: Thank you! Fortunately my best friend is a caterer, so I'll be calling him as soon as I get off work:-P
I kept trying to remember an exact quote from one of my creative writing teachers, and in the end I had to call someone I took the class with. (She had it written down.)
“I’m not sure where people got the idea that writing poetry involves vomiting forth a stream of consciousness consisting of contradictory emotions and painfully boring symbolism, but just so you know I had to drink heavily while grading your pieces. I just thank God that only one of you tried to use a rhyme scheme.”
Oh she was nuts. Awesome, but nuts. Nothing like getting a manuscript back with red wine stains all over it…
First, the translation of "Heart". There are two hearts in the "poem". Heart 1 is the emotion of the writer, Heart 2 consists of her physical thoughts...
Recently, my heart2 about you (cheating/getting hammered before church) has cooled and I accept what you did. My heart2 allowed me to get over it because of the good things you have done including (taking me to a George Strait concert, buying me a beer). Those things you did make my heart happy. I want more (country cd's, beer). I want all of you. I boss you araound because I want more even though heart1 beats for you. But I dont need those things to please heart2 because I get all my passion from heart1.
I am being completely serious, this is exactly how these phrases would be translated into common language... There is some nuance in it that I cant quite translate for you, but that gives you the gist.
Alternate, inaccurate translation of the last part: I dont need extra beatings. I have everything I need for myself.
I don't think they are meant to be poems. I don't know what they are supposed to be, but they aren't poems.
Cater is a much better example... In fact, I bet you could do an entire study on Texas vernacular with Cater as the main text. Briefly: Give me what I want (country concert tickets, beer, a boot polish). I will return the favor (beer, boot polish, insert exactly what you are thinking here). Give me stuff and I will love you more. This dryspell where we bore eachother will change and love will grow until we are both happy. Love will cover the hateful/angry things we said/did when you (cheated, did not take me to the concert) and we will be ok again.
Side note: She had probably had english class where she learned water is a literary allegory for rebirth, renewal and cleansing... Since she wanted a renewal of love, well, the only deep way to say that is love water... Water is also a HUGE archetypal image with many southern baptists, so it could be a church reference.
You guys say she is nuts, but this is NORMAL writing in the location I was born and raised...
@Hilary: Maybe I'm wrong, but I assumed that you were saying "Nice" about the Wikipedia paste that you posted. If that's the case, I was merely in agreement with you.
My favourite part of this is "love water"... such weird imagery. What happens if you drown in it?
Where is Mona? Is it spring break in Canada?
@Kira/Amanda/Name withheld: I agree that Texas has its own culture, but I don't think it is derived from the American South. It bears some influence from there, but mostly it is distinctly of its own Lone Star making. It probably owes more to early colonial Mexico with its unending ranches and the political autonomy of remoteness than to tobacco plantations and debutante balls.
And when Kira talks about "Texas western attitude," I don't think she's talking about west Texas. White Settlement is in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, after all. Texas culture is, like Name withheld says, a statewide culture. And Living in Reality should certainly express his/her disagreement with Kira's interpretations, but typographical nit-picking does little to reveal deficiencies of "literacy and grammar," IMHO.
And lastly, to the Find itself. I'm in the middle. Of course, it is doggerel poetry (or "dreck" to use the word of the day) from a point of view of accomplished, professional poetry. But, as others have pointed out already, it wasn't meant to exist in that high and holy sphere (not knocking good poetry -- like Wilbur's poems that Trishia shared with us -- thanks -- I'm just drawing the contrast). One of the reasons I enjoy found so much it gives insight into the REST of the writing that gets done in the world. It won't ever be published (except quite by accident on this website), but it is probably really vital to its creator. So I'm between Kira's "creation is part of the soul" and Jonathan's "discard our messes."
We have centuries of cultural expression that is polished, professional, and published. That is one insight into larger cultural movements and identities. But it lacks the everyday wo/man and unadorned expressions of the mundane. I'm not interested in calling every scrap of garbage we find the essence of someone's soul (they did lose track of it, after all -- that's either tragic or indicative of its limited worth) nor am I interested in holding pieces like this one to some sort of literary standard. I always think that we are working a new genre that needs its own terms of critique. Ultimately, the organic evolution of a day's worth of comments comprises those critical terms.
But this is just another overly-long post from not so clever...which/who is decidedly not so clever.
But hey! If I mistyped in this overly-long post, someone can rip me a new one and cast doubt on my grasp on literacy and my grammatical competence! Sorry, Living in Reality for taking my own cheap shot, there! :D
Just for clarification, White Settlement is a very small, blue collar suburb of Fort Worth. It's nowhere near West Texas, so I'm not sure what Kira's going on about with "Texans of a Western Persuasion." Perhaps she means those cowboy wanna-bes that others call "goat ropers"? Not all Texans are ignorant, inbred, poorly dressed NASCAR fans. Apparantly some of us have made a study of indiginous poets, and others are just "regular people."
About the Find, I have to say that if they were set to music they could make it big on Clear Channel radio (reminds me of "Hey There Delilah").
Farmer,
I just remembered you mentioning that you used to live in New Haven...corner of Boulevard and what? I used to live in that long apartment building on the corner of Boulevard and Whalley. For a glimpse into daily life in that building, see my comment on this find:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/comments/1240
What reminded me is that we now seem to have two proud Elm City residents hanging out here. Hi, Hilary.
Ummm, have you ever met any Texans of which I speak? You are right, not all Texans are like that, and they are spread thickly throughout the state and sparsely throughout the country. By western persuasion I do not mean West Texase, I mean, western persuasion... They listen to "country and western", not country. It's an odd mix of Western frontier lack of class and Southern grace all at once frozen in time. They are the locals who refuse to change with the modern times, I am sure that the type are present in all parts of the world... An outdated mode of life forced upon children: cause for gawd-sakes we sure as hell dont want ta change.
For Lars, wherever you are today:
Recently, my bank balance has been reconciled. My account wants more, which makes it happy. The other account holds the savings, it doesn't need extra fees.
@Jonathan: your ppiness makes me giggle in a good way.
58th
It kinda turned me on at first...but then it started sounding self-centered, which is always unattractive.
Trisia,
Ditto.
Seems like a bout with post-partem depression to me.
@tricia--I'd forgotten about that poem. I liked it, thank you.
@zombie--poetry isn't dreck, but the text of this find certainly is. I wrote like this in early Jr High, but I had the sense never to address it to anyone.
@ Monkeywrench, I love the quote from your teacher. If I became a teacher I suspect I'd also have to drink heavily.
And she's right. It's ideas like that that lead to statements like 'poems are dreck.' Looking at that stuff, it's hard to disagree.
@Kira- Wow, all the hating on Texas. It is actually a great place to live. Just wait till you are a little older. I used to feel the same way.
I mean, we can wear Northface fleeces, drive a Toyota Prius, buy/eat organic food, shop at IKEA while hating big corporations, use Apple products, listen to indie music and NPR, appreciate Juno, and vote for "change" just like everybody else!
just noticed the b-side, which is -- as b-sides often are -- better than the a-side:
http://foundmagazine.com/find/7654
We get more of the backstory...how rich it is!
I visited Texas last year. Loved it, it's a beautiful state. Everywhere I went people were so polite to me that I noticed it.
I don't think you can make generalizations about a whole state. Coming from California, people think we're all bleeding heart liberal, granola munching actors--but it's a big state. There are parts of CA. are total-Deliverance meets The Hills Have Eyes-ville.
Ummm, I have been to many cities in Texas... About 95-110... I am not generalizing the whole state, but a rather small yet overly significant segment of the poputlation that attemps to force their ideas on others. It is flagrantly annoying, and seemingly impossible to avoid. Im not discounting the fact that thier are similar such populations elsewhere, just the type in Texas is really starting to "get under my collar" to steal a phrase.
Anyone else notice how creepy the "Forever" at the bottom is? I'll cater to you. Forever.
Ummm, I'll just ask wing stop to cater... really...
I'm finally here, Night. Thanks for thinking of me.
Recently, my socks from the laundry have been reconciled. Had been partying independently, which makes them happy.
OR
Baby, give me your money, for I'm in need.
What's a dreck?
I used to generalize about Texas/country music, too, but not since I discovered the Texas troubadour Townes van Zandt. I'd cater his songs to anyone!
@ suspended: try jeffrey foucault. great voice, great lyrics, great guitar. he loves townes. (well, who doesn't?)
The handwriting looks like that from the note from March 27th.