That Old Familiar

[ray miller]

You’ll never walk alone, The Penguin proclaims,
when I’ve changed my avatar and name, faked
my death and finally left the faithful following,
the counting of likes and courting approbation.
Birthday candles every day for someone
I’ll never know, a demonstration against
the right to demonstrate, 5 star reviews

of kebabs and bazaars, Indonesian holidays,
furniture stuffed with memories of the weather
in places you won’t visit. Who is lately dead
and who has merely changed gender. Eulogies
for boozers re-assigned as mosques and temples.
Cheap flights, fast trains, buxom women
in Gloucestershire desperate to get their kit off.

The Penguin’s face when I print his name
with an upper case P! He preaches equality,
uniformity, the abolition of capitals.
At my shoulder he beseeches me to join,
follow, befriend and share. He wants us all
to embrace in a global huddle; he wants me
to grow smaller and live at the end of the world.

[jisbell00]

Yup. I like the abolition of capitals, and the concluding line is very nice. The poem heads in that direction neatly.

Oh - I just caught the pun in the title. i like that quite a bit.

Cheers,
John

[CalebPerry]

Maybe this is just my usual denseness, but I'm not grasping the poem -- though I do like the language.

Who is the Penguin?

[Macavity]

Interesting Ray (triggered a thought of the 'other' poster here). Agree, identity is not a singular, though I say this without thinking about the splits in psychology. Like how you play with distancing here, beginning with that fun/menacing opening line. eulogies for boozers reassigned as mosques keyed me into the changing urban landscape and ethnic population (another play with the 'familiar'). How do we deal with those changes? How does multiculturalism deal with us? How many curries can Greg and John consume on MasterChef! I enjoyed this read, in my head about identity and change (and loss). A reminder of how anachronistic I am. I just shrug at the whole transgender thing. Gooners beat the Spuds! Top 4. Believe!

[ray miller]

Thanks for the comments.
Caleb, The Penguin is kind of an alter ego. I've been Penguin, or more often penguin, on several other sites. I don't know if you've heard of the IBPC, Inter Board Poetry Competition, (defunct now), Anyway, I won it about 10 years ago when posting as penguin on Wild Poetry Forum. So there's this board of honour containing the illustrious names of all the winners over the years, in amongst which is a penguin. Childish I know, but it does make me laugh.
Phil, it feels like I've portrayed penguin as some kind of Wokeness personified, which wasn't where it was meant to be heading, but...
As for Villa, I've supported them a long time and learnt to expect the worst. The injuries are piling up now. I wouldn't be too disappointed with Europa League. The chances of winning the Champions League are remote.

[Macavity]

Nah, it is about cash (not your right back), and which day of the week to play (and pick up injuries), and players get better by playing better players (I know all the clichés...particular hates... reference to heroes and 'putting his body on the line').

[CalebPerry]

Now that I know who Penguin is, I hope you'll include that explanation as a footnote when you submit the poem for publication.

I'm looking at the poem again.

"Every day there’s birthday candles for someone
I’ll never know"

Just a question of grammar: Shouldn't that read ...

Every day there’re birthday candles for someone
I’ll never know

If I'm wrong, let me know.

[ray miller]

Hello Caleb. Yeah, you're right about the grammar, though it's how it's what I'd use in everyday speech. I've turned the line around a bit. I'd never consider submitting this poem for publication, too personal.

[CalebPerry]

When I asked about the point of grammar, I was not offering a criticism of the poem. I was generally curious about the grammatical point that line raised.

Now that I understand the poem a bit better, I definitely like it. I do want to say, though, that the intensely personal poems often make good candidates for publications. Invariably, there are many readers who will share those intense personal feelings.

You are expressing some concern about the world in this poem, and I share those concerns. The world is badly over-populated, and the people in third-world countries now all understand how typical Westerners live, and they want that materialistic lifestyle. The Earth just can't sustain 8 billion people living with Western values. At some point, the stress will overwhelm the world, and I fear that there will be wholesale collapses of both societies and economies. Mankind's future looks very bleak to me.

[ray miller]

Thanks Caleb. I agree with all you say, except that it's mostly Western consumption rather than values that's the problem. Yes, the future is exceedingly bleak and like most of us I can't bear too much reality. So I take refuge in football, poetry, creatures that don't exist.

[Firebird]

Hi Ray, enjoyed this poem and the irony of the end - worked really well I thought.

It also reads well and I like many parts of the penguin.

No comments for improvement.

Cheers,

Tristan

[ray miller]

Thanks, Tristan.