Daily Create Pounce On A Short Poem

Daily Create

Today’s Daily Create [ @ds106dc #tdc3621 ] is to “Pounce on a Poem.”

I thought I’d pounce on a short poem, one that made me laugh as a kid:

Finding a Short Poem

Fleas

Adam

Had’em

American poet Strickland Gillilan

However, I’d found that poem is almost always attributed incorrectly to Ogden Nash. In my search for the shortest poem at Wikipedia, where I learned about my error, I discovered the actual title is also incorrect; it is: Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes, a title so long one can barely see the poem:

Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes

Adam

Had’em

American poet Strickland Gillilan

Read the article Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes, and you will find other even shorter poems.

I discovered a blogpost in Urban Poems [Singapore] with a list of short poems.

Moving back to Wikipedia, I chased the link to a short poem that fascinated me and discovered that another had “pounced” on the Vladimir Burda poem Ich translated by Canadian poet j w curry.

Davis Creach’s Pounce on “Ich”

First, let’s pronounce the title correctly. The translation is poetry. “Ich” is German for “I.” That is NOT pronounced like itch or ick; for the correct pronunciation, click here.

The poetic translation by Curry is poetry itself— visual poetry of simple, yet elegant meaning. It is simply the author’s fingerprint as Title above a vertical rectangle, seen here on Scorecard.

I do enjoy Davis Creach’s discussion of the poem, and I link here as my textual pounce as well: A Pounce on Short Poems in Uproar: North Allegheny Senior High, Davis Creach

I discovered the artist created more versions and this blog post by Geof Hugh shares those along with other versions from a presentation Eye for I.

A Visual Pounce

For me, for my Daily Create, I illustrated my own versions of Ich, Du, Wir, meaning I, You, We. Knowing oneself and relating well with others seems to be something to which we can all improve.

My Ich/i inserts a mirror as the dot of the i. The Du/u cuts out the inner part of the u to see you. The Wir/We is another mirror behind the We that you cut out a bit and fold away to insert a mirror so you can see all of your friends and family together with the I, myself.

Note: I chose “Du” rather than “Sie” as it is to one person, a friend, informal: you, keeping with the personal I. Although interpretations to the general “all of you,” definitely fit the concept. 🙂

Note: Some construction required; mirrors not included.

Carry it

As visual poetry, or a set of cards you make, the idea is easy to carry around as a thought in one’s mind as we seek to move together as one human race, getting to know our neighbors and taking time to accept, acknowledge, and understand each who we meet.