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Mixed Quartet (Free verse) by Dovina They were variously toned,
but harmoniously united.
They broadcast a whole,
surpassing parts summed.
Soprano: orientally quick, precise.
Alto: whitely sharp, analytical.
Tenor: latinly soulish, devoted.
Bass: Africanly smooth, limber.
But they were all the same race,
geneticists say.
Up the ladder:
Fishing Trip
Down the ladder:
Ambition
Votes: (green: user, blue: anonymous)
Arithmetic Mean: 6.8
Posted: December 18, 2005 5:55 PM PST; Last modified: December 18, 2005 5:55 PM PSTWeighted score: 5.2145653 Overall Rank: 4409 The following users have marked this poem on their favorites list:
Comments:
A -10- for inventing your adverbs.
I deserve only a 1 for that.
A carol for the masses eh?
Not really singable, though you could say that racial accord is like choral music, each part adding tonal qualities the others lack to produce mixed sound that's better than the sum of the parts.
You sing? a clear idea portrayed. Good.
And yes, we are all of the same race. whether purple, green or orange.
You might be asking for a debate from certain people here.
This should give you a good preview: http://poemranker.com/poem-details.jsp?i
She means it in a different way from those who argued with me there. She might have said the same thing, but she means it differently. How do I know? Because she means that all races are of equal value, while the others were saying that race does not exist in any menaingful definition. Besides, it's too close to Christmas for you to be stirring up trouble. Shame!
Sorry I didn't mean to. I was just trying to warn her ahead of time. If I ever get a day of work off and some rest I'll scrounge up something for you for Christmas. Maybe I'll stuff your stocking ;)
Diamonds fit nicely into a stocking, not bulky, always appropriate.
Take my word for how its worded. we are all the same. "RACE" is something superficial. Racism does exist, its man-made, to just differenciate us in general, so at a glance we know who's who or specifically what we want conveyed. Thats fine.
But what I am trying to say is this. we are all the same..... irrespective of who we are. We are not cows, dogs, cats,..........etc. We are all humanbeings, and what happens to the so one will happen to the other. For you are dust and unto dust you shall return. Its Christmas. We are one.... and celebrate on common event that has changed our world forever. Lets not throw away our coats of differences, but merge it to sing in unison like your mixed Quartet......Lets sing Joy to the world............ for its Christmas. Merry Christmas one and all.
If there's a debate on this one (and I sincerely hope there isn't), it's not going to be that one. Never again.
to Dovina: I wouldn't recommend writing poems about racial stereotypes, especially since, racially speaking, you're the least experienced poemranker user since SupremeDreamer vanished into a cloud of his own guff.
Provocative and very elegant in the 2nd verse. I dont think that this is the best poetry I have read from you, but it conducts a better more interesting experience in a clear manner. If there were anything to improve, perhaps the 1st and second verses could be enrichened in terms of language e.g. geneticists say -> geneticists exclaim in their gatherings, maybe thats not too good, but hopefully you will see what I am driving at.
The genetics of race is a bag of marbles, where there's more quantifiable diversity among the marbles within a type of marble than there is between the types. Some people like to say that means there really are no types of marbles.
And some people will just say you've lost them.
Sorry, but when you put out such tempting bait you're gonna get a bite.:)
Lol from the bitten.
Did you even READ my last gift?
Yes, and as I said, it was an inspiratioin for this poem.
Even if 99.9% of DNA is the same in all humans, the effect of slc24a5 seems great. As the article says, new strength for the arguement that race actually exists and is a worthy topic for debate is implied by this study. "For better or worse, the finding's most immediate impact may be an escalating debate about the meaning of race."
A pretty reasonable conclusion, the way I think of it is that by imposing a type you are generalising and as such are innacurate, thus the type is only of value if it is useful to you (such as a way to describe a persons image), in instances where it harms, its use is no longer reasonable. On a similar note just what race are different people, are they memebers of the human race or the caucasian/negro race or the european/african race etc ???
(1) Geneticists don't say. They say race as a biological construct depends on a very small genetic difference. No geneticist would deny that there is a difference, ergo different races. Only your straw man would say that. Surely you can see the distinction.
DOVINA: Some random comment of zodiac's on race. ZODIAC: You are kind of clueless, aren't you? (2) Geneticists say nothing about the cultural or other differences between races, which seem to be the basis for the rest of your poem. Unless you're going to argue that latinos are genetically "soulish". (3) Despite all that, you've still managed to be racist. The whites are the "analytical" ones? Please get over yourself. DOVINA: Some random denial. ZODIAC: Your metaphor has Asians "quick" and "precise", whites "sharp" and "analytical", latins "soulish" and "devoted" - and blacks "smooth" and "limber"??!? Tell me, were you ever planning on giving blacks mental or psychological features, like you gave the other races? Or just physical ones, brutes that they are? What mental features would you give them? (Suggestions: Docile! Brooding! Rhythmical!) Does it bother you that, at best, this poem is a dictionary of outdated racial stereotypes obviously written by someone with little experience of other races and a profound, unacknowledged sense of white superiority? DOVINA: You've failed to get it. I'm talking about instruments. ZODIAC: If you say that you're the biggest guffer ever and ought to crawl in a hole and die of shame. DOVINA: You've failed to get it. I'm talking about instruments. I'm clever. ZODIAC: ...
PS-In case you've missed the point of the last ten debates on this subject (both -=Dark_Angel=-'s side and mine), the point is that only you find it *useful* to group people into races with certain stereotypical characteristics, goals, etc - not that there are no races. And then only you find it useful to "accuse" other users of "labelling" whilst twirling in your own cloud of self-righteousness.
After your wife-absorbed absence, I am normalized and racially content to find you back in the old style. And I do agree that another argument about race is pointless. Your explanation of geneticistâs contention in (1) is more precise than my poetic one, âBut they were all the same race,â no argument there. But arenât we really both saying the same thing?
I have used stereotypical adjectives in describing the four races in the poem, as you say. That does not mean that other adjectives could not be used, it only means that I was making the nostalgic point that each race contributes differently to the harmony of the âquartet.â Itâs a kind of yuletide bringing together of the races. Usually, you project my responses with some accuracy, but here, almost everything you ascribe to DOVINA, I would not say. I still contend, not for argumentâs sake, but for the record, that I am not racist. (Notice my initial comment)
(1) I don't think a geneticist would think so. I think a geneticist would be pissed, and a little saddened, to see his life's work summarized so.
(1a) "But there was, on a structural level, very, very little difference between them, geneticists say." (2) Any adjectives you used would be stereotypical, because they'd still be giving entire races/instruments broad, *typical* qualities. That's what stereotype means. (3) I know. Merry Christmas. (4) I thought we'd agreed. You're not racist. Your poems occasionally are. "You've still managed to be racist" is sloppy expression; I'll try to avoid that in the future.
You still won't admit that my nostalgic image of a Christmas quarted composed of four races, singing together in harmony with scarves about their necks on a wintery evening is anything by stereotypical racism, will you?
Who said I think it's only stereotypical racism? I think it's also well-intentioned mush, pure fantasy, a loving gaze in a wrong, and useless, direction, and other things. That's part of what's so dangerous about it. Nice dig with "admit', though.
The star looked in across the threshold.
The only one of them who could Know the meaning of that look Was the infant. But He did not speak. - Joseph Brodsky, trans. Seamus Heaney
I presume you mean this as an example of mushier mush than your opinion of mine. I tried so hard to bring a nostalgic idea down to hard reality, and it returns as mush. It's like giving him one of those cute fish ties for Christmas, and it just hangs mushily all year til he drags it out for my sake. Of such is the joy of Christmas.
What's wrong with your English lately? I mean that seriously.
Regarding the poem: I simply don't think mush is the solution to America's - or the world's - race problems. For one, it's not all that nostalgic, unless you mean it nostalgically hearkens back to when white people had simpler, more "colorful" ideas of what other races are all about. For two, Michael Jackson and a bunch of white guys sing a song about how everyone's together, black, white and yellow, and suddenly racism, continuing oppression, denied opportunities and such just DISAPPEAR? No, but a bunch of white people smile and tap their toes and go on about their business with little heartglows of undeserved righteousness. Then Hurricane Katrina obliterates a black ghetto of shoddily-constructed slum houses and everybody's like, How'd all our black people end up in one place? And such a desperate, dangerous, hellish place, at that?
Why, at Christmastime, must you dwell on all the racial wrongs? All I wanted to do is depict racial harmony through the metaphor of a quartet, where all the people, with thier different apprarances and voices, sing in harmony. The Chrismas quartet singing in the winter night is nostalgic, and I wished to link that to the prospect of racial harmony, which, by the way, I think has been achieved to a greater extent than you imply.
Sure, you want to. Everybody wants to. Unfortunately, that's about as useful as depicting everybody having a billion dollars.
Yes, you would think racial harmony has been achieved to a greater extent. You live in Southern California, the most segregated place in America. Seriously.
Depicting everybody having a billion dollars is not useful because it is not achievable and does not help anyone come closer to a billion dollars. Depicting racial unity is useful because even slight changes in a few people's attitudes can stimulate spreading and lasting change in society.
I disagree.
No, I meant the Brodsky poem as your Christmas gift. I think it's ace.
Thank you, but it's wrong to think a newborn baby could perceive that.
I'm with you, of course. I'm sure Brodsky would say The baby is God, he can perceive whatever the fuck he wants.
Brodsky, then, did not read, or chose tradition over scripture. The star associated with the Wise Men came when Jesus was about two years old. He was not an infant. The Wise Men found Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a house where the toddler could have been precocious enough to have noticed the star and perceived something about its relivance.
I wish you would try to get these kinds of things straight before using them as arguments.
It's not an argument, it's a gift.
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Merry Holidays!
Happy 2006!