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This Poem was Submitted By: Mell W. Morris On Date: 2005-02-19 16:15:38 . . . Click Here To Mail this Poem to a Friend!

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With A Certain Humming In My Ears

Pascal said that misfortune comes To man from being unable to stay Quietly in one room. If this is true, I may come to rue my future days. One room can be a tomb: musty, Clotted air, a gavotte of dust motes Everywhere. The silent part is an Easy task for me as I don't talk so Long as I have pen to write my Thoughts. Pascal also said that man Is so necessarily mad, that not to be Mad would amount to another form Of madness. If my own ordinary life Be made of madness as seen through Pascal-formulated hypnosis, I demand God-given rights to have a full-blown, Proper psychosis.

This Poem was Critiqued By: Gerard A Geiger On Date: 2005-02-25 22:16:15
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Dear Mell; Did pascal write catch 22? After all, Yossarian couldn't get a section eight discharge, because you had to be crazy to be a pilot in the firstplace. From your fine work as a poet, you deserve The god-given rights for a full blown proper psychosis... as we all know to be any kind of a poet you must be a little loose in the cracker barrel; playing with an attic full of broken toys; or compulsively drooling in a fizzy factory. As long as your still thinking about going a little nuts, you're still there with cerebral matter a healthy gray, churning those electrons and spewing your mellifluous melodic verse for a waiting and enraptured audience. I'll be waiting in the front row to hear your latest... Always your friend, Gerard PS. I really liked your poem, found it humorous...an enjoyable read. I hope you are feeling better, Mell...and I look forward to spending a little more time at TPL in the next few weeks.

This Poem was Critiqued By: Claire H. Currier On Date: 2005-02-24 11:25:34
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.67647
Loved the read, structure, word flow images all of it.....love my four little walls as mama would say and I am not mad, yet....getting there though, can feel it more and more each day........hope you are better my friend......all these test can be downing too.......just got another call from the doctor who said the lung specialist will go over the test as there are many issues to deal with, today I return the heart monitor I have worn for the past twenty four hours, last week it was eye surgery but again the sight is going, a waste of time perhaps, perhaps not......and the heart, poor thing does not know how to behave......I should go visit with MOJO we have much in common.......how is Texas treating you? Is is warmer there then here? Hope you are in a safe place away from those storms that roll in......thanks for posting and sharing with us, enjoyed the read very much....God Bless, Claire My, I have a motor mouth once it gets going........love to talk, love to write but the words just don't come as they once did....perhaps some day soon......God knows.....not I.

This Poem was Critiqued By: Leo Wilder On Date: 2005-02-23 10:10:38
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 1.00000
Mell, We all deserve to have our own "full blown,proper psychosis." I've often convinced that my psychosis is real and will likely only leave with the ultimate therapy session with the stone couch. I very much enjoyed this piece and it certainly has a ring of personal experience. Good to read your work. When I come to this site I always look for your work. Hope you get a chance to read and comment on my current stuff. Take care. Leo

This Poem was Critiqued By: Turner Lee Williams On Date: 2005-02-23 00:11:26
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.83333
Mell–I’m sure Blaise is on to something, but I don’t think he was/is referring to four walls turned into an austere cell; “...misfortune comes To man from being unable to stay Quietly in one room.” From the tone of stanza #3, this reader gets the idea Pascal didn’t trust anyone who played with a full deck/rowed with two oars-smile. Moreover, there’s inference his philosophy has had a profound influence on protagonist; “If my own ordinary life Be made of madness as seen through Pascal-formulated hypnosis (hypothesis?), I demand God-given rights to have a full-blown, Proper psychosis.” For selfish reasons (I’m sure I speak for all at TPL), you can go as crazy as you’d like, but, we’re all insisting you keep a writing utensil handy. Once again you’ve taken an unusual theme and made it entertaining, humorous, pertinent, mind tingling, poetical and yours. TLW

This Poem was Critiqued By: Joanne M Uppendahl On Date: 2005-02-22 17:16:26
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Mell-O-Phone: Your title’s “Humming” draws me in to find many other ‘mm’ words, such as “man/ misfortune/a-mount/mad” and a question occurs to me, Does the poet hear dust motes humming unwritten thoughts? Many ‘mm’ ending sounds, as in “room/tomb/form” suggest attenuated vocables, as if beginning and ending speech with lips closed and only ‘hums’ emerging. Deep vowels in “room/tomb” suggest moaning, softly bellowing sounds to my ears. Nicely popping plosives from “Pascal/proper/psychosis” inform the poem with droll notes. Also notable are the “true/rue/future” combinations which seem like slightly muted horns. This poem makes a scintillating, witty companion piece to “Every Poem An Autograph.” Nietzsche's belief that the best writers - Spinoza, Pascal and Goethe, for instance, were men whose ‘thinking constitutes the involuntary biography of a soul’ could allude to the Soul of our speaker, writing her biography as she writes her thoughts. And does so soulfully, poemfully. Is the “one room” a musty tomb from which the writer’s poems illuminate her autobiography? As she writes of “a gavotte of dust motes” it seems to this reader that she cannot be confined to any room. That the dust motes dance suggests tiny particles of something forgotten or unused. These remain in motion, although the author embraces silence. I love the conundrum of Pascal’s saying about madness. The word pair ‘dust motes’ also elicits 'Why, then, would you look at the mote in your brother's eye and ignore a stick in your own?’ And if Pascal is right about madness, our definition of the term should be expanded. I think madness and creative genius go together. If the writer sees her life as “ordinary” it suggests to me that madness of a different order has already gifted her with creative genius and a tendency, thankfully, to be “unable to stay quietly in one room.” The "proper psychosis" is the affliction of poetic addiction, which you have made an eminently desirable condition. I don't know if any of this makes sense, but here is the short version: I LOVE this poem! If your mellophone has a bell fashioned on a French horn mandrel then all is undoubtedly well! A bunch of deep purple irises, tied to a silver French horn with yellow satin ribbons. Brava! WONDERFUL! My best always, Your LL Em.

This Poem was Critiqued By: Dellena Rovito On Date: 2005-02-20 17:03:05
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.63158
Hi Cupcake! This little light of mine, I'm going to make it shine.........make it shine, make it shine, make it shine. And 'shine' you do! The 'light' of you fills up the poem. And you shared with me. We're to write of what we know. Because we know it very well. I could write this as a co-poet. Your castle's as wonderful as you dream it to be. The most wonderfull side bonus is you've time to think, read, write. Many envy that time. I think man's troubles are not knowing how to sit still in one room. They never make time too contemplate. I believe the answer is 'balance' People in prisons actually become psyhotic. They live so long in an 8x10 room/even haven gotten out, they feel safe only in their small bedroom. being/anywhere or nowhere feels the same with your eyes shut and a good imagination. Your poem is good/easy to read/clear/ending with a smile. Pascal was quite an interesting fellow. [another quote] When we encounter a natural style we are always surprised and delighted, for we thought to see an author and found a man.Quoted in W H Auden and L Kronenberger, The Viking Book of Aphorisms (New York 1966). I enjoyed this trip into elsewhere....... Love to you, Dellena

This Poem was Critiqued By: Troy D Skroch On Date: 2005-02-20 16:28:53
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Mell, I enjoyed the humor and beat of this poem. The stanzas working together to complete the thought ending perfectly and with "gusto". LOL Excellent strong writing. Yes I love your insanity man. And I guess that by defintion we're all crazy. Fine with me, keeps things exciting. I wonder if just by exsisting you are indeed living your "full-blown" psychosis? HEHE Not a "critique" just a few comments I thought to add as I drifted by today. Don't start eating your pencils and take care, Troy

This Poem was Critiqued By: Tony P Spicuglia On Date: 2005-02-20 15:45:04
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Mell, the use of Pascal automatically turns this into a psycological thriller. There are depths spoken that, to this day, evade the explanation of wizards and dullards. As I sit waiting, there is anticipation within my reach, and presentations awaiting. With A Certain Humming In My Ears – Leaves one to think of all that is heard, and wondering how much is actually perceived. Makes me raise my head and listen. Pascal said that misfortune comes (to man) To man from being (because he is) unable to stay (just a suggestion) Quietly in one room. If this is true, I may come to rue my future days. – Pascal, of course- always an introspective reservist, maintains what all must learn. If you are not happy where you are, with only yourself and your mind, then the evil of that unease will prevail. Unfortunately those of modern ilk, misread the “evil” and presume it is relative to “moral” response, when in fact Pascal made it relative to “the good of the person imagining”, if you will. I, too, as you, may have to pay the piper, or maybe the “rats” will take care of themselves. One room can be a tomb: musty, Clotted air, a gavotte of dust motes – what an absolutely delightful description, the dust bunnies (motes) in a dance of celebration, for surely mustiness and clotted air are kin to the motes. Wonderful. Everywhere. The silent part is an Easy task for me as I don't talk so Long as I have pen to write my Thoughts.- I know this silence, and the “non-silence” if one takes creativity and writing into account. There is a precious view that straddles the air and contraire, but always sits in its noisy silence. I certainly can feel your analogies shrilly silent throughout my reading of this verse. Pascal also said that man Is so necessarily mad, that not to be Mad would amount to another form – I am not sure Pascal is right in this, but I am sure he is right in this when speaking of poets. There are those who are poets and those who write poetry, they are not the same, do not write from the same place, and one is sane, the other not. You bring the point, and I nod in my insanity. I am glad you found me there. Of madness. If my own ordinary life Be made of madness as seen through Pascal-formulated hypnosis, I demand God-given rights to have a full-blown, Proper psychosis. – You go girl, you sing it, you write it, you demand it. Pascal also names the insanity, but got it backwards- Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. – The poet glimpses both, and I think, reading your verse, there is a mote of both in each view of insanity. True it is, for the poet, to be insane, is the sanest among mankind. I know how to reverence such creation!! Thanks for sharing Mell, a great piece.

This Poem was Critiqued By: Joanne Duval Morgan On Date: 2005-02-19 20:56:27
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
I have that certain humming in my ears right now, a dusty very quiet esistence, I know that's called being driven crazy by self association, my voice cords break when on the occassion someone speaks to me, for most of a handicapped day is alone, with not even the sound of your own voice. Pascal got it right, his formulated hyponois, maybe the solution at least it could provide a self of being in the world, would proper phychosis help, don't know, doubt it, company alone would take care of some of these issues. Greal summary entailed in this poem that catches all the nuances, that I certainly can identify with. Being unable to walk my box has shrunk, I imagine yours has also, thus your ability to phrase and project this poem. Admire your spirit though, I don't even feel like writing, funny state indeed, but you know what no one has the answers but me really, and this poem leads into that beautifully, for admitting one needs psychosis is aditting a problem, I'd rather keep pulling myself up by the bootstraps, and stay busy with such as a great poem by Mello. So true, so factual, so being there, huh? Love...Jo Mo

This Poem was Critiqued By: marilyn terwilleger On Date: 2005-02-19 17:23:22
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Hi Mell, And well you should be entitiled to any form of madness that strikes your fancy! Isn't it one of our inallenable rights? Your 2nd stanza is so profoundly accurate of a one room existance.....'clotted air, a gavotte of dust motes'...clotted air is brilliant and the thought of dust motes dancing is rather humorous, even though I suppose that is just what they do. When I was a child I loved to lay on carpet and watch the dust dance in sun's rays....to me they were magical sun beams and I could watch them for hours. Being an only child I had to find many ways to amuse myself!....man is so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness'...I have never heard this quote and I had to ponder it for awhile. I like Poe's writings and I know he was mad and probably wrote some of his best when he was smoking Opium.. I wonder if that makes me mad? Maybe being just a little mad enhances our ordinary lives, keeps us alert, and forever striving to achieve, complete, and create. I do so love the way you ended these musings... I demand God-given rights to have a full-blown, proper psychosis. I agree...if you intend to engage in any kind of psychosis you must be proper about it. You have wonderful humor and I have come to believe that is what carries you from one day to the next...that and your amazing ability to create what all of us just dream of doing when we put pen to paper. I was excited when I saw this poem at the top of my list as I never know what you will write about next...but the best thing of all is that you never dissapoint me! Be Well Bless you...Marilyn

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