JAN 20 (2021), TOURISTS' PALINDROMIC GUIDE: The Old World #2

This post represents a followup to the post  - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Old World #1. 
SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym) and Dr GH, 2018. 
WORDPLAY LINK: Geographically focused concoctions are among the many palindromic treasures honored and displayed on this site. Check out the list of entries for "The Palindrome Suite".

SONGLINK: Some readers will be delighted (others will continue to groan) at our collection of songs based on palindromic phrases -- see the slides and hotlinks at the bottom of that initial posting.

Click HERE to continue to panels #13 through #18.

(Or, switch horses, and check out the series of helpful palindromes from the Americas, HERE!)

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2022, there are 1000 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

The frontier of poetry: PALINKUs (palindrome-enriched haiku verses) from the year 2020

palinku

An additional point: Where do these palindromes come from?

The majority are in the 'classic repertoire' of this constrained but nonsensical form of writing. The authors are proud to report that they have apparently concocted the remainder. 

  

If you feel that you need more enlightenment about palindromes before proceeding, we have a sort of lesson entitled "POLITICAL PALINDROMES" that appears in serialized form on our other blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense". You can undertake that adventure by clicking HERE for 'slide A'.  

You can continue this astounding journey, exploring our new poetic form. Click below for yearly collections of posted palinkus (one each month), as available on this blog-site.

2020: haiku, and the origin of the 'palinku'

2020: early palinkus, from August 2000

2021

2022

2023

2024 -- pending.

  

(Alternatively, you could proceed to our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", where we have in a more casual manner, published these terse verses one-at-a-time, on the 17th day of each month.)

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of March 2024, there are over 1400 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

review of 'BRIEF SAGAS' from 2020

 A NOTE from the EDITORS: 

 As readers may have gathered, these blogs feature several types of light, wistful and humorous reflections on current life, chief among them  short verses using the limerick format, more or less (see the blogpost "Limerick Variations"). But on occasion, we feel the urge to continue important themes through several stanzas worth of poetic ideas. So in this post, we highlight the previous years' offerings of 'lengthier' poems of at least 15 lines or 3 stanzas. We have been publishing these at the rate of once a month on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", but as they are mixed with shorter verses of five lines, i.e. standard limericks, or even three lines, (palinku --palindromic haiku), you might have failed to notice and review them in their entirety. 

  This summary gives you a second chance to explore these lengthier creations that contain as many as 6 stanzas -- hardly lengthy enough to be considered a genuine saga, but we hope reflecting the authors' sagacity.  

  The compressed mode in which our 'sagas' are displayed may enhance your appreciation of the range of topics covered; if you prefer to enjoy the details in a larger and more readable font, you can quickly access the posts on this blog devoted uniquely to their stanza-by-stanza display (as well as notes, related photos and videos), by entering their title into the search lines provided. And from there, you can, of course, explore further to enjoy the multitude of shorter verses.  

CURRENT CONTENTS (from 2020)

Acropolis                     Nov

Aegean cat                  Aug

Auld Lang's Sine         Dec

Broken arrow              Jul

Chemainus, BC            Jan

Claire's celerity           Apr

Cyclades                      Oct

Fluoridation                 May

Food intolerance         Sep

Loon's life                    Jun

Palmetto trees             Feb

Walrus and Carpenter Mar

 

For the curious reader's convenience, we have sorted our treasury of 'brief sagas' by the year of publication on this blog. Altogether, you will find more than 40 whimsical poems that cover about 800 lines of verse. 

Click below, and enjoy!
2020
2021
2022
2023.

Verses That Spurt: GEYSERS

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2018. Today's verses have been edited and selected for publication at OEDILF.com, an online humour dictionary that has accumulated over 100,000 carefully edited limericks. Thanks are due to OEDILF contributing-editor MikeAq who kindly provided permission for linking to one of his related verses (please review this extravaganza at the bottom of this post).

SONGLINK: For those readers who like poetry set to music: You can find lots of singable limerick medleys on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", such as this recent post. 

By the way, to find more limericks, or any other search target on either of these 2 blogs, use the SEARCH-FUNCTION found at the top of the righthand margin.

Authors' Note:  The geyser (GHIE-zer or GHEE-ser) is an unusual hydrogeologic phenomenon which occurs in volcanic zones where magma (molten lava) is close to the surface, and there is fissuring of rocks due to earthquake faults. Minerals dissolved from adjacent rocks precipitate out, forming a lining for a type of 'plumbing system' in which steam builds up, resulting in regular eruptions of boiling water. Changes in the colour of the swirling hot water in the pool help predict the arrival of the next photogenic discharge. 

 Yellowstone Park, in the American Rockies, is a site of these natural wonders, including the famous geyser ‘Old Faithful’.

Authors' Note: In 1894, the wealthy British distiller, James Craig of Ulster, later Lord Craigavon, purchased from a local Icelandic farmer the land around the iconic geyser, Geysir (or the great Geysir). Fences were erected, and admission charged for a brief period. Several changes in ownership were in fact required, but eventually the site was donated in perpetuity to the Government of Iceland. Lord Craigavon, subsequent to his Icelandic adventures, became the first prime minister of Northern Ireland.

 The geyser spout itself, apart from a single event in the 1930s, has remained dormant since 1916, although adjacent spouts have taken over the fanfare.

Authors' Note: Björg(f.) and Björn(m.) are typical Icelandic names. In Britain, the term geyser, has come to mean a secondary water heater at the point-of-use, e.g. a bathtub. In Iceland, hot water is distributed to all homes as a part of geothermal energy systems; devices to rewarm water at the point of use are not needed, and probably not available.

In North America, such auxiliary plumbing devices are known as ‘tankless water heaters’. 

Björn originally conceived of his gift idea based on occasional offerings of spent hydrogeologic geysers in Icelandic second-hand stores, e.g. the original reliable vent at Geysir which thrilled Victorian tourists has died back, 'replaced' nearby by other vents. The reader is left to judge whether such second-hand devices represent a figment of the author’s imagination or contrived nonsense. 

    

Man-made geyser-like phenomenon
(broken water-main, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.)