New Utrecht High School - Comet Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 15 text:

It has the outward semblance of poetry, but 1 migtlt as welt tell you now, keys just written clown a, few sentences, anct chopped them up into lines, and ness talking through his hat. As for me, if anyone cares, ltike a poet who trims his hairs And his sentences, too. Give me the Bards Who write those jingles on the Clll'iSfVYlClS cards. Anct rhyme sensible worcts like june and moon With rational things like tune and prune. S0 in conclusion, Letss enct this confusion. To wit, roses are rect, violets Hue. The thought is simple, the worcls are few And most important, Because it,s true, I understand it, and so do you. HARMON KALLMAN PRIZE- WINNING PHOTO g MILT ROSENBERG CQMET Page Thirteen

Page 14 text:

Oh, ML Nash, What T rash! If there's anything that annoys your reporter More than these intellectual guys anci gais who write poetry, then itis the fact that they oughter Stop immeciiateiy, hut cionyt. It may he hecause they stuhhorniy just wonit, Ami then again, perhaps they just canyt hear To get those terrificaiiy profound thoughts out of their coiiective hair. But anyway, As I starteci out to say, ltis perfectly incomprehensihie That such weii-meaning taciies and gents can possihty turn out stuff that resemhies oniy a very reprehensihie Mess, I must confess. For instance, tahe the long-haireci iittie guy Who praises Shostahovich to the shy. fNow mind you, aii this is perfectiy O. K. hy me, I stiii can,t teii a rhumha from a rhapsoclyj But when he tries to rhyme Crescendo with anything hut innuencio, which as Giihert and Suiiivan once saici, has .nothing to cio with the case, then 1 see itis time ' For me to quit Before I throw a fit. Anci then, of course, white shimming through a hooh Of something that might he verse fno pun intenciecij tinnocentiy chance to tooh At some monstrosity written hy a citizen nameci Browning. tneecin't go much further. Everyhociy hnows that for a hundred years his 'so- caiiezi poetry has heen the crowning Glory of the H ,Twas hriiiig, and-the-siithy-tuvs-gyreci-anoi-gimhieci-in-the-wahe.U school. At any rate, it souncis iihe ciouhie taih to me, hut then again tim just a common foot Wizo speahs ye ianguage English as she shoutci he spohe Anci that, my friends, is most assureciiy no johe. But iet's resume. In previous ravings I have had no room To treat with the un-nohiest Roman of them ati,-I The caoi who ricies his unsuspecting readers for a fait. ' I refer, of course, to that ciiahoiicai menace of the iiterary worici, The varmint who writes that stuff caiied free verse, in which the miiiion worois he uses couici he herieci Down to practicaiiy nothing, hut which insteaci he uses to compose Poetry that shouici he prose Anci very haci prose, at that. Page Twelve CQMET

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Popcorn In T he Pork By AARON KASS XVHILE ati the world is daiiy with the hoi poiioi of the times, i have sought respite from the sohhing masses at a Brookiyn park. And I have hrought with me a large hag of popcorn, naturaiiy with the ione intention of consuming every hit of the popped kernels, salted, and showered with oii, dripping through the hottom of the hag and spiashing on my newly polished shoes. I have not heen sitting iong in my splendor, munching at the contents of the greasy hag, when a peculiar swallowing that sounds like a pack of women dis- rupts my giuttonous pieasantry. I turn quickiy to see a large pigeon gohhiing up the pieces of popcorn which feii to the Hoor as I threw up the seeds into the air and watched them fail to the ground past my wide opened mouth. Fooiishiy, very fooiishiy, I offer a few kerneis to the wide eyed hird. His chest is heaved up and his heart is heating viciousiy. I imagine at this moment a huge creature expanding its imperious chest and thrusting it into my wry face. Fraught with horror I drop the handful of popcorn and quickly dash to the farthest end of the park. g ii am sittinglquietiy thinking transcendent imaginings of the siow and con- tented life I was enjoying up tiii now fl prohahiy looked iike some unfortunate of a triangle thinking of his lost inamortei when the hird returns and hrings with him a Hock of his feathered friends. I realize now that he had poiiteiy ex- tended, lo the rest of the cian, my invitation to feed him some popped corns. While they are husiiy eating the handiuis of popped kernels that I have thrown them to assuage their hunger and anger, i have found an escape to the edge of the lake. Here I watch the ducks waddie in their uncertain gait, and the swans giide quietiy and contentediy through the stiii water. Lost in this pensive mood, I empty the remaining corn into the water, and I watch the ducks and swans clamor upon one another. As they devour the popcorn I iook at the puffed seeds sweii up more in the water. I wish to myseif that I had those very popcorns for they are so much larger and so much more to eat, and ii I am to watch the deiighted progress of my stomach expanding and assuming a much wider circumference, then these are more than welcome. It seems to me, so to speak, that the daiiiance of eating popcorn in the park is iast dying out-and I don,t wonder'-what with having to share it with a muiti- tude of hungry pigeons, ducks, swans and other feathered giuttons, it has ceased to he a delightful pastime. Pa ge Fourteen COMET