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Wednesday 5 September 2012

The public Speaker

The delivery is slow, the text is dry and technical: the two taps drip in unison like water run to waste. It's like a chef would have us watch the Brussels being topped, the potatoes being peeled before he serves them raw.

12 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

And haven't we all endured speakers like that. Often while still at school.

Brian Miller said...

whew...sounds like its time to take a nap and the next speaker be a little more interesting...

Anonymous said...

Oh no ... love the imagery

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! (can't you doodle?!) Ha! Excruciating. k.

Mary said...

Ah yes, I think I have heard this man! Zzzzzzz

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

I don't understand the hub of the matter actually, but I find the tone most entertaining and fascinating.

Ygraine said...

It's the dripping taps!
The boredom I can stand,
but it's those dripping taps!!

A Cuban In London said...

I have to say that I saw a couple of speakers like that one just a couple of days ago. PowerPoint presentations that were read in a monotonous tone rather than being talked through. Oh, yes, I recognise that public speaker.

Greetings from London.

Dave King said...

General
Interesting, I've been experimenting with prose poetry of late and this was one attempt. I'm still not sure. I suspect that Ygraine sussed that it could be lineated in traditional poetic form. Here it is thus presented:-

The delivery is slow,
the text is dry and technical:
the two taps drip in unison
like water run to waste.

It's like a chef would have us watch
the Brussels being topped,
the potatoes being peeled
before he serves them raw.

Not sure what that says about my attempts at prose poetry.

Dave King said...

The Elephant's Child
Probably. I know I have - and even more so, whilst teaching.

Brian
Sounds like a good idea.

jane
Thanks a lot,Jane.

manicddaily
Doodles are too revealing, I always think.

Mary
You have him!

Tommaso
Maybe in its new manifestation above?

Ygraine
Lovely. Thanks so much.

A Cuban in London
Yes, they are very prevalent, I'm afraid. I think think of so many occasions before I retired when speakers did just that: read what was on the screen - as though we couldn't! - in a tone to send us all to sleep.


Dulcina said...

Good description of a public speaker; nowadays all of them seem cut by the same pattern.
About the difference between prose and poetry, the latter is more than a fixed number of verse lines arranged in a definite metrical pattern. The form is not essential; the spirit is not either.
Poetry is to prose as ballet is to disco dance or, as Charlotte Brontë said, "as Edinburgh is to London".
I like Frost's definition, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." Nobody can't translate the words of a true poem in such a way as to translate their meaning and, at the same time, reproduce their original rhythm and tones, their same aural values, all those nuances of symbols and sounds which are the essence of a good poem.
A good poet is that genius able to mix the sounds and meaning of words in such a way that a miracle is performed.
Poetry is a gift, same as elegance, something innate; and more than that, a kind of revelation.

Dave King said...

Dulcina
Yup, I think I pretty much agree with all of that, though I might bulk at as London is to Edinburgh ! Thanks for your thoughts.