A Potpourri of Aphoristic Verses
Confronted with the truth, some will embrace it,
While others, sadly, will refuse to face it.
*
The underestimation of a rival
Is not the surest pathway to survival.
*
When power brokers squint and get all pensive,
The huddled masses grow more apprehensive.
*
Although you might be used to unearned unctions,
At some point you must execute your functions.
*
Old gents and geriatric ladies
Set thermostats into the eighties.
*
You’re lucky if you don’t know how it feels
When frenzied hounds are snapping at your heels.
*
Align with your humanity;
Be what you were designed to be.
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.
C.B., these are all award-winning couplets of wisdom with humorous presentation. These are all relatable with sound advice in the second line for the culmination.
I should write another one, Roy, about the man who wouldn’t take his own sound advice. And I am still waiting for the awards, though perhaps your comment was the first of them.
These are perfect gnomic verses. They follow the tradition of ancient gnomic poetry– short, concise, and pithy, while packed with very useful advice on life and behavior. Of course ancient gnomic verse was strictly didactic, and prompted by the Polonius-like desire to give give good counsel to children and young persons. But Anderson’s potpourri of verses is laced with comedy, witticisms, and even a bit of snarkiness.
I really love the one about old gents and geriatric ladies — it reminds me of the “Returning Seniors” program where I teach. These elderly students are constantly badgering me to get the temperature raised in our classroom, even though have told them over and over that I have no control over the thermostat.
Professors, Joseph, ought to have control over not only the thermostats but also the barometers and the dehumidifiers. One of these days , I hope, I’ll come up with something longer than a couplet. “Returning Seniors” sounds like a brochure on how to take old persons back to where you found them and get your money back. I’m probably worth more dead than I am worth alive.
Getting older makes us colder.
Sweaters in summer are a bummer.
And that is why, Cynthia, sweaters are not always made of wool; sometimes they make them out of cotton, but even with these, I try to hold out until fall.
C.B., I absolutely love these!!! You are a real truth-teller!!!
Well, Theresa, back when they asked me, prior to my birth, whether I would rather end up as a truth-teller or as a liar, I made one of my best decisions. It’s up to me to hold up my end of the bargain. I have noticed over the years that you, too, are a person who understands decisions that must be made, and have made them time and again.
Well! What an apt title for a collection of aphorisms, or gnomic verses. I love it, and I am envious. Would it be outright plagiarism or merely grateful imitation of I were to borrow “a potpourri” for a future collection of my own?
And, of course, the couplets themselves are terrific and all hit home.
I have no claim on “potpourri,” Anna, and frankly, I’ve been running out of titles for my collections of epigrammatic verse, more than a few of which have appeared on this site. Mostly, I’m glad these latest have hit home. Home, after all, is where we all live.
These are delightful verses and I enjoy reading them over and over. I feel like I should print these out and post them somewhere on the farm where visitors can see them, as a service to mankind.
You have my express permission, Yael, to republish these couplets in any form and for any purpose you choose. I’m ceding them to the public domain.
Very enjoyable snippets of advice C.B. My favorite is the first one about truth. Very difficult to get someone to remove their blinkers.
Sometimes, Norma, blinkers are called blinders, and rightly so. But no one should take my advice at face value. Test the waters and see what works.
Some creditable couplets ( if I can add to the descriptors of ‘gnomic verses’ and ‘aphorisms’).
The first half are timely reminders of what’s happening around the world, and from the others, I wish I had a thermostat and didn’t know about those hounds!
Thanks for the nuggets (‘nourishing nuggets’!)
When you go to McDonald’s, Paul, don’t order the nuggets. And always keep dog treats in your pocket — most dogs won’t bite the hand that feeds them.
Nobody is as clear and terse
As C.B.s aphoristic verse.
Like Shakespeare’s poor Polonius
Such pithiness inspires us.
So borrow not, nor lender be.
Behind the arras do not flee.
Such truth is best when simply told
For all that glisters is not gold.
As a P.S. I prefer to rhyme “potpourri” with “hot glory”.
Well James, how about “No degree,” “Go with me.” “Though it be,” “Sow a pea,” or, best of all, “Gaucherie.”
Rhyming potpourri
With “ no siree”
Would make a lovely harmony
But rhyme potpourri and
hot coriand-
er makes makes a lot more sense to me.
(By the way, as I said earlier, your aphorisms were awesome)
And clothes , James, make the man,
Which only kicks the can
Much farther down the road,
To where our wrecks are towed.
The couplet is aphoristic by design, and you brilliantly demonstrate its full potential. And, in my opinion, you save the best one for last.
Though I would venture that potential is never quite full, saving the best for last is something that Jesus advocated. More wine!
Each one of these is a jewel, C.B. I especially like the first and the last ones. Some search for and welcome truth, no matter how much it hurts or challenges and changes them; others cling to lies to avoid the suffering of cognitive dissonance truth can impose.
Seems like I’ve always struggled with the message of the last verse, so it resonates and inspires.
Sometimes truth hurts, Jan, but sometimes it feels really good. And being who you are beats wishing on a star.
True both, C.B., a life lived with integrity, outshines all insincerity.