From: David.Hill@bbj.hu
To: alex@stinky.com
Subject: new convert
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 00:49:50 +0100

I've been a poet for ten years, a double dactylist for just a few days. Here
are the results so far ... I have a bit of a problem making the first line
completely nonsensical - seems like a terrible waste in an eight-line poem -
so I've been trying to make that line have at least some relevance to the
subject while sounding like nonsense.

By the way, you're welcome to pop into my site at www.lyriklife.com

David Hill



Double dactyls by David Hill

February 2001



Meeting of Souls

Heroless heroless,
Anna Akhmatova
Spent a white night with I-
Saiah Berlin.

Talk was Oxonian,
Post-Jakobsonian;
Drinks were Stolichnaya,
Beefeater gin.



Rapprochement

Scallywag scallywag,
Harrison Birtwhistle,
Pete Maxwell-Davies and
Other young Turks

Soon slotted in with the 
Anti-Mancunian
Poshoes who’d rubbished their
Juvenile works.



Selective memory

Nosey-bem nosey-bem,
Christian Morgenstern
Suffers posterity’s
Ironic curse.

Mocked are his ponderings
Anthroposophical;
Treasured his throwaway
Meaningless verse.



1953

Love for three oranges,
Sergei Prokofiev
Died on the same day as
Stalin, alas!

Russians from Kremlin to
Petropavlovskaya
Wept for each hero, ac-
Cording to class.



Shrunk

Siebenbürg Siebenbürg,
Matthias Corvinus
Ruled a huge empire as
Hungary’s king.

Now it’s just Sopron to
HódmezQ
vásárhely:
He's just the guy with the
Crow and the ring.



My claim to fame

Hollywood Hollywood,
Pre-fame Kate Beckinsale
Went to my uni: my
Subject, my year;

Brightened up lectures on
Proto-Constructivists.
Must have been tough to quit
That, for career.



Hello again to Berlin

Willkommen Willkommen
Christopher Isherwood
Still haunts Berlin as a
Solitary ghost.

Gets a bit narked by the
Ausländerfeindlichkeit.
Still, mustn’t grumble.  The
Club scene’s The Most.



Integration

Guardian Guardian,
Anthony Harrison,
Working-class poet, sang
For the oppressed.

Soon Tony’s tone became
Pseudo-Aeschylian;
Now he’s as boring as
All of the rest.



Brilliant career

Rhapsody rhapsody,
Sergei Rakhmaninov
Held the crowds captive wher-
Ever he’d play.

Classmate and fellow-Con-
Servatoire-medallist,
Long-dead Skryabin, was
There all the way.