A Fool is Full and a Pool Not a Pull

2 min read

Word play

Nonsense and numbers

AVAILABLE ON PODCAST

Spotify

iTunes

Google Podcast

For you can spring into march like a soldier or a lion, since you leave it like a lamb. Soldiers march and lions roar, but today is the 32nd or the 60th if you prefer, because it’s not a leap year. It is the day after Friday and the day before Saturday, to be perfectly opaque. Just what kind of fool do you take me four? For fools and four fulls, not a flush but a house. A full house of cards beats a pear tree whose blossoms were lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed.

Or, if Ellie has her cake today can she eat it too? She has it. She eats it. It goes up so it must come down except when it’s your age. Or, Shrodinger’s cat in a shoebox, both with cake and without. So a fool is full and a pool not a pull and drool is dull and cool not a cull. Let’s ask but it’s not an axe. It’s a hatchet to take down the cherry tree of life which is short. So carpe diem are koi dimes in a pond for fortune seekers in cookies. The lucky numbers are 91, 13, 4122. Four divisible by one is two and two.

Old Man limericks abound so how’s this one sound. There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!–Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard! To laugh at nonsense is hard for those who have sense. We are searching among the branches for what can only be found in the roots.

Like this which is both a root and a square, of sixteen and two. Then, the loneliest number. Looking for patterns in nonsense is a ruse, a pin in a haystack. The great guru of nonsense, Edward Gorey said the world is not what it seems–but it isn’t anything else, either. A self-proclaimed Taoist, he felt that now and then life is a crock and if you’re doing nonsense, it has to be rather awful. Who ever heard of sunny nonsense, oh how boring, boring boring. A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears. Gory Gorey.

Silly fool, is this writer too.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey

Footnotes – the Easter Egg of the TreeHouseLetter

*Beware of answers. The title of this section is timely, the egg a symbol of birth or rebirth.

*A nod to Whitman’s poem (lilacs) since this is poetry month, thought experiment Shrodinger’s Cat, Washington’s Cherry tree myth – yes it is a myth, Rumi on roots, limerick from Lear’s Book of Nonsense.

*Best small book ever, Edward Gorey’s Epipletic Bicycle and the nonsense of day before/after. Ok, Doubtful Guest and Gashly Crumb Tinies are up there, the latter a morbid abecedarian of wee ones. Ascending Peculiarity, Karen Wilkin, 2001

* Number play: it is the 91st day of the year or the 60th day of February or the 32nd day of March. There are 13 letters in the holiday and common format is 4-1-22. The square of the month is 16 and the root of the month is 2. Larks and wren and owl and hen take flight in spring, that dubious and unpredictable time which gave flight to fools.

*Otice-Nay the paragraph initials.

*Happy Spring!

Apr 1, 2022

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About the Author

Mylinh Shattan is a writer who has lived on three continents, served in the Army, worked in corporate America, and taught in college. She loves adventures, in the world and in the mind. Literature is relevant and learning is a lifelong pursuit, so you might as well have a bit of fun along the way.

Stay Up to Date

Rise above the tedium with the TreeHouseLetter. Always learning with a bit of fun.

Latest Posts

Five Fools and a Truth

2 Min read For April Fools 1 Haiku, 1 Tanku 1 Limerick 2 Jokes, 1 Riddle * April Tales by Chip G. Peter Top, III* * Haiku for You Bananas in hats, Flying pigs and talking cats Nonsense fills the air. * Limerick of the Day On April Fools' Day, oh so fun, We play jokes...

Sleep on It: Darkness Helps Us See the Light

5 Min read Dreams Pattern seeker 1 Podcast rec Digit dork alert - Fibonacci, Golden Ratio AVAILABLE IN PODCAST Spotify iTunes * A three-for, a chief in triplicate, the Don at the podium was the Don of adolescence, the Don of agency, and the Don of business school....

Today is a Numeric Palindrome

1 Min read Word Nerd Alert Toolbox * * Today has a date format which is a numeric palindrome. Or, a palindromic number. Or, a palindromic number sequence. Fun, if you're in to such things as I am, sequences and syntax and such. Or alliteration. Or sentence fragments....

A Day with the Night Stalkers

8 Min read 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) The Soldier and the Citizen Nashville Ides of March AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * On a lonesome stretch of road north of Nashville, we turned onto a farmer's path. Strains of Johnny Cash and the...

Hey, why aren’t dogs alcoholics?

2 Min read Toxin Tail, Red the St. Bernard mix Pet Poison Helpline AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * * True Tale Toxin Tails (from the Pet Poison HelpLine) reported a case of the Partying Pooch, Red. He's a 85-90 pound golden retriever St. Bernard mix. Red...

The Edgeless Sound and the Night Owl

2 Min read Poetry for Emergencies Leonard Cohen Roshi's Poem The Poe Arch - Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Gateway AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * TreeHouse view of dawn * The book falls open to Roshi's Poem. Though I had already read it, in my hurry up the stairs I...

Belief Is a Powerful Elixir

4 Min read 1 Essay collection, Maya Angelou Music as a gift AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * Believe in me and I can do anything. It's a powerful thing, belief. If a person believes in you, you can move mountains. As a child when I asked why I had bent fingers,...

Topics

Inoculate yourself against the absurdity of life with a dose of the best ideas and writing. Always learning with a bit of fun.