Adie Pena

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Original text in yellow, anagram in pink.

The victims of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Peter Gusenberg, Frank Gusenberg, Albert Kachellek (alias "James Clark"), Adam Heyer, Reinhart Schwimmer, Albert Weinshank and John May

We mark a killer, Irish Bugs, an errant criminal,
Versus a strange mercenary jerk, Italian Al.
Effected the task: a hit job
By a shameless gangster Mob.
"And my henchmen whacked the seven, pal!"

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The anagram is my take on the 25th Anniversary of the People Power Revolution of 1986 which we're celebrating this month in the Philippines. The said event resulted in the departure for Honolulu of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda on February 25, 1986 after decades of murder and plunder. Thus, the anagram contains a DOUBLE ACROSTIC constraint based on the number 25. The 2nd letters spell out HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, the author of the subject poem; while the 5th letters spell out FERDINAND AND IMELDA MARCOS.

AFTERNOON IN FEBRUARY

The day is ending,
The night is descending;
The marsh is frozen,
The river dead.

Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red.

The snow recommences;
The buried fences
Mark no longer
The road o'er the plain;

While through the meadows,
Like fearful shadows,
Slowly passes
A funeral train.

The bell is pealing,
And every feeling
Within me responds
To the dismal knell;

Shadows are trailing,
My heart is bewailing
And tolling within
Like a funeral bell.

AFTERNOON IN FEBRUARY

THieF and murderess
SEntEnced for less
ANgeRed the nation
BReeDing a hell.

EYewItness the pain;
A WorN hellish reign.
HAlf All the shilling?
EDen Needs to revel!

I SenD with might,
I Win A wrong fight.
TOok No numbers;
GReeD must be smashed!

STokIng in hills,
A HarM chills.
ILl hE'll find further...
LOst Lives had trashed.

ONce Dark shadow skies,
I GleAn a hundredth prize.
IF arMy herds will help,
TEn tAnks go by me.

CLeaR out, we implore!
FLeeCe us more?
NOw gO and leave us.
AWay Straight to Hawaii!

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The subject, a eulogy for "a violet by a mossy stone," is a poem by William Wordsworth (1770-1850); while the anagram is my tribute to the actress Elizabeth Taylor. The title MMXI The Lost Loves refers to the year she died [2011] and her 8 husbands. Of course, the anagram contains an acrostic constraint -- EYES OF VIOLET -- which she was known for.

CLXVII The Lost Love

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove:
A maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone
Half-hidden from the eye!-
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

MMXI The Lost Loves

Enter he, Nicky Hilton (of hotels)...
Yep, leave a drunken sod!
Engage in the two Michaels --
Suave Wilding and sweet Todd.

Oh, Debbie's Eddie Fisher then.
Fun of men and guys!
Vivid he, Richard Burton...
Involved, been with him twice!

Off to see some fans anyway;
Loves Senator Warner (Whoopee!)
Ends hence, oh, how one day?
The last was Larry Fortensky!

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JUST BEFORE APRIL CAME by Carl Sandburg is anagrammed into two other poems: ABSENT PLACE -- AN APRIL DAY -- by Emily Dickinson and GREEN LEAVES, FRESH FLOWERS

JUST BEFORE APRIL CAME
by Carl Sandburg

The snow piles in dark places are gone.
Pools by the railroad tracks shine clear.
The gravel of all shallow places shines.
A white pigeon reels and somersaults.

Frogs plutter and squdge—and frogs beat the air with a recurring thin steel sliver of melody.
Crows go in fives and tens; they march their black feathers past a blue pool; they celebrate an old festival.
A spider is trying his webs, a pink bug sits on my hand washing his forelegs.
I might ask: Who are these people?

ABSENT PLACE -- AN APRIL DAY --
by Emily Dickinson

Absent Place -- an April Day --
Daffodils a-blow
Homesick curiosity
To the Souls that snow --

Drift may block within it
Deeper than without --
Daffodil delight but
Him it duplicate --

APRIL QUIETLY PASSING THROUGH

When green leaves, fresh flowers,
Hedgehogs, gophers reappear
Spring'll gasp a man's first breath, too
As she converts earthen life,
Arranges branches
In log jams.
A shallow creek
Gargles, rolls, reverberates,
Harboring the ceaselessness
We ourselves seek.

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chansons innocentes, i
by e(dward) e(stlin) cummings [1923]

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

independencia

will June 12
fulfill
the spirit
of freedom?

i watched ferdinandmagellan come
innocent minds
strangled

unshorn whiteMan shall gobble
up and down

i witnessed the unitedstatesofnorthamerica come
justice's blindfold drawn,
stripped

canny whiteMan shall gobble
up and down

i saw generalaguinaldo come
mr. (short) memory's
39 steps downtrodden

conquerors then
assassins all

rabid
whiteMan shall gobble
up
and
down

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Updated: May 10, 2016


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