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A poem, by catcalls (Copyright 2010 @ Catcalls Media)

C

catcalls

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 29, 2010
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England, UK
Let the light of the Lord into your life and feel His love.
Don't believe the hype and swim with the doves.

Bring Peace and happiness, into the world this year.
Do not fall talentless, living in a box with four walls of fear...
 
Even with the explanation it's a little unclear.

catcalls said:
Don't believe the hype and swim with the doves.
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You said you were predicting the aflocalypse, so why is it ''don't believe the hype?'' You don't want people to believe your predictions?

And, since you're addressing the reader (unless it's the fish who aren't supposed to ''believe the hype''), then it is, by extension, the reader who is swimming with the doves rather than the doves swimming with the fishes. So then what you're saying is: ''Don't believe in the aflocalypse and swim with the doves who are swimming with the fishes (ie. dead)?''
 
Dude(TheDeceased) it's a poem. I like your probing questions, but are you hostile about it because of the subject matter? It seems like you're being slightly hostile, yet impressions can be misleading over the internet, so forgive me if I'm wrong.
I think the title is interesting as hell. "A poem by catcalls" like you get an angry crowd of people shouting out lines of poetry and they all form one big poem. That imagery is super sweet to me. :)
 
I'm not hostile but, honestly, I'm not a big fan of Jesus. I had to sing Jesus songs when I was in school against my will and I have been told to pray by so many Christian people throughout my life, who don't bother to preface the suggestion by asking me whether or not I share their faith.

Let the light of the Lord into your life and feel His love.
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It does annoy me, however slightly. The title is misleading. I don't want to be preached at. I don't want the "light of the Lord" in my life. It annoys me because of it's specificity and the exclusivity it implies. It is not a message of peace for the world. Like pretty much all Christian messages, it's only for those willing to accept Him, capital H. There are two options in the poem. One, you accept the Lord or, two, you perish. Sound familiar?

Perhaps it would be more suited to a religious website.

The feedback I gave wasn't inspired by hostility. The poem doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense and I think it's more helpful in the long run to give honest feedback rather than undue praise. I assumed, given the copyright, that it was an attempt at a serious piece of work. And if catcalls is pursuing some sort of career in writing then it's potentially very harmful to provide him/her with undue praise:

I think the title is interesting as hell. "A poem by catcalls" like you get an angry crowd of people shouting out lines of poetry and they all form one big poem. That imagery is super sweet to me.
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The title is: "A poem, by (author's name)".

Admittedly, it is fascinating.
 
Well, its a play on words. Swim with the fishes its a mafia thing meaning execution. Whereas, I replaced fishes with doves, which are birds.

Both got executed by some unknown hand. I don't believe it was the hand of God, but a biological weapon of mass animal destruction.
 
I understand what you're trying to say, catcalls. I can certainly appreciate the message of not letting our personal hang-ups sweep us away and kill any chance we have of understanding each other.

You said you were predicting the aflocalypse, so why is it ''don't believe the hype?'' You don't want people to believe your predictions?

And, since you're addressing the reader (unless it's the fish who aren't supposed to ''believe the hype''), then it is, by extension, the reader who is swimming with the doves rather than the doves swimming with the fishes. So then what you're saying is: ''Don't believe in the aflocalypse and swim with the doves who are swimming with the fishes (ie. dead)?''
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I think what he's saying is don't let fear control you and kill any chance you have at peace. Hype being the negative expectations that we tend to carry with us.
 
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I have no idea what that means, New. (Not because my personal hang ups are getting in the way.)

catcalls,

Wordplay isn't just taking phrases and replacing words. You can't just take the saying "swim with the fishes" and change it to "swim with the elephants" or "swim with the dolphins" because:

Without any prior reference to the mafia or to fish, it is unclear what reference you are making.

If a kitchen hand breaks a plate in a front for a drug laundering operation while some wise guys are trying to shove a body into a freezer, they might say to him: "You better shut the fuck up, or you'll be sleeping with the dishes," motioning to the ceramic shards scattered across the floor.

While not being a particularly good play on words, it makes sense.

Predicting a species-specific apocalypse while preaching Jesus and making mafia references on the other hand is just bizarre.

You probably don't have to worry too much about the copyright.
 
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I don't understand how you pulled that out of what he wrote. I also wasn't referring to you personal hang ups. Everyone has hang ups.

He's using the phrase "swim with the doves" as a reference to "sleep with the fishes", conjuring up the image of the aflocalypse as a representation of fear leading to death. He believes in God and finds God to be a parallel for courage and love. What the poem is saying that, despite the negative events that are happening all around us, succumbing to fear and dying as a result(whether by biological weapon or otherwise), that we should still find the inner strength to reach out to our fellow man and find joy in our lives. The wording is a little wonky, but the message is there if you look for it.
 
New said:
I don't understand how you pulled that out of what he wrote.
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"Predicting a species-specific apocalypse"

catcalls said:
I was predicting the aflocalypse.
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catcalls said:
I replaced fishes with doves, which are birds. Both got executed by some unknown hand. I don't believe it was the hand of God, but a biological weapon of mass animal destruction.
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"while preaching Jesus"

catcalls said:
This whole concept is to spread the word.
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catcalls said:
Let the light of the Lord into your life and feel His love
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"and making mafia references"

catcalls said:
swim with the doves
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New, although your explanation makes more sense, it doesn't really reflect the poem, or the authors explanation of it. He said both fish and birds get executed in an apocalyptic event. It wasn't a symbolic statement. It was part of his explanation of the meaning of his work. Fish and birds get executed by biological warfare. I don't know how else to interpret that.

Also the phrase sleeping (or swimming) with the fishes comes from the mafias method of concreting ankles and dumping people off piers/ boats/ etc. The victims then sink to the bottom and watch the fish swim around them as they die. In the context, the fish aren't literally dead. They signify death. To include them in the aflocalypse (a term specific to birds) simply because they are associated through wordplay just makes the whole thing more confusing.
 
I understand what you see now. The wordplay and central theme could use some refining. The author still never mentioned Jesus, and you're still assuming it's a preachy, exclusively Christian concept. The idea of "God's Light" entering those who accept it can range anywhere from Jewish Mysticism to new-age psychedelic spirituality to 12-step "theology". The concept of God as Lord is probably a thousand years older than Jesus. He wasn't trying to impose his beliefs on you, and I don't think the title was misleading at all. It's a poem by catcalls, who want everyone to get along with each other.

And he was trying to point out that the deaths of the birds was mysterious, by using a phrase that signifies death metaphorically. It's a very tenuous connection, but "sleep with the fishes" isn't always used to describe that exact method of gang execution, if you recall The Godfather. You're thinking of "fitting someone for concrete shoes". He mistakenly said that the fish died ambiguously, when he meant to say the the phrase "x sleeps with the fishes" is a way of saying that "x" was murdered by an unknown person, the same way that the aflocalypse was brought about by unknown unnatural causes as opposed to an act of God. He just happens believe it was a biological weapon.

The poem is very confusing, so I could see how you got to where you did. He was trying to use unearned metaphor and got the wordplay confused.

To catcalls:

It's a very beautiful message you have there. You just need to be more clear to be concrete about the topic of your poem and more concise in the explanation so that it doesn't engender this level of confusion. I think it's about not letting fear prevent us from working towards goodwill. I could be wrong.
 
New,

Thank you for your insight into my work.

The original line, let the light of the Lord...etc...was the starting block of the whole piece.

The rest was supposedly just filler. But, since this poem came before the aflocalypse, I understand it better now that it is prophetic about the bird and fish deaths. This is similar to Nostradamus, whereby his predictions are only understood after the events take place, because the meaning and truth is hidden and only come to light after the fact.

So, I feel the same about this work. How ever, I personally interpret the 'peace' of the poem as my own death this year. Now that one part has come true, perhaps this will, as well.
 
He just happens believe it was a biological weapon.
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He just happens to believe (in fact, has predicted) that it was a biological weapon that killed (past tense) all the birds in a species-specific apocalypse, but that we shouldn't let that get to us because it wasn't vengeful God or nature that pulled the trigger, it was an evil plot orchestrated by (presumably) some sort of mad genius with a distaste for poultry?

The author still never mentioned Jesus, and you're still assuming it's a preachy, exclusively Christian concept.
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Capitalizing ''Him'' and ''Lord'' are Christian traditions. So is ''spreading the word''. Also, I assume catcalls would have objected already if he wasn't Christian.
 
But, since this poem came before the aflocalypse, I understand it better now that it is prophetic about the bird and fish deaths. This is similar to Nostradamus, whereby his predictions are only understood after the events take place, because the meaning and truth is hidden and only come to light after the fact.
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Yeah, I feel you. Prophecy is always so obvious in retrospect, isn't it?

(see New, I told you: he's literally saying that he predicts the future through his poetry, and that this piece predicted a species-specific apocalypse that executed birds and fish by way of biological warfare)
 
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