Found Poem Time!

Few days ago i was writing a post about Mel Bochner's "Blah Blah Blah" paintings while struggling not to mention Iggy Pop and Kesha (it is imaginary struggle made up exclusively for this post). And while doing the research i was checking the dictionaries for some fancy descriptions of the phrase. That's where i have stumbled upon this little thing. I felt piercing lightning strike coming through my brows - it was kinda like carpet bombing moment of clarity - i have found something.



This is a screenshot from a Cambridge English Dictionary page for the word "Blah". There is a section titled "Linguistics: sounds used as interjections" and there goes said collection of words. It is throwaway "look also" section that generates next to none interest for uninitiated. After all - you don't surf dictionaries like that for nothing. But if you do - then you might go into hiding for some time because killing time is a violent crime.

As it is - the list is just another standard selection, nothing really special - but the juxtaposition makes it work. The way the lines are broken turns it into a poem in a lettrist vein. Just read it:

achoo  bam  boohoo  cor
duh  er  eww  hah
oops  ow  phooey
shush  tsk  tut  uh
uh-oh  uh-uh  whoops
yada yada yada  zzz