I’ve got a poem for you, a very short one, he promised with a garrulous grin, and then, in a long-winded introduction in which all the masters of brevity were cited from Basho to Lydia Davis, he proceeded to demolish all notions of shortness. The poem took ten seconds, the intro five minutes.
John Malone is a South Australian writer of short stories, flash fiction and poetry.
thedrabble.wordpress.com 
I love this! I’ve lived it! Best argument I ever heard for guns on the street……Aaaaaaaaargh! Long introductions…and then they read something bears no resemblance….they read something that isn’t what they said it was, and you realise they haven’t got a clue what they’ve written…(mind you, when I did my M Litt a tutor told me exactly that about a poem of mine…and he used the ‘f’ word!) BHD
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Hi I loved the idea that the into took five minutes and the poem ten seconds!
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Seen it all too often. Time-limited open mic events abound. Everyone gets, say, 7 minutes & half of them take that long just introducing themselves, addressing their theory of poetry, and providing preamble for their nine-and-a half-minute opus.
And the prosers aren’t much better, deluding themselves (and attempting to delude you) that they can squeeze in the 1st three chapters of their forthcoming blockbuster novel…
My hat’s off for your (succinct) work here!
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thanks guys. I enjoyed your comments. Glad my poem struck a familiar note 🙂
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Haha, this reminds me of grad. school!
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Hey -I’ve read this before. 🙂
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We were talking about this kind of thing at the Gawler Poets at the Pub event on Sunday. I reckon timekeepers must be vigilant and give time stealers the BELL!
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I like that phrase ‘the time stealers’. It conjures a whole menagerie of plots
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still haven’t written that story, ‘The Time Stealers’, Carolyn. Maybe you could have a go 🙂
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I’ve written my ‘time stealer’ story now John, I hope it gets published here!
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would love to read it; good luck with it 🙂
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Loved this. I’ve heard a lot many of those during retirement celebrations in my dad’s organisation. “I am not much of a speaker, but I’ve written a couple of lines of poetry about Mr X…” And then they go on for half an hour. I’ve slept through most of those and played tic-tac-toe with my bro through the rest.
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Reblogged this on and commented:
One from the archives.
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Ha ha, I love that.
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