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aaclh's picture

poem that has no meaning

Submitted by aaclh on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 12:49pm.

A friend showed me this poem online at:

http://poetry.about.com/od/poetryplay/l/blwakawaka.htm

 

I immediately thought about our discussion in class about whether there needs to be meaning in words. Here is the poem along with it's 'translation':

 

< > ! * ' ' #
^ " ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , ,  SYSTEM HALTED


The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

    <  >  !   *  '  '  #
     Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,

    ^  "    `    $   $  -
     Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,

    !  *  =  @  $    _
     Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,

    %   *   <  >  ~   #   4
     Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,

     &     [    ]   . .  /
     Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,

     |       {      ,    ,   SYSTEM HALTED
     Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

 

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