America’s singsong Poet Laureate Tyler Schuyler Wyler found himself moved to the rhyming dictionary at the news yesterday that a handful of comments from one person can send financial markets into a spin.
It has always been his dream to utter strings of words that change the world. But rather than wallow in jealousy and resentment over the ease with which a mere Economics PhD can upend powerful people using only his voice, TSW decided to immortalize the irony of the situation with some insightful lines.
When words issue forth from Fed Chairman Bernanke
the tycoons of Wall Street all reach for a hanky.
These captains of industry – lords of the deal
become delicate flowers when Ben starts to spiel.
They cry “sell”. They feel faint. Gurgling rather queasily.
Aghast at the thought of cash flowing less easily!
Money was loose because Bernanke freed it.
A discouraging thought – that we still don’t not need it.
We were deep into stocks but now that cash is walking
And won’t turn around until Benny stops talking.
I’m afraid the instant reviews are in and the Sing Song Poetry Community’s expectations of this work were not met by the unsightly word clump that TSW produced. His imagery is lacking. The subject matter is non-universal. Even though the meant-to-be-clever turn of phrase “… we still don’t not need it” is technically correct in describing some attitudes toward an endless stimulus, it was thought by the analysts to be a clear example of Trying Too Hard.
Based on this single effort, Tyler Schulyer Wyler’s global value has slipped. But we were already aware that he was not a real poet because he spends too much time thinking, foggily, about finance. A true artist is aggressively ignorant when it comes to money. You can be Rembrandt or you can be Rockefeller, but you can’t be both. Who knew word choice could matter as much for the banker as it does for the bard?
When are you most careful about the words you use?
Trail Baboon 
“You can’t be a banker AND a bard” reminded me of one of my father’s pet theories: “There are two kinds of people in the world – creative people and people who use creative people”. Generally, I’ve found this to be true. In response to your question, I’ve long since learned that utmost caution needs to be employed at just those times when I’m most
emotional or passionate about a situation. I’ll often draft an email when I’m charged, then delete it rather than send it. At least this way I can vent a bit before re-approaching as a rational adult.
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i am very careful when i speak to my banker and my doctor, my children my wife and my creditors, my employees and my future possible business partners. about the only place i can speak without thinking is here on the blog. thanks all. im sure you have all noticed i speak without thinking regularly around here.
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Good morning. If I know something I have been told to keep secret I will try to do that. I do have to be very careful about not giving away a secret. It seems that I have a tendency to be a blabber mouth when it comes to keeping secrets.
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when ever a poem pops up in the lead in
that sing songy voice jump inside
it starts with a suessical trough where poems feed in
a frenzy like a carnival ride
the words jump up quite quickly and all stand in line
wiling recruits for the poem
then on to the page where they look for their partner in rhyme
cause you cant be a poem all alone
words need a good partner to make it sing deep inside
that makes your rhyme memorable fred
so they tanned me hyde when i died clyde
and thats it hanging on the shed
i find getting started is all that it takes
to do a small poem on the spot
the challange is obvious if all that it makes
is a kleenex filled with poetic word snot
words need be chosen to make an impact
to fulfill a need out there in the world
but here on the blog it is simple contact
with baboon friends right boys and girls?
whatever you do and what ever you say
worry not in the least on the trail
if you cant let it hang out while here for the day
you may as well try reading braille
so here is the place to let words flow freely
with thoughts not of where you are going
here on the trail moderately touchy feely
in july or when it is snowing
dale leads with a nugget that starts out our day
responses come in from baboons
and we handle the topic in a baboony way
with stories and quips and some tunes
important words chosen can avoid later strife
dire matters deserve focused chioices
but here on the trail we celebrate life
with free and unleashed baboon voices
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🙂
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When communicating with my superiors at work – not necessarily my direct manager, but if I have to explain anything to someone his grade on another team or anyone above his grade on our team, then I try to select my words carefully. Especially if I am explaining something that we are in the process of troubleshooting or correcting. If I am talking with my director about esoteric things or cool ideas or processes we may want to use, then I can shoot my mouth of however I like (he’s a fan of “thinking profound thoughts that lead to new ideas for stuff we can do”) – but if there is something not right with our data, how it’s displaying to our customers, or some new functionality that we’re working on isn’t going as planned…then, yeah, time for the careful word choice.
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I am most concerned about choosing my words carefully when having what might be called “sensitive discussions” with someone I care about. The most obvious example would be during an argument, except I hardly ever have arguments. I am,appalled at the way most people talk to each other when arguing. I often can’t tell if people are being intentionally cruel to each other or just so insensitive and self-centered that they say nasty things without necessarily meaning to hurt anyone. I am almost incapable of watching a drama on TV or in a movie when people lash out so carelessly, hurting each other with clumsy statements.
Perhaps the most difficult sensitive discussion possible is when you have to tell someone that you don’t agree with what they are doing. Nobody likes being criticized. The finest people I’ve ever met had a gift for criticizing others without hurting them. It is damned difficult! I suppose some version of this is a daily challenge for therapists who need to guide a client away from destructive habits without destroying their esteem.
I do so little arguing that I haven’t had many chances to improve the way I conduct myself in a touchy discussion. But I care about this, wanting badly to do the best possible job of relating to someone when feelings are raw. The irony is that I made great progress at being better at this when I did all that dating. If you date a lot you have a lot of sensitive discussions. But I now have nobody to have such discussions with, so any progress I made seems moot! I guess the most important thing to learn here is that it isn’t good to keep making emphatic statements of my own position. Instead, I try to practice focused listening so that I can absorb the other person’s point of view. If you don’t listen carefully to other people you can’t work creatively to find common ways of seeing things, and that is the basis for constructive compromise.
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steve. i think your offerings are sitting dormant looking for a vehicle. how about offering to teach at a community level on photography, journalism, or whatever they have a hole in their curriculum for. i have no idea how to begin. in my city they have a community education class offering that comes out every semester with classes for 50 bucks that may or may not get signed up for but ill bet photography and journalism stuff would be popular. .. just a thought. if st paul cant use you try the colleges you are surrounded by or look into a meetup group on the internet. meetup has a group for every interest with get togethers scheduled regularly. look at the museum one here in the twin cities. they have stuff almost every day. they say it is not a dating service just like people getting together to do artsy museum stuff. my schedule is full but it may be something you could find an interest in.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
tim and his instant poetry–I don’t know how you do this.
I am careful with words around certain people, especially a particular breed of TV-addicted conservative who want to pounce on any little opinion, even when I am talking about my flower garden, how global warming might change our growing season, how the trumpet player who I had a crush on in High School became a Christian Missionary in Israel (Israel?), or the price of rice in China. This happened last weekend while I visited NW Iowa, home of MB’s congressional best friend, Steve King. They are very conservative there.
I succeeded in avoiding the pounce for most of the visit. But as I was wearing down on the second day, my uncle got me. He pounced, treating me to a lecture on how the Muslim movement wants to take over the world, waving a particular book under my nose. The President’s middle name was in there somewhere as was a reference to our embattled Attorney General.
Uff da.
I dearly love this uncle and his wife. They were so good to us and so much fun during our family’s struggles. But I do watch my words.
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I try to always choose my words with care. It’s what makes me such a slow writer–I need the precise word and the exact descriptive phrase, or I’m stuck. On the plus side, I have to edit very little and apologize seldom.
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You do choose your words with care. It shows. I am supposed to be a professional writer, and yet I am sloppy with my posts here. Your posts are unfailingly clear and accurate. You seem to be saying that you practice the same care in daily speech. Good for you.
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I suppose if I stopped talking I would have to apologize a lot less there may be something to that
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A lot of wisdom here this early in the morning, baboons!
I find that choosing the correct time to talk about something sensitive is as important as the words I choose. When giving negative information, asking for favors, I will, if possible, wait for that “moment” – not always possible, but often. Will think more about this…
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yeah the other wally and the beave chose to wait until dinner time to tell their dad they got a horse because he was in a better mood at dinner. is that what you meant bir?
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Yes! 🙂 And there’s something called the “teachable moment” when a person is (more) open to new new information. If you know a person really well, you can know when they’re in that more open state.
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I suspect my family discussions are much like what Jacque describes. I tread with care and direct the conversation to topics that are as neutral and impersonal as possible.
I suspect that for me, the question is more one of “where can you safely speak freely?” it is a much shorter list.
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i speak freely in lots of different places but i dont get invited back to all of htem
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ah, if only it were that easy…….
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In circumstances where I feel obliged to lie– where the simple truth would be unnecessarily embarrassing or hurtful, I find I am constitutionally unable to do it. Then I am forced to look for evasions and circumlocutions that will let me shift the conversation to a non-answer, or silence. I wish it were possible for each of us to represent ourselves honestly, understanding that our opinion is the product of our experience, understanding and temperament and with no power and authority beyond ourselves except in its authenticity. None of us represent universal truth. How much more interesting, then, would be a conversation where one would be free to ask, “You believe that? What has led you to that conclusion? My perception is completely different”, where neither party presumed to represent objective reality.
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Wow, Bill. This world, this state, this city, this neighborhood would be so different if what you described was the norm instead of the exception.
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Has anyone ever actually WON an argument?
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are you saying i didnt?
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Let’s ask Robin.
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There’s a difference between being persuaded and capitulation…
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We think a lot alike, Bill. What interests me these days is the perception that while truth is not always the best policy, it is almost always the easier way to go. It can be work to sell a lie. You have to do it well, and then you have to keep track of your lies so they don’t come back to bite you. Sometimes it seems to me that I’m tempted to lie when I just don’t trust the other person to handle truth well. These days I’m trying harder to believe in other people’s ability to take the truth (as I see it). That doesn’t mean it is smart to spout off one’s unfavorable opinions all the time, but the truth (told with care and compassion) works pretty well much of the time.
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I will take exception to the “honesty is the best policy” idea, as there have been several times in my life when the actual truth would have served no useful purpose whatsoever, and would only have made people very unhappy, or caused a disagreement that would also have served no useful purpose, but would have increased everyone’s stress levels for no good reason.
As I often find myself telling the s&h, it is not always correct to be right.
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Well said, Bill! About the end of the seventies, I began to hear a new phrase – “In my experience…” or “It it my experience that…”. First time I heard it was in a Psychology of Human Communication class at SF State. Next time was from my roommate Rose and her brother, who is now called Husband. It means that conversations can last much longer. When I hear an approximation of that phrase, I know I’m talking to someone I would like to hear more from.
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OT: I had my 12-hour EEG on Monday and the follow-up neurology consult yesterday. Basically, this 2nd-opinion doctor told me that the EEG had lots of abnormal squiggly lines but that he doesn’t interpret them as epileptic “in nature”. He assured me that my history and tests just don’t fit the epileptic paradigm but doesn’t have a clue what they fit. Time for Mayo Clinic, I guess.
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I assume it is better to be squiggly than epileptic!
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Does this mean your EEG likes to dance too?
Glad you are at least done with this round. Good luck at Mayo (i hope they have good Wifi).
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did he find anything to tie into the fisfull of seizures the other guy found?
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My all go well for you with Mayo, CB.
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Nope – he even said that I may have had funky brain waves my entire life only there was never any reason to get an EEG before the seizure 2.5 months ago. I always knew I was different – maybe this explains it??
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that was my thought
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I bet there’s more than a few of us who are glad we don’t need to get an EEG – who knows what sorts of squiggles and abnormalities would be found! I, for one, would prefer that they don’t try to diagnose my brain of anything.
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Evening all! Just got home from college orientation… I’m on complete information overload and I’m sick of being in the car.
I work with several clients throughout the year. I find that I often choose my words carefully when dealing with them – either making sure that any issues we’re working on are clear to them or when I want to steer them in a particular direction. Like CB, I often write an email and then sit on it awhile, edit it a bit and mull it some more before sending it.
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Oh, forgot to mention… like tim, I just kinda fling my blog words out… usually catch the typos after I’ve hit “post comment”!
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sherrilee reminds me of how in business my first rule is never to ask a question that can be answered yes.. if dealing in china they can say yes they will… to everything and mean none of it. if you ask them for the answer to a question they will take the time and figure it out. if you ask them if you aaumption is true they wil answer yes and not mean it. its an interesting way to approach a conversation
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