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#208740 - 01/05/13 05:59 PM - -- "grooks"
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939 LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939
Land of the Flat Water
Distilled Spirits
When Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, physicist Piet Hein published an innocent-seeming poem:
Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing compared to the pain
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding the first one again.
The German censors let it go, not understanding its meaning -- that while enduring occupation was bad, ceasing to resist would be worse. "It said that what happens to you from outside is less important than how you take it," he explained later. "The Danes knew what I meant."
In later years Hein cultivated a talent for such tiny aphoristic poems, which he called "grooks":
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.
There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.
The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T.
When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.
In all he wrote more 7,000 grooks, which have become a part of Scandinavian culture. "I cannot really say where my activity as a scientist ends and where my activity as a man of letters begins," he said. "Whether I am writing a poem or solving some technical problem, I think the same."
----please, draw me a sheep----
#208750 - 01/06/13 05:28 AM Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724 Avy
old hand
old hand
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 724
#208751 - 01/06/13 07:24 AM Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny
veteran
veteran
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554
Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T.
When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.
__________________________________
Put up in a place
You donna wanna be
The dynamite explosive
T.N.T.
And if you feel explosive
As you climb,
Be sure to remember that
Time Negates Time.
#208758 - 01/06/13 05:16 PM Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939 LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939
Land of the Flat Water
Just ran across it and was intrigued myself, thought others
might appreciate it. You're welcome.
----please, draw me a sheep----
#208759 - 01/06/13 05:18 PM Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939 LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939
Land of the Flat Water
You donna wanna be
The dynamite explosive
T.N.T.
And if you feel explosive
As you climb,
Be sure to remember that
Time Negates Time.
Very nice addition.
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 01/06/13 05:18 PM.
----please, draw me a sheep----
#208925 - 01/11/13 05:25 AM Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 Jackie
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Louisville, Kentucky
#208934 - 01/11/13 05:48 PM Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939 LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939
Land of the Flat Water
----please, draw me a sheep----
#208935 - 01/11/13 05:55 PM Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 Buffalo Shrdlu
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Vermont
Give him a Hand.
:¬ )
formerly known as etaoin...
#208936 - 01/11/13 05:57 PM Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939 LukeJavan8
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 8,939
Land of the Flat Water
Found them and just thought I'd share.
----please, draw me a sheep----
#208937 - 01/11/13 06:03 PM Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 Buffalo Shrdlu
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Vermont
:¬ )
formerly known as etaoin...
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