It’s Anyone’s Call (an acrostic)
Ideographic inquiries entangle academicians
Tracasseries hound the theorists while
Sequacious arguments ensue and multiply
Algolagnic pseudo-logical debate titillates while
Nomothetic investigations misfire attracting
Yabbering masses in hallowed halls spouting
Oscillations of popular opinion each
Notion encrusting the stance of
Estimable scholars cordoned off in
Sterile silos of knowledge, still no
Capacious auditoriums in the mind to signal creative,
Aberrant thought processes, instead they form only
Labyrinthine ruts where we the uninitiated cry:
Let sleeping dogs lie!
For the dVerse Poetics Prompt on idioms: http://dversepoets.com/2011/11/12/poetics-what-did-you-call-me/. I have used two idioms and lampoon scientific debate, a dialogue carried out in terms as antipodal to idioms as may be imagined. Thanks Brian this was fun!
Chromapoetica 
ha sterile towers of knowledge….there are some dogs i think we should let lie…as opposed to expending energy getting answers that prove what any way…
Precisely, thanks for the prompt!
“Sequacious arguments ensue and multiply” sounds like congress in session, and well…so does soooo much of this like “Algolagnic pseudo-logical debate titillate while” and “Yabbering masses in hallowed halls spouting” that’s the backdoor political I’ll vote for this if you vote for that stuff
LOL
Nice parallel with politics, thanks!
Ah yes, now you have said it all. Nice write.
A mouthful, to be sure :).
Yep that’s what it was all about living with someone who earned our bread in the halls of academia, and he never really wanted to play. Didn’t care much about any of it. Said, oh, just technical garbage…I believe my oldest son, though not a professor has picked up the cry; however, I’m not sure anyone on the airplanes he must travel on really cares. I loved the acrostic and especially smiled at “Estimable scholars cordoned off in
Sterile silos of knowledge, … giant egos captured in tiny capsules…ha!
Can’t believe you had grandparent in the Panhandle. They’re probably my age. Were they in Amarillo?
My grandparents Jack Graham and Louetta Jo Potts were married in 1945 in Abernathy but lived somewhere further north. By the time I was born they lived in Tulsa but my grandfather’s parents were still in Texas. We used to visit my great-grandparents in Texas when I was very young. My great-great grandparents lived in Hill County, TX.
Glad you got a kick out of my poking scientific academia with a stick :).
It sounds it would be like a very noisy open peer review session. A lot of back and forth and not going anywhere.
Pseudo-logical debates — Trying to follow what’s happening is truly like being stuck in a maze, that goes on for hours reaching no conclusion, and only confuse further. They are not illogical, they are irrefutably logical but they just don’t go anywhere after that.
Ha, yes exactly, might as well spin in circles. Thanks for the read!
at dawn i stood on semaphore jetty
waiting in darkness for a slow blue revolution,
encrusted with life and surrounded by restless water
perhaps the wandering debates of minds
are as integral as the rhythm of waves
tides observe the path of the moon
hope is a song of seasons,
the agony of contention between forms
aching, breaking, flower to fruit
soft petals dance before a shy mountain
transformation swells and sweetens
emergence is a facet of mortality?
Thank you for the beautiful poem Janet!
…Estimable scholars cordoned off in
Sterile silos of knowledge.. this is great!
we have these discussions as well and yes..better let those dogs sleep..
Not surprising :), thanks, as always, for stopping in to read!
Ha! Loved this and the acrostic… your creative mind would send them in to a tailspin for sure. =)
Thanks Patricia, it’s why I didn’t go to grad school in Biology :).
Sleeping Dogs lie- I I’ve always loved that idiom. It stands alone in it’s idiomatic meaning, yet it also can be twisted a bit- the word lie.
Fun piece Anna, and I have to say I had to look algolagnic up. I thought I knew the meaning, but I was way off the mark-:)
Twas fun, I love acrostics, even the kinds where the only connection from the acrostic to the lines is the first letter, but the best are the ones that connect everything together- great fun, love the write, thanks
Yes, algolagnic is a specific psychiatric term and I snuck it in as a joke, thought it worked better than spelling out sadomasochism. It’s such a tongue twister. I’m glad you saw the humor sometimes it’s good to just go with silly.
Loved how you put your heavy-hitting words at the start of each line Had to look up a couple of words — had to look up Algolagnic, Nomethetic (you are using the psychology specialized definition, I am guessing) and Tracasseries (not in dictionary.com, so that made me feel better) — but definitely love learning new words!
Getting past the materials and even the architecture (nice acrostic — nice forward motion) I loved the message. It’s important to explore the great mysteries — and let’s not every shrink from that — but there is also the trap is over-examination or going past the boundaries when not equipped to do so. Very well done!
The heavy hitting words at the start of the lines are to put the reader into the experience of reading scientific research paper abstracts. They’re written in code and often I have to read three or four in a particular area to really get a hold of what I’m looking for and what is irrelevant. As I got deeper in my own research it became clear there’s so much we don’t understand at all. That runs anathema to the type of ego-driven confidence most researchers need to display to get funding or promotions. Thanks for the feedback!
Late to the party but this weekend has been abnormally full for an old recluse. This is fun, Anna, Those who build and constantly remodel the ivory towers are so isolated, yet so sure of themselves, and I often think, miss the obvious by viewing everything through a lens of self-satisfaction. You twisted their noses nicely here.
Thanks Joy, I’m so glad you enjoyed my little silly snit :). I needed a breather from the serious stuff. Thanks for the read!
oh wow…and now I am definitely sorry to be so far behind with my reading.
Thanks Jesse, always appreciate your visits!
Clever and accomplished. Loved it.
Thank you James, nice to see you again.