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Again and Again and Again, For Ever and Anon

Again and again and again. Is that three gains? Who gains? Are we speaking of gain, the physical concept or gain, the economic term? I gather the latter, in the sense that I am gathering it up, like wildflowers on an abandoned lot full of colorful plants but also broken glass and crack vials… Have you ever noticed what a nice word term is and what a mundane meaning it has? It should have a poetic meaning, like its near relative, the bird tern, or the full-of-emotion verb torn (when applied to people - I am so torn: my lover's lover's Mormon mother is coming to town and she doesn't know I'm vegetarian!) [10 Brownie points for identifying the literary allusion…] to return to the question of gaining, does anyone use again and again, and again to refer to weight gain? No, weight gain is never in iambic pentameter; it's too prosaic for that rhythm. Weight gain would be in spondees: FAT! FAT! FAT! FAT! FAT!: one beat per syllable. No, again and again and again has to be something unpleasant but poetic like "again and again and again, I get bitten by an asp." No that doesn't work, one asp bite and you're dead and gone like Cleopatra.

Let's see, again and again, and again, fate tempts me with its slings and arrows… NOW we're getting somewhere but didn't someone else use this line before, um? Isn't there some law again (and again and again)st plagiarism? Oh? The copyright's expired? You say the slings and arrows are in public domain? You mean anyone can write Shakespeare's plays? Hey, I'm a-gonna sit myself down and write Hamlet tomorrow night! Whaddya mean they won't publish it? It's one of the greatest plays of the universe? Oh? Anyone can read it, too, when the copyright is expired. Poohie. OK. Again and again and again fate tempts me with its slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Well in plain talk that means this dude wants to off himself again and again and again. I don't know about Shakespeare's time, but don't they have drugs for that now? Shouldn't Hamlet have gotten some Prozac if he was so depressed he wanted to kill himself after his father died and his mother remarried? Uncomplicated grief involves dysphoria, yes, but not overt suicidality… Plus there's this business of the ghost. It is not (I read it in Psychology Today) uncommon for perfectly healthy individuals to have some experience of the supernatual, especially after a death, but a full-blown hallucination, with, um, both visual and aural elements, a command hallucination no less, telling you to murder a near relation, is a clear indication for aggressive drug therapy. I presented Hamlet's case -- modernized and disguised -- to a psychiatrist friend and he recommended immediate hospitalization, administration of the antipsychotic Risperdal, and Prozac.

Again and again and again wasn't supposed to be clinical, you silly goose! it was poetry! How about: "Again and again and again, she rereads her old writings, convinced that she will never write again." Now, you've got it! A character, a potential plot, emotion, but, well, it's a bit hackneyed, a bit, well, overdone, like a roast which is dried out and hard, no longer deserving of the term caramelized but merely burned. The girl or woman is convinced she can no longer write but what is interesting about her? Why should we care? What is unique about this story? What's the twist? Oh? Really? Well, don't you think that's too clever? Well, ok. But what if it's a prophecy? What if it curses me? What if I never write again after writing the fateful sentence? Yes, I know it's superstitious! Yes I know I am having an argument with an alter ego in print. Yes I know it's probably a symptom of something but at least I know it's not schizophrenia. I'm the one who went around dispelling common misperceptions about mental illness for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill: "Schizophrenia is not a split personality" I intoned to groups of bored eigth graders who had neither read Sybil nor stopped to notice the last homeless mentally ill person they had passed by on their way to the mall. So I can write it safely: The woman who reads and rereads her writings and will never write again is, um, uh, ..., the author of this passage…