The Snark - Poem (MJ Coffee House)
by drakonis

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Guest profile visits: 762 Member profile visits: 0 Song comments: 68 Tokens: 0 Plays: 62 Last Played: Downloads: 25 Fans of this song: Submitted on: Jun 21, 2008 - 10:51:44 PM Last Updated:

kassia said 154 days ago

YAY SNARKS! You are just too cute! I love this. You did a wonderful job. Perfect amount of accompaniment on the dulcimer. AWESOME sound effects! This is a great little poem, wonderful rhythm and great delivery. Your voice is perfect for this. It totally has that renaissance troubador feel to it - with the dulcimer strumming and emotive recitation. Great job mr. dragon - I like it a lot and it makes me smile BIG!

drakonis said 154 days ago

Yay Kassia! Thank you again for your critiques, friendship, and pushing me up on stage. Glad you got the troubadour feel, that was part of what Dulce and I were attempting, was the alternating voice/strum delivery. Thank you for your impatient patience as I re-worked and re-recorded this over and over. A BIG smile over there definitely creates a BIG smile over here! ttfn, Drakonis (not usually a Snark)

drakonis said 154 days ago

I like a good story And I've always enjoyed telling/reading them, but just to my family... so this was a bit of a stretch to perform in front of a rather extended family. Dragons live in caves for a reason... we assume that only other Dragons would be interested in our poetry. But you are very kind for feeding this story-habit of mine. Perhaps you and I will weave a tale someday... you and Mark did a fabulous job with yours, I loooove that one! Be careful with the growl of the elusive Snark. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 154 days ago
	excellent to have you listen Patrick, I love hearing/watching live playing... and love your guitar-work. Dulce only has 4 strings, I can barely handle those... I'd be totally lost with 2 more! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Mark! I'm glad you got the couple next to you to stop clinking their spoons during the performance, how annoying! Thank you so much for helping out with this, your extensive and thorough listening and critique-write-up really polished this up. Your idea of adding sound effects helped a lot, for example. Glad you set aside your poetaphobia for me... and I look forward to your own upcoming foray into this area soon. I had fun sharing "The Voice" and being melodramatic. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 154 days ago
	you too Hey Bryn, I loved your and Cat's entry as well, that was great fun to listen to, wonderful banter. In fact, your banter was partial incentive for my intro-patter. ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

um... not a children's story probably why you enjoyed it, you snarky co-conspirator you! Too bad my niece/nephew are moving up to Oregon, I used to tell them stories in this style (after my kids got older) and I could sometimes get their jaws to hang open, I loved that. Alannah, thank you for listening, rapt up in the delivery... your singing usually does the same thing to me. :-) Wonder if we should start Drak's Story Corner at MJ, (like the MJ Coffee house, but dedicated to story-telling, I have a few to kick start it with... hmmm.) ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Dragonsong is NOT for humans! Feter, thank you as always for your infectious support and friendship. And thank YOU for sharing your own beautiful creations and collaborations here. Yes, I'm heading off in my own direction with this, and in many ways, it is very "me". Glad you like it! But, since I have had no training at all in singing, I will probably stay with spoken delivery. I am not an "old dog" yet, but I have many other "tricks" to learn instead. ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Good morning So glad to give you a fun poem to wake up to, Yeman. It took many takes and a couple start-over-from-scratch sessions, but I'm happy with this version, and glad you like it and that you politely overlook my really simplistic dulcimer playing. Now, it is time for me to start rewriting a guitar line in Border Merger so I can collab with you soon :) Thank you for your beautiful compositions and guitar music, Yeman! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

old old picture That picture was taken back when I was young and snarky. I'm much... older now :-) I guess the years of telling bedtime stories and reading Terry Pratchett novels out loud are paying off, heehee. It is good to know you think I have a good speaking style, even with the light touch of fake-British softened-R accent. It is VERY good to have you back at Macjams, Lee, and your Mum too! What fun this is! Love your music and amazing talent! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 154 days ago
	what a compliment Coming from a great performer himself, thank you! Yes, some of those sound effects are more real than you can "imagine" :-) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 154 days ago
	overcoming mic-fright Thank you for the vote of confidence, Dee. It was fun to read that you have actually done this, stood up and recited your own poetry... I'll never get that far, this virtual venue is scary enough for me. I shall likely try another speaking part here at Macjams, though. Thank you for stopping in to listen. ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Noisy customers Sorry about the noisy girls at table 3, Kenta... Mark Holbrook shushed them too. Thank you for listening to my story... I hope it was a good diversion, while you wait for your wife to return. I am sitting here alone this weekend too, waiting for my wife to return from a trip a thousand miles away, I look forward to our soul-mates returning to us soon. Thank you, my friend! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

the ORIGINAL Snark poem Lena, yay! I'm glad you liked it... and I really enjoyed your speaking voice too. Yes, Lewis Carroll (who wrote the "Alice in Wonderland" story) also wrote a lesser-known long poem called "The Hunting of the Snark", which is a silly/strange poem. I wrote my poem after reading his, but I created a whole different story/style... I just used the name. Thank you for coming to listen to my reading! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

the story and the story teller Thanks to YOUUUUUU! You're the one who suggested drawing things out even more, creating the "clause that catch" your attention. I enjoyed walking that thin line between snarky reality and tongue-in-cheek silliness, you know me, I live there between those two places :-) I don't really have many other poems worth reading (or that I can share, ahem.) But there are some little short story prose things I may attempt soon. Dulce and I are having fun together, I need to keep practicing... thank you for the encouragement! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Don't mess with a Snark! You can mess with me, though :-) Thank you for your help and thumbs-up as I finished this up! I appreciate you letting me bug you with previews. The poem was fun to revisit and dress up for public performance... there aren't many that I wrote that are worthwhile (thank you for helping me zoom in on the Snark one, and shoot down the others too, whew... good thing I didn't do the one I originally thought to do!) Yes, this is supposed to scare the children, and its supposed to make adults smirk, in a slightly worried way... wondering if they really don't need to worry about Snarks. You never can tell, with Snarks. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 154 days ago
	I missed my calling I guess I can be a Beatnik in geek's clothing. Thank you for listening, and thanks for the dark chocolate tip in Dulce's case, yum! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Good Silly is what I am... Yes! You picked up on one of the subtexts here... I "give it my all", and in the end, the audience is too busy to notice the cautionary tale. A recognition that this is just silly fluff, and I never take myself too seriously, and don't expect others to either. Thank you very much for listening and enjoying, Victor, your creative musical pieces here are always mind-expanding for me. As for the "Boojum-dilemma", this was definitely a booj-... you-know-what, given the fate of the poor ignorant mercenary. To be honest, if he (and Lewis Carroll) got out more, they'd realize that ALL Snarks are Boojums, and so you should NEVER purposely go hunting a Snark. They are wildly unpredictably imaginary, and therefore extremely dangerous and un-killable. But Lewis Carroll is dead (curiouser and curiouser, no?) so somebody else will have to write the sequel. ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

Mmm Dessert and DragonSauce... Funny, when I was having trouble trying to "sing" on my Toxic Desire piece, Maurice (Moviz) suggested I loosen up a bit with a little bit of alcoholic beverage before singing... and it worked (and was ironic for that song.) So I tried that again for this piece... drank a little DragonSauce (a little goes a long way), and it helped the speaking part. Luckily I had recorded the dulcimer takes before that, because I have to really concentrate to play Dulce well, and my friends always told me never to drink and pluck, so I don't. Thank you again for your suggestions on this, and now we will have to get YOU to perform some of YOUR poetry and singing! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 154 days ago

wonderful cat photo Must be CleoCatra? Thank you for listening to my storytelling, I'm flattered to be compared to real pro vocalists... I remember listening to LPs of "Peter and the Wolf" and Carnival of the Animals as a child (with Ogden Nash poems), and loved those. What is a Snark? Well, it is probably best for you to find a copy of Lewis Carroll's original poem... then determine what a Snark is for yourself. There are Snarks everywhere. Don't go looking for them though, they get really annoyed when bothered. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 153 days ago
	a place for strange tales We all need a strange tale now and then. It has been really fun to hear all the MJ CoffeeHouse entries (like yours!) and trying my own too. Yay Nick! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 152 days ago

whew... Mostly passed the Caroline test... thank you for listening and enjoying, m'lady! Dragons do love a bit of growl-n-prowl... I am glad you told me this didn't have quite the punch for you with the music interspersed, I always love critiques and take notes, especially from a respected teacher of theatre arts. I shall likely recite another story soon here, sans music. As for re-doing this poem without music, I will gladly do so for you... on one condition... you will have to hear it in person (smirk.) ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 152 days ago

heehee... irony Henke, you are very kind to say such things. Most of my poems were written about that age, and most were trite and depressing... this one was intentionally melodramatic-to-be-silly, and was fun to recite and share. I thought the audience was perfect... you are NEVER supposed to clap when somebody reads their old poetry, because it only encourages them to read more. :-) (to be serious though, I actually thought about adding a little clapping at the end, and I decided it would actually have more impact for the reader to be completely ignored. After all, this is a poem about somebody not heeding advice, so now it is the audience ignoring the advice of the poet. Just slipping some subtle irony into your diet.) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 152 days ago
	Snarks alive! Well, I have some good news for you then... if you have already been eaten by a Snark, you are safe from ever being eaten by a Boojum, then... count your blessings. Thank you so much for listening, Jack.,,, yes YOU, "Jack with the deep rich booming voice" Jack. And you can sing too, and write really cool music. Too bad you've been eaten by a Snark. :-) ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 150 days ago

Dulce is not DAD So glad you stopped by! I had a lot of fun weaving different subtle and not-so-subtle layers of humor on this. I was a little worried about offending with the "What the.." F/G tuning issue, but I went ahead and left that in, because my sense of humor is perhaps as wacky as yours. As for the tuning, there are a number of ways to tune them (a few are even correct)... I chose a not-often-used tuning of C-G-C... and so I did intentionally tune the G string down to F in order to legitimize the "F" joke. A more common tuning is just up a note, D-A-D, but I am the Dad, not Dulce. :-) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 150 days ago
	Ah, to delight... Excellent! I am happy to be entertaining... that was what I was hoping to achieve, here. Thank you for being interested enough to DL! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 149 days ago
	Tucson in the Summer Not the best time to be there, but that was the only time I visited. Didn't have time to check out the local cafes, bummer. Sounds like a fun place. Thank you for listening and your kind comments, Bob... perhaps sometime I will get to hear YOU perform live, that would be a treat! ttfn, Drakonis

guitapick said 149 days ago

Tucson in the summer... ...the first year I was there, was HELL. The next year (and years after), it was HEAVEN. All the students and winter residents packed and gone. Almost always a short rain before sunset, which meant the most magnificent colors I've ever seen against the clouds. Then the nights. Dry and cool. Now...the daytime? Build a pagoda and hang out underneath...or the swamp cooler indoors. Always wear a hat. When I next come out to LA to see my friends, I'll try to set up some gigs in the area. That would be a cool way to meet...

	drakonis said 148 days ago
	wow Why, that's wonderful to know, Bob, thank you! I had a lot of fun putting this together, and some friends prodded me to add some finishing touches, which helped a lot. I've always enjoyed weaving a good tale. And I shall go imbibe some more of your wonderful music again! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 144 days ago
	subwoofers hehe, I'm glad that after finally tuning up, I could rattle your fillings (and wall-hangings) with the infamous dragon-growl. Thanks again for setting up a great venue, I had a blast digging things up from the past :-) I also sincerely appreciate you visiting all 50-plus coffee-house songs and commenting, and I really hope *you* had fun with all this too! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 142 days ago

thank you! Well thank you for stopping by on the grand Macjams CoffeeHouse tour... I too am very busy and feeling terrible that I can't get enough time to do the coffee-tasting that you are doing yet. But, I've met a new Macjammer now, and shall reciprocate today by listening and commenting on some of your music as well. It looks from your impressive fave-list that you've been really enjoying the amazing talent here, and I bet I'll enjoy your work too. Thank you for putting up with my "page 2 of the ABC of Dulcimer" method of playing Dulce :-) ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 136 days ago
	Don't encourage him.. Thank you Bill, for your encouragement. I've been thinking about it, and may do something else spoken sometime soon, but I feel that I need something worth saying first... I'll think of something :-) I enjoy all your voices, spoken and sung. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 128 days ago
	speak-singing I can't sing, or speak, so I do a little of both :-) Glad this worked for you. I am thinking of doing another "spoken story" here soon... as my spare time for music has dried up lately... but it will come back, and so will yours! Thank you so much for coming back, and for visiting my piece here. ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 127 days ago
	heehee... Hey Joe, good to have you stop in and listen to my silly poetic romp. It was fun to pretend to be reciting poetry to a completely dis-interested coffee house. Hopefully soon I'll get some time and get something else posted. ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 101 days ago

up close... Hi Enrique, welcome to my little cafe :-) I did spend some time trying to get the sound effects and room ambience just right, and practicing the reading and playing to sound like a real performance. I could never perform live though, I would be far too nervous. I haven't been able to work on music lately... but am starting to get some time back... I need to see what you have been doing lately too! Thank you for enjoying the growls of the Snark! ttfn, Drakonis

	drakonis said 55 days ago
	Sir Richard 'Tis a novel piece, though 'tis luckily not unto the length of a novel. So good to see you come from the Tulgey wood to listen, thank you! I'm off to listen to yours now! ttfn, Drakonis

drakonis said 48 days ago

Heehee Well, if the performance was good, even if you didn't understand it... then I did OK I guess :-) This was a somewhat silly poem I wrote when I was 18... it is slightly inspired by a couple of poems by Lewis Carroll ("Jabberwocky", and "The Hunting of the Snark".) The poetic English is probably very hard to translate... but the main idea is "don't run out and tackle big things without planning or learning more about them first, otherwise the world will chew you up and spit out your bones." :-) Thank you for stopping by and enjoying my attempt at melodrama. ttfn, Drakonis