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The Poetry of Laughing, Yawning and Singing
- Syracuse University Press
- Chapter
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346 The Poetry of Laughing, Yawning and Singing Whatever I found so funny I’ve forgotten, but I laughed. And laughed. I laughed myself simple. Nobody else was laughing, but a few smiled to see me laugh, then laughed themselves. Soon everyone was laughing just because I laughed.... Some use the word “infectious” to explain this type of rippling effect. That’s much too medical for me. Why not admit it’s more akin to why we yawn when someone near us starts to yawn? Or how a song keeps singing in us even when the song is done? Later we sing or hum it to ourselves, which means it’s never really over. That’s why the way we live with comedy, fatigue, and music leads me straight to poetry. I’m stunned sullen by those who say 347 that poetry is nothing more than wordplay, syntax, sociology and scholarship. I say a poem happens randomly as laughter, yawns or songs, but how or when is always unexplainable and sudden. ...