“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

• notes about the substance of the poem

• when and how I wrote it

• creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem, “More Babies!” just this week in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of a couple dozen mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

With the poem, the painting, and some branding basics for 4seasonshelf, I then made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Pair of Haikus for our modern times

Earthquake, Solar Eclipse, Apocalypse, oh my!

You just never know what the day will bring...

Today we had a 4.8 earthquake in the region -- New Jersey to be exact. Everyone in the NY metro region felt it, up and down the East Coast.

Nothing was damaged, it seems. Close call?

Do you know where your friends and loved ones are? Everyone seems ok, but are we?

Life goes on. Get back to work?

I mean, it's absurd how much the world has to process on a daily basis. Today an earthquake, on Monday a total solar eclipse will slash darkness across the country. And always lurking in the background is the possibility of a large apocalypse, which is a reality for too many people in too many places around the globe these days.

Altogether the words earthquake, eclipse and apocalypse tickled my funny bone a little, even though the situation’s not really that funny. A haiku is quick, something we can all use to dash off an idea in a pinch, 5-7-5 syllables for three lines, and the last line is supposed to land a little flat or funny. This short ancient poem format is just the thing for a pair of poetic dispatches for today.

Here are a pair I wrote in my notebook then set up in Canva and posted on YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

While it may be wrong to ride a trending wave about a natural disaster, I can assure you that I’m not above it. And I feel it’s right to share an experience with the wider public, and an idea about something big that’s happened, so that we can all share in it.

Turn on sound!

~ Nan

Download Love Poem: “Thoughts Upside Down” by NY Poet NG Swett

People really like this short rhyming poem from Hold Me Tight, my book of love poems

“Thoughts Upside Down” from HOLD ME TIGHT poetry book by New York poet NG Swett. On 4x6 adhesive shipping label printed on a thermal printer.

4YOU! Click image for free DOWNLOAD of png for personal use.

Here is a short video I made of the same poem:

I’ve posted online a few poems from Hold Me Tight. I’ve tried different ones in different ways (e.g., videos, images, audio, etc.). This short vertical video has done the best so far.

As you can see, it types out the poem, and there’s a black and white image behind it of an upside down crystal ball. It shows the minimalist modern aesthetic of the book overall.

Thermal poetry?

I printed the poem above on a thermal printer and I’ll tell you why.

Printing a poem on an adhesive thermal label is an idea I got by two accidents.

One accident was in the original printing of the paperback poetry book. A poem accidentally sucked. So I made a label with a better poem and covered my shame. (And updated and uploaded my files to Ingram Spark and Draft2Digital for the revised hard cover and ebook editions.)

The other accident was printing out a dozen of the same shipping label for an eBay sale. A waste of precious labels, for sure! But printing a dozen poems on purpose and then sticking them up around town might be fun.

When I’ve got some thermal poems in my bag, I keep my eye open for a good spot. What’s a good spot? Visible, public, out of the elements a bit, smooth surface, and possibly used by other sticker people…

Can you see my thermal poem?

In recent years I’ve been selling a few things online, such as eBay, Poshmark and Amazon. I’ve become aware of a huge number of creative, entrepreneurial and community-minded people doing ecommerce, and many of us have thermal printers because of the time, money and paper they save in shipping. The cost of ink these days, am I right?!

People might like to print out a little poem and stick it up somewhere it can be seen. Maybe it will inspire others to write their own poems and paper the world with poetry.

Poetry — the readers, lovers and writers

The angelic people who have taken time out of their busy lives to flip through a few of my short poems have told me that they really like the shortest ones. Haha! But this one titled “Thoughts Upside Down” is one of my shortest though.

Seriously, short poems are easier to share online with the people because they can fit on one visual and in a short period of time.

And what could be simpler than a poem? Especially short rhyming poems, they’re just fun and easy to read.

Poetry is a weird thing

Poetry is a weird thing for most people, and no one really talks about it. You’d have to go to a local poetry jam or writers club to find anyone talking about this sort of thing. In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to be stone cold stunned quiet with nothing to say when called upon to read and comment on a poem or a book of poetry. Although I’ve seen that poetry is enjoying a new popularity which I’m happy to see and even happier to join in on.

So that’s why I like to be on my poetry bullshit right in plain view. It was over a casual lunch at the dining room table one day that I toyed with the title of a new poem in my notebook. I asked my husband to get involved, and “Thoughts Upside Down” is what we came up with. It was a pleasant lunchtime puzzle, and I’m quite pleased with the result.