Category: contributors

Tulip Mania

NERVE, you’ve gotta keep it,
HEADY times for savvy investor,
TULIP bulbs booming.
STRAP in, no way to lose..

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania, which is where the image and quote below are from:

A tulip bulb is supposed to have traded for all the above combined during the mania

Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history. In many ways, the tulip mania was more of a then-unknown socio-economic phenomenon than a significant economic crisis. It had no critical influence on the prosperity of the Dutch Republic, which was one of the world’s leading economic and financial powers in the 17th century, with the highest per capita income in the world from about 1600 to about 1720. The term “tulip mania” is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values.

A Blow

WOUND came as blow to the shoulder, an alien momentum; he
SWORE, was spun off path into jungle’s thicket. Stumble becomes
ASSET. More shots ring out, he now hidden from view. He looks up:
MANGO, red, lush, hanging from branch above. Then sees blood blossom on his shirt.

Lamech

MAN GOes on his way to
WOUND and scrape and steal;
SWORE to rise above himself,
AS SET beneath the heel.

AS SET down deep within his bones, the
MAN GOes on his way to
WOUND and scrape and steal and kill; he
SWORE he’d grace no slights.

See more at Notes by Steven.

Cloth Trade

CLOTH merchant sets up in the marketplace,
PLUCKs brocades, songkets, chenilles from wrappings.
WALTZ of barter, point, counter-point above stitch and counter-stitch.
BETEL chewers watch, mull mystery: woven treasures having come a thousand leagues.