Anyway, here's the Foreword ...
Foreword
It seemed like a
good idea at the time, writing a little ditty about each of the countries of
the world, post one every day. What could go wrong? (A question whose grim answers
I’ve learned over and over and over again throughout my life.)
And in this case? How
about the fact that there are 190-some countries of the world! Nearly two
hundred puffs of fluff I had to come up with—one per day—on my world-voyage aboard
my good ship Doggerel—the ship
metaphor itself not being all that appropriate for a couple of reasons: (1) I
was doing the pieces in alphabetical order, so that meant I would be sailing,
say, from Australia to Austria and then to Azerbaijan—not the most efficient
itinerary; (2) many countries are landlocked (duh), so sailing there? Not really all that promising. But a fool will persist.
I launched my ship
on March 1, 2017, and off I went, beyond the horizon, trying to find something
informative and/or amusing to say about each of the nations of the world.
Nearly seven
months later, I returned to home port, sails shredded, decks buckling, hold
leaking, barnacles in full mutiny, marine life booing and jeering, the crew all
overboard (they couldn’t stand another second of it—a mass suicide that made
envious all lemmings, who headed off for group therapy), the captain as mad as
Ahab with no one upon whom to wreak vengeance except himself. All in all, a
happy voyage.
Of course, I
learned a few things:
·
There are many countries I’d never head of.
·
There are many countries that are not where I
thought they were.
·
There are many countries whose histories and
geography and economies were entirely, well, foreign to me. (Ignorance is manifestly not bliss!)
I also learned a
few things about myself—and about writing.
·
I couldn’t find rhymes for every country.
·
I found myself writing a lot about animals I am
afraid of. (Wimpy, I know.)
·
I had to try to vary the “poetic” form each
time. So I tried a variety of stanzas, rhymes, rhyme patterns—all of which the
flying fish disdained as they soared by, fluttering their fins with derision.
A suggestion for
those of you about to embark: When I originally posted these ditties on my blog
(Daily Doggerel), I also included maps from WorldAtlas.com. Great maps. Clear
and useful. I suggest, as you read your way through these ditties, you check
out those great maps on the WorldAtlas site. Well worth the Googling time.
I should say, too,
that when I was re-reading all of these, preparing for this publication, I
quickly became aware of any writer’s Old Enemy: Repetition. (And, of course,
Banality.) So I’ve done some light revising here—but I’ve not eliminated any of
the countries, even though the lines I devoted to them are … unworthy.
I’ve also included
here some lines that I originally posted on Facebook to help my friends improve
their rapid scroll-right-by-without-stopping-to-read techniques. These lines
are of two sorts: (1) Desultory Doggerel—low-life silliness; (2) Wolferel—lines
that almost satisfy the requirements for
“poem.” But not quite. Thus, for them a special name I fabricated earlier— wolferel. (I’m expecting that word to
appear soon in the OED.)
Meanwhile, kudos
to those of you who read these as they appeared. Greater love (foolishness?)
hath no man or woman. The only question remains: Along the way, did you lose
respect for me—and yourself? I hope so: It shows that at least one of us is still
sentient!
—September 20,
2017
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