[continued from previous message]   
      
   synonyms for a given word in a Thesaurus are all interchangeable.)   
   Other times, his guess is entirely wrong.   
      
   The result is that the foundations of his vocabulary are built upon   
   half-correct guesses; and the more he tries to use the words to present   
   a specific meaning, the greater his misuse of them becomes.  Will had   
   gone through life associating with other functional illiterates (Brother   
   Dave, Stinky George, Vinyl Cat, etc.), whose vocabularies were pieced   
   together in a similar manner.  Since none of them have any idea as to   
   the specific meanings of words, they use them in the broader, general   
   sense -- which usually suffices, since the topics of their conversations   
   are never really very specific anyway ("Interesting." "Excellent poem."   
   "Nice old school poem," "Loves me some Bukowski," etc.).   
      
      
   >>>>>>>>>  with your seconds piled   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Whose seconds, Donkey?  In the opening line they were "the seconds"   
   >>>> connoting universal measurements of time.  Now the seconds belong to   
   >>>> someone else   
   >>>   
   >>> Maybe he was dueling or boxing?   
   >>   
   >> I like the idea of a dueling Donkey -- with his hapless seconds piling   
   >> up on the floor at his feet.   
   > Probably at the sawmill, disguised as workplace accidents.  Will   
   > certainly would have gotten his ears cut off had he been near any   
   > machinery.  He said he just pushed buttons.   
      
   LMAO over that one!   
      
   >>>>>>>>>  there went by a life   
   >>>>   
   >>>> You should be imprisoned for torturing language like that.   
   >>> Good call!   
   >>>>   
   >>>> "a life passed by" is the correct way of expressing this.  However, the   
   >>>> tense would be incorrect.  "Lying there" is present tense, meaning that   
   >>>> your speaker is in the present moment.  If he's thinking about someone   
   >>>> else's life that touched his in the past, he needs to specify this   
   >>>> before switching tenses.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> "remembering a life that passed by"   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>>>>>  untold   
   >>>>>>>>>  unasked   
   >>>>>>>>>  going by   
   >>>>   
   >>>> You've already said that it "went by."  "Going by" is just a needless   
   >>>> repetition.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> It also changes the tense back from past "went" to "present".  Random   
   >>>> switches between tenses are an earmark of a Will Donkey poem.  You need   
   >>>> to learn how to use tenses correctly.   
   >>>   
   >>> He didn't learn then and can't learn now (then, there, here).   
   >>   
   >> The Donkey is capable of learning.  I'm certain of it.  His problem   
   >> isn't so much an inability to learn as it is an inability to admit that   
   >> he's made a mistake.   
   > He shares that flaw with North George Dance.   
      
   Yes, but for different reasons.  The Donkey refuses to admit that he's   
   wrong, because deep down he knows that he is functionally illiterate.   
   Admitting that he's functionally illiterate would destroy the persona of   
   Will Donkey the poet that he has spent his entire lifetime convincing   
   himself of.  To realize that his creative work of 50 years has amounted   
   to nothing more than a literary joke, would be unbearable to him.  He   
   probably would spill his marbles on the floor as a last defense against   
   seeing the truth for what it is.   
      
   George Dance, otoh, cannot admit that he's wrong because he has   
   convinced himself that he is MENSA George, super genius.  George isn't   
   trying to protect this delusion, because unlike his Donkey he fully   
   believes it.  George's ego inflated early on as an emotional protection   
   against his unloving parents.  They thought that Boy George was   
   worthless and should be seen doing chores and not heard.  As a result,   
   George's self-esteem should have been almost nonexistent.  But Boy   
   George subconsciously compensated for these feelings of worthlessness by   
   allowing his ego to inflate to such gargantuan proportions that nothing   
   could ever harm it (or him).   
      
   >>   
   >> What he needs is for someone he trusts to point out his errors to him.   
   >> Since George Dance has promised to edit his poem, one can hope that he   
   >> just might take the time to explain to him the importance of consistency   
   >> in tense.   
   > George Dance only edits spelling and spankings.   
   >   
   >>   
   >> I know that George never has bothered to explain his grammatical   
   >> shortcomings to the Donkey in the past... but one has to hold onto the   
   >> hope that he might.   
   > George Dance is afraid that he might lose one of the last friends he   
   > has, so he doesn't dare correct Dockery.   
      
   I don't think so.  George has said to Cujo that he has little interest   
   in anything at AAPC except for his own poetry.  George couldn't care   
   less about his Donkey or his Donkey's poetry.  He's only here to talk   
   about himself.   
      
      
   >>>>>>>>>  never caused and never traced   
   >>>>>>>>>  the future never ever appears here.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> What are you trying to say here?  That this unidentified person's life   
   >>>> was never caused?  One should think their parents had been the source.   
   >>>> And how is a life traced?  Generally this would mean   
   >>>> recalled/recollected/remembered, but you wouldn't just use "traced" to   
   >>>> signify that.  Your sentence appears to be bemoaning the fact that no   
   >>>> one ever traced their image on a piece of transparent paper.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> And what's with the "never ever"?  People stop saying "never ever" at   
   >>>> the age of 5 or 6.   
   >>>   
   >>> That was Mr. Dockery's mental age at 22 in the 11th grade.  He was doing   
   >>> the best he could with what he had.   
   >>   
   >> Well, Will is to be congratulated.  He's since progressed to the mental   
   >> age of a 10-year old.   
   > What is a 10-year-old capable of learning?  Supposedly logic, but we   
   > don't see that.  Coming into puberty at the age of five hindered Will   
   > Dockery.  (They do things differently in the deep South).   
      
   That varies from 10-year old to 10-year old.  Will is the 10-year old   
   who took the short bus to school.   
      
      
   >>>>>>>>>  If some morning I wake   
   >>>>>>>>>  here for you   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Again, this is torturous prose.  It should be "If I awake some morning."   
   >>>>  In your line, the speaker is pondering the consequences of his waking   
   >>>> up a morning.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> "Here," again, is superfluous -- where else would you be expected to   
   >>>> wake?  "There"?   
   >>>   
   >>> Maybe "on" or "at?"   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> I've got it!  Will woke up lying here at the floor over there!   
   > All things for all people.   
   >>   
   >>>>   
   >>>>>>>>>  trying to find some reason to return   
   >>>>   
   >>>> At this point, your speaker is babbling incoherently.  One doesn't wake   
   >>>> up in the middle of attempting to find a reason for doing something.   
   >>>> One wakes up from sleeping.   
   >>>   
   >>> Maybe he was trying to return something at Walmart without a receipt?   
   >>   
   >> You know, if he had a credit card, he wouldn't have any difficulty   
   >> making returns.  Walmart's always been very good about that sort of   
   >> thing.   
   >>   
   >> Of course to get a credit card, he'd have to get a job...   
   > He could probably get a job at Walmart, checking receipts.   
      
   He'd have to own a clean pair of clothes and bathe regularly.   
      
      
   >>>> And, you have yet to identify who this person being addressed is.   
   >>>   
   >>> Probably the principal, after Mr. Dockery got kicked out of school.   
   >>   
   >> I've been thinking about Will's poem, and I've come to a similar   
   >> conclusion.   
   > We think that the principal also killed himself.   
      
      
   Massacre at Carver High.   
      
      
   >>   
   >> The speaker is lying "shattered" on the floor, with his life having   
   >> passed him by, because he'd just received notice that he would have to   
   >> be repeating his senior year again.   
   > And he heard the voice of "GED" in the sky, telling him that he was   
   > special, that he "don't need no education."   
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)