[Jacket art caption from vol. 1 of Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Norton, 2019.] Jacket art: detail of Tsadi Pe from The Creation, ca. 1978-1980, a series of ten tapestries designed by Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992). The tapestries, executed at the Georges Goldstein Atelier, Jerusalem, were donated by Ardon to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, where they are permanently exhibited. (c) Mordecai Ardon / Courtesy Ardon Estate / Photo: Courtesy Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem. Jacket design: Chin-Lee Yai.
What you say doesn’t have to be true. / It only has to be imaginable.
In my pronunciation, from boyhood until fairly recently, the planet Uranus rhymed with “your anus.” Now I force myself to say it somewhat like “YOUR-uh-nuss.” Still have a tendency, though, to burst out in a nervous giggle whenever I see the word.
The above is backstory to a pronouncement that David Kirby’s “The Man Who Discovered Uranus” (Poetry, July-August 2026) is one of the funniest poems I’ve read. It’s overtly amorphous, discursive, formally more prose-like than verse-like — but in a who cares? way — perhaps the crystalline essence of deadpan being what elevates it to wherever the sphere of poesis lies.
Here’s a taste:
William Herschel. Good guy with a telescope, not so much with the lingo: he called his discovery “Georgium Sidus” or “Georgian Star” after George III, but the name didn’t stick. In France, where the name of the British king was to be avoided at all costs, the planet was known as “Herschel” until the name “Uranus” was universally adopted. […]
[…] lugubrious is a wonderful word, isn’t it, because it sounds exactly like someone crying but is also funny, like Buick or waffle. Notice I’m talking about single words here, not phrases like “Christian bachelorette party.” […]
[…] Maybe we should just shut up. To ban the spread of Covid, during the pandemic there were signs on Japanese roller coasters asking riders to “please scream inside your heart.” […]
[…] I mean, you’d feel stupid if you were outside with your friends all sweaty and wrung-out after a hootenanny and someone pointed up to the sky and said, “Look, Herschel.”
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.
EthicalDative 
‘The Man Who Discovered Uranus’ by David Kirby
[Jacket art caption from vol. 1 of Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Norton, 2019.] Jacket art: detail of Tsadi Pe from The Creation, ca. 1978-1980, a series of ten tapestries designed by Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992). The tapestries, executed at the Georges Goldstein Atelier, Jerusalem, were donated by Ardon to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, where they are permanently exhibited. (c) Mordecai Ardon / Courtesy Ardon Estate / Photo: Courtesy Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem. Jacket design: Chin-Lee Yai.
In my pronunciation, from boyhood until fairly recently, the planet Uranus rhymed with “your anus.” Now I force myself to say it somewhat like “YOUR-uh-nuss.” Still have a tendency, though, to burst out in a nervous giggle whenever I see the word.
The above is backstory to a pronouncement that David Kirby’s “The Man Who Discovered Uranus” (Poetry, July-August 2026) is one of the funniest poems I’ve read. It’s overtly amorphous, discursive, formally more prose-like than verse-like — but in a who cares? way — perhaps the crystalline essence of deadpan being what elevates it to wherever the sphere of poesis lies.
Here’s a taste:
William Herschel. Good guy with a telescope, not so much
with the lingo: he called his discovery “Georgium Sidus”
or “Georgian Star” after George III, but the name didn’t stick.
In France, where the name of the British king was to be avoided
at all costs, the planet was known as “Herschel” until the name
“Uranus” was universally adopted. […]
[…] lugubrious is a wonderful word, isn’t it,
because it sounds exactly like someone crying but is also funny,
like Buick or waffle. Notice I’m talking about single words here,
not phrases like “Christian bachelorette party.” […]
[…] Maybe we should just shut up.
To ban the spread of Covid, during the pandemic
there were signs on Japanese roller coasters asking riders
to “please scream inside your heart.” […]
[…] I mean, you’d feel stupid if you were outside with
your friends all sweaty and wrung-out after a hootenanny
and someone pointed up to the sky and said, “Look, Herschel.”
(c) 2026 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.