In Praise of Sitcoms

The sitcoms are entertaining

And the actors are superb

But sitcoms are not theatre

They are satellites to the theatre

And the TV studio is not a stage

Until the actors assemble to perform

And a glass screen watched by an audience

Can not open like a curtain

Although the magic of the remote

Can make us see a photographic curtain

But try to imagine

Interrupting Act II of Hamlet

Just when Ophelia laments how Hamlet

“Took me by the wrist and held me hard”

In order to sell a box of breakfast cereal

Yet we empathize and laugh

And laughter is the jewel of joy

Assuring us that brevity is often brilliant

For the spectator has entered a kingdom

Where brevity is the beginning of wisdom

 

Ted Goodell

January 2017

The Bracelet

 

Around her wrist

An ornament of silver shines

Its loveliness is not illusion

But a fact

Illuminated like a flower

That turns into a spring of flowers

Whose petals now adorn a magic fire

 

What incandescent force compels

This lace of silver to entwine your wrist

To purchase the allure of placement

Where it circles over skin and bone

Before its round configuration

Orbits over all our lonely destinations

 

Ted Goodell

December 30, 2010