Photo of forced labor in a Soviet gulag‘In a Soviet Gulag’ and Other Humorous Poems by Evan Mantyk The Society December 13, 2022 Humor, Poetry, Satire 16 Comments . In a Soviet Gulag from an oft repeated joke There was a break in the relentless cold And then the guard stepped out for quite a while. Such changes made the prisoners grow bold: Two yelled their thoughts, another cracked a smile. One wanting to impress the others told Of how he landed there, “I once opposed The fierce Kaganovich.” Then silence rolled Over the room, though one mouth wasn’t closed: “Well I had thought Kaganovich was gold The Party wouldn’t sell, but now I’m here For my support of him. When things unfold You never know which side’s the one to fear.” They laughed except one in the corner which Said morbidly, “I am Kaganovich.” . . Amy Chua Searches for a Piano Teacher from Chua’s memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother The first piano teacher that I found Was so enrapt in blinding self-despair My daughter sat there playing on the ground For the entire hour, while I pulled out hair. The second wore a bowtie, glasses round, But what its gender was remained unknown. It left one day, no notice, not a sound: We showed up ready but the bird had flown. The third loved jazz improv and would expound On how commercialism left one cheated, And how by books and judgments none were bound. The poor guy must have failed when he competed. I don’t have time to make up my own rules; I need clear goals and strong successful tools. . . Inattentive from an actual letter mentioned in from Aubrey Andelin’s Man of Steel and Velvet Dear Columnist, my wife grows inattentive; She’s let herself go four years into marriage. It is as if she lost all her incentive And ambles on like a disheveled carriage. Her clothes were once pristine and quite attractive; She put on makeup almost every day. But like a slob unhealthily inactive, She now wears anything that comes her way. She claims she’s tired and she spews invective, Complaining endlessly about her life Without consideration, irrespective Of all I’ve done for her—my wayward wife. (I write you on behalf of my young family; We have three toddlers and a newborn baby.) . . Evan Mantyk teaches literature and history in New York and is Editor of the Society of Classical Poets. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 16 Responses Martin Rizley December 13, 2022 Evan, I like the wry humor of the first poem. Told with an economy of words, and just enough description to bring the scene to life and set things up for the final punch line. An encouraging reminder in these days when so many self-deifying politicians arrogantly believe they have a right to make up their own rules, impose their own warped vision of reality on all, and exalt themselves as rulers of a “new world order” because they happen to be on “the right side of history.” Your poem points out that in the political realm, things are never as settled as politicians imagine them to be. Neither are they themselves the all-wise demigods they would like to be. They are mere men who may one day find themselves murmuring “morbidly” to themselves in a corner, like Kaganovich. The third poem made me think of the potential we all have for self-deception and blindness to what is right before our eyes. The closing couplet brings to light the egocentricity of the young husband, which is evident to all but himself. He can see all of his wife’s seeming faults but none of the distracting cares that have produced the change– cares that he has played a role in giving her! Reply Cheryl Corey December 13, 2022 I love the bitter irony at the end of your gulag poem. I’d like to see some poems about our own DC gulag. Reply Joseph S. Salemi December 13, 2022 Three really nice sonnets, all touching on the humor of ignorance. In the first, the prisoners are ignorant of the fact that Kaganovich is among them; in the second, the three piano teachers are ignorant of what their task requires; and in the third, the letter-writer is ignorant of the very obvious reasons for the change in his wife. In the third, the use of feminine rhymes ending in -tive is nicely managed. A sequence of feminine endings in a poem (especially if those endings are in polysyllabic words) somehow always adds to the humor. Reply Allegra Silberstein December 13, 2022 All three of your delightful sonnets told insightful stories…thank you! Reply Norma Pain December 13, 2022 I enjoyed all three of these sonnets Evan, especially Inattentive. Thank you. Reply Cynthia Erlandson December 13, 2022 “In a Soviet Gulag” immediately reminded me of Arthur Koestler’s novel “Darkness at Noon”, in which the protagonist, Rubashov, had been a faithful and important member of “the party”, until the party changed and turned on him for supporting the old, traditional wing, so that he was considered to be the traitor, and treated accordingly. Reply g.KayeNaegele December 13, 2022 Enjoyed the ironic humor in all three, well done sonnets. It makes me wonder how people, throughout history,, become victims of the greed and power hungry ego’s of the few over and over again, falling prey to dictatorship, fascism and communism. The descriptions of the piano teachers is humorous, and stirs the imagination, specifically the “bird” in the second stanza. Seems to me, it’s the writer who is invesctive. Humorous and food for thought. Gail Reply Brian Yapko December 13, 2022 Three very impressive sonnets, Evan, each one presented with a wry sense of humor. I especially like “In a Soviet Gulag” because it adeptly tells a story and lands a joke while explaining an entire bankrupt political system. “Inattentive” is also fun as a character study of someone who has raised “oblivious” to an art form.” Reply Margaret Coats December 13, 2022 Nice touches here, Evan, in addition to concepts and humor. “Inattentive” is a double-edged title, referring both to the speaker and to the one spoken of. The piano teacher poem, by the rhyme scheme abab acac adad ee, reflects the student’s failed search for musical resolution, trying out different notes, and finally in frustration banging on the same key to demand attention. The gulag sonnet is the most serious, changing focus from speaker to speaker to speaker, making no moral sense because no recognition of moral authority makes the individuals different from one another. They live equally in an atmosphere of fear and oppression that existed in them even before they had to fear guards in a prison. It’s a condemnation of the morally empty social contract that sets up the gulag. Reply C.B. Anderson December 13, 2022 Until now, I had not heard that “oft repeated joke,” and that’s some pretty grim humor. And even in the succeeding poems, “funny” is not the first thing that comes to mind. “Ironic,” “mordant” and “disturbing” are better fits. Reply Sally Cook December 14, 2022 Dear Evan – I love sonnets, but so often a well-written sonnet is spoiled for me by a thoughtless and conventional subject such as “You love me not – my heart is broken. winter is cruel but spring’s bespoken” – you know the sort of thing. How refreshing it is to see you use a wry, acerbic point of view in these poems. Thanks Reply Joseph S. Salemi December 14, 2022 Sally, its very true — because of its traditional association with romantic love, the sonnet is more prone to sentimentalization and cliche and hackneyed language than most other poetic forms. Evan’s three pieces here don’t suffer from any of those faults. G.G. Belli’s sonnets are like that — the poet uses the form to express all sorts of comic, vulgar, and unpleasant subjects. A small question — look at the photo that Evan has put up, of slave laborers in a Soviet GULAG camp. Does anyone here wonder (as I do) what political crime those two very young girls in the middle of the photo could possibly have committed? Do they look any older than 16? Reply Sally Cook December 14, 2022 Joe, as power corrupts, it corrupts absolutely. Once our masters are through messing with young bodies, I am sure they will turn to misinterpreting what we think and say to suit their purposes. In times of forced labor, people – no matter what their ages – can be made to conform to a whacky so-called “criminal” class. More and more I hear people say they afraid to express less and less. Does it matter what they really mean, or what age they are? The girls you mention in Evan’s photo may only have made an easily misinerpreted joke ! Statistics sre all that matter in such a world. Damian Robin December 14, 2022 Wow, Evan, all three are sharp and biting. You are a cat among the pigeons. Like Kip, I was not aware that the joke displayed in the first poem was common but can see why it would be. We’ve had so much of brutal quick-change tyrant organizations that a bit of humor is needed to create a sane distance and survive them. I like the the couplet of the second sonnet – after the self-opinionated incompetence of the three “teachers” (who can’t teach because they can’t see outside their dogma) your record of the helpful support of tradition is sympathetic and crystal-clear. The third poem’s idea I had come across before but in this telling was so distracted by your distressing description of the wife and mother that the rug you pull from under the man toppled me rather the dim-witted husband. Claps and laughs all round. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant December 15, 2022 Evan, all three of these sonnets are slick, biting delights brimming with wisdom and wit. “In a Soviet Gulag” serves to prove that many a true thing really is said in jest, and the truth behind the wry smile cuts to the quick. I especially like “Inattentive”… what a poignant and painful lesson on overlooking the wonders to focus on the woes. Wonderful! Reply Roy Eugene Peterson December 15, 2022 “In a Soviet Gulag” conjures up images of my studies at the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, Germany, where I had to read and take tests in Russian about everything Russian including the Gulags, poetry and literature. How fitting that one criticized by an inmate is himself sitting in the corner likely for some incomprehensible offense first deemed innocuous in nature. I had to laugh at the “piano teacher” poem, because I had similar questions about my first ones. “Inattentive” reads like a classy “Dear Abby” letter, if anyone remembers her columns. Life does descend eventually to sober us all. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Martin Rizley December 13, 2022 Evan, I like the wry humor of the first poem. Told with an economy of words, and just enough description to bring the scene to life and set things up for the final punch line. An encouraging reminder in these days when so many self-deifying politicians arrogantly believe they have a right to make up their own rules, impose their own warped vision of reality on all, and exalt themselves as rulers of a “new world order” because they happen to be on “the right side of history.” Your poem points out that in the political realm, things are never as settled as politicians imagine them to be. Neither are they themselves the all-wise demigods they would like to be. They are mere men who may one day find themselves murmuring “morbidly” to themselves in a corner, like Kaganovich. The third poem made me think of the potential we all have for self-deception and blindness to what is right before our eyes. The closing couplet brings to light the egocentricity of the young husband, which is evident to all but himself. He can see all of his wife’s seeming faults but none of the distracting cares that have produced the change– cares that he has played a role in giving her! Reply
Cheryl Corey December 13, 2022 I love the bitter irony at the end of your gulag poem. I’d like to see some poems about our own DC gulag. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi December 13, 2022 Three really nice sonnets, all touching on the humor of ignorance. In the first, the prisoners are ignorant of the fact that Kaganovich is among them; in the second, the three piano teachers are ignorant of what their task requires; and in the third, the letter-writer is ignorant of the very obvious reasons for the change in his wife. In the third, the use of feminine rhymes ending in -tive is nicely managed. A sequence of feminine endings in a poem (especially if those endings are in polysyllabic words) somehow always adds to the humor. Reply
Allegra Silberstein December 13, 2022 All three of your delightful sonnets told insightful stories…thank you! Reply
Norma Pain December 13, 2022 I enjoyed all three of these sonnets Evan, especially Inattentive. Thank you. Reply
Cynthia Erlandson December 13, 2022 “In a Soviet Gulag” immediately reminded me of Arthur Koestler’s novel “Darkness at Noon”, in which the protagonist, Rubashov, had been a faithful and important member of “the party”, until the party changed and turned on him for supporting the old, traditional wing, so that he was considered to be the traitor, and treated accordingly. Reply
g.KayeNaegele December 13, 2022 Enjoyed the ironic humor in all three, well done sonnets. It makes me wonder how people, throughout history,, become victims of the greed and power hungry ego’s of the few over and over again, falling prey to dictatorship, fascism and communism. The descriptions of the piano teachers is humorous, and stirs the imagination, specifically the “bird” in the second stanza. Seems to me, it’s the writer who is invesctive. Humorous and food for thought. Gail Reply
Brian Yapko December 13, 2022 Three very impressive sonnets, Evan, each one presented with a wry sense of humor. I especially like “In a Soviet Gulag” because it adeptly tells a story and lands a joke while explaining an entire bankrupt political system. “Inattentive” is also fun as a character study of someone who has raised “oblivious” to an art form.” Reply
Margaret Coats December 13, 2022 Nice touches here, Evan, in addition to concepts and humor. “Inattentive” is a double-edged title, referring both to the speaker and to the one spoken of. The piano teacher poem, by the rhyme scheme abab acac adad ee, reflects the student’s failed search for musical resolution, trying out different notes, and finally in frustration banging on the same key to demand attention. The gulag sonnet is the most serious, changing focus from speaker to speaker to speaker, making no moral sense because no recognition of moral authority makes the individuals different from one another. They live equally in an atmosphere of fear and oppression that existed in them even before they had to fear guards in a prison. It’s a condemnation of the morally empty social contract that sets up the gulag. Reply
C.B. Anderson December 13, 2022 Until now, I had not heard that “oft repeated joke,” and that’s some pretty grim humor. And even in the succeeding poems, “funny” is not the first thing that comes to mind. “Ironic,” “mordant” and “disturbing” are better fits. Reply
Sally Cook December 14, 2022 Dear Evan – I love sonnets, but so often a well-written sonnet is spoiled for me by a thoughtless and conventional subject such as “You love me not – my heart is broken. winter is cruel but spring’s bespoken” – you know the sort of thing. How refreshing it is to see you use a wry, acerbic point of view in these poems. Thanks Reply
Joseph S. Salemi December 14, 2022 Sally, its very true — because of its traditional association with romantic love, the sonnet is more prone to sentimentalization and cliche and hackneyed language than most other poetic forms. Evan’s three pieces here don’t suffer from any of those faults. G.G. Belli’s sonnets are like that — the poet uses the form to express all sorts of comic, vulgar, and unpleasant subjects. A small question — look at the photo that Evan has put up, of slave laborers in a Soviet GULAG camp. Does anyone here wonder (as I do) what political crime those two very young girls in the middle of the photo could possibly have committed? Do they look any older than 16? Reply
Sally Cook December 14, 2022 Joe, as power corrupts, it corrupts absolutely. Once our masters are through messing with young bodies, I am sure they will turn to misinterpreting what we think and say to suit their purposes. In times of forced labor, people – no matter what their ages – can be made to conform to a whacky so-called “criminal” class. More and more I hear people say they afraid to express less and less. Does it matter what they really mean, or what age they are? The girls you mention in Evan’s photo may only have made an easily misinerpreted joke ! Statistics sre all that matter in such a world.
Damian Robin December 14, 2022 Wow, Evan, all three are sharp and biting. You are a cat among the pigeons. Like Kip, I was not aware that the joke displayed in the first poem was common but can see why it would be. We’ve had so much of brutal quick-change tyrant organizations that a bit of humor is needed to create a sane distance and survive them. I like the the couplet of the second sonnet – after the self-opinionated incompetence of the three “teachers” (who can’t teach because they can’t see outside their dogma) your record of the helpful support of tradition is sympathetic and crystal-clear. The third poem’s idea I had come across before but in this telling was so distracted by your distressing description of the wife and mother that the rug you pull from under the man toppled me rather the dim-witted husband. Claps and laughs all round. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant December 15, 2022 Evan, all three of these sonnets are slick, biting delights brimming with wisdom and wit. “In a Soviet Gulag” serves to prove that many a true thing really is said in jest, and the truth behind the wry smile cuts to the quick. I especially like “Inattentive”… what a poignant and painful lesson on overlooking the wonders to focus on the woes. Wonderful! Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson December 15, 2022 “In a Soviet Gulag” conjures up images of my studies at the U.S. Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, Germany, where I had to read and take tests in Russian about everything Russian including the Gulags, poetry and literature. How fitting that one criticized by an inmate is himself sitting in the corner likely for some incomprehensible offense first deemed innocuous in nature. I had to laugh at the “piano teacher” poem, because I had similar questions about my first ones. “Inattentive” reads like a classy “Dear Abby” letter, if anyone remembers her columns. Life does descend eventually to sober us all. Reply