Flotsam

(Tweeting as @TSupercargo)

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Flotsam: Floating debris in a river or sea; items that have floated away (but not been deliberately jettisoned) from on board a ship.
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Welcome to another RT round-up of flotsam collected from the Artwiculate twitterstream by @TheSupercargo & transmitted by his dopplefloater.

Quite a number of haiku and other poems today, plus, of course lots of pairings with jetsam.

RT @Squawkingalah Hi Flotsam! How’s Jetsam?

RT @mazpowles We go together like flotsam and jetsam. Which is a concern.

I suppose we all know now that things jettisoned are jetsam while those just float off are flotsam.

RT @19ish Clear blue streams carry leaf & twig, insect & petal, trash & treasure, thru meadow & dingle, flotsam floats to the sea. #artwic

RT @lagadu123 Flotsam is not clingy, and never ever whines. It simply breaks free of the wreckage and sets sail for foreign climes.

And @FrankSiddarta pointed out this:

RT @FrankSiddarta Once flotsam is jettisoned it turns into jetsam

I imagine sailors snatching flotsam from the sea only to fling it back when they realise someone else owns it …though how the law of the sea copes with flotsam that has become jetsam I don’t rightly know. (Wikipedia is no help!)

From @Osmarjardim came my two favourite pieces of concrete poetry (if that’s the right word under the circumstances). Here’s one:

RT @Osmarjardim “???`???“???`???flotsam “???`???“???`flotsam“???`??“???“`???`???“???`flotsam“???`???“???` “???`???“???`???

(It looked better when it came directly from @Osmarjardim – here http://twitter.com/osmarjardim/status/21444110186)

And the following seems to be a genuine use (i.e. not contrived for @artwiculate) from a painter:

RT @MelMcDonaldArt Packing up my studio – amazed by the flotsam and jetsam collected over the last 2 years, the odd things that artists keep ready at hand.

Nice paintings of Cornwall, by the way. Go and have a look: http://www.melaniemcdonald.co.uk/

Flotsam can also be used metaphorically. Here are some more or less serious uses.

RT @KookaKu Seagulls swoop upon ~ a foaming flotsam ocean ~ lost and found kitchen #haiku

RT @MetalRabbit13 Flotsam drifting by/my ship never came to port/kiss that dream goodbye #artwiculate #haiku

RT @nedmw We met on the beach / and surfed and swam / Now our watery love dies / and my heart is flotsam

RT @I2Haiku Flotsam and jetsam / debris of a love now past / floating in the stream #artwiculate #haiku

RT @TiddK Leaves blown down too soon ~ human flotsam in time’s breeze ~ disheveled lives . #haiku #artwiculate

RT @runheidi We are but flotsam on life’s fragile lake. Grief and devastation fill our wake. (An honest slogan for BP) #artwiculate

There were several other politically-tinted tweets today, some relating to environmental issues, others to, well …

RT @dsceiorg Collective nouns: A protection of boundaries; A negotiation of treaties; A flotsam of refugees #artwiculate

And then there are those childhood memories of collecting treasure from the sea and taking it home. I thought @harrarp captured it well.

RT @harrarp Flotsam chrysalis. Once ashore, it instantly turns to either treasure or junk.

This next I thought very evocative … though I’m not sure why.

RT @igor_a ~The mysterious glow from the flotsam of past empires still reaches our eyes~

But for fear this round-up has been too serious for too long, let’s play around to close.

RT @pn8r When the Little Mermaid grew up, she needed therapy. They called her problem “flotsam fetish”.

RT @ariandalen There will be no Mistress Flotsam tweet. Her life’s a wreck, and she’s just trying to stay afloat. #artwiculate

RT @navinsasikumar Professor Flotsam was a poor teacher. I could never get his drift.

RT @ajeanne she’s going to flotsam idea to see if anyone picks it up & pulls it into the boat.

RT @lawyergirl3 so tiresome, forgot to flotsam

Happens to me a lot @lawyergirl3

RT @amanuel187 you flotsam. you lose, sam.

Poor sam!

And to close – I haven’t seen a tweet from @AdeleWard for a long while so I was pleased to scoop this up in the shrimp net.

RT @AdeleWard Boyfriends. I flotsam and jetsam. But some are real keepers. #Artwiculate

And there you have it, my dear Artwiculati. That concludes @TheSupercargo’s floating dopleganger’s RT round-up for today.

I’m losing track of who I’ve not retweeted before, but I’m sure this is a first for @igor_a (no @artwiculate profile yet)

And of course the afore mentioned @MelMcDonaldArt. I think also @runheidi and maybe @KookaKu. Greetings!

And welcome back @AdeleWard!

Signing off now and passing back to @TheSupercargo.
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Artwiculate is a game played on Twitter. Visit http://artwiculate.com for more information. The winning tweet and the most popular runners up for today’s word are listed at http://www.artwiculate.com/words/flotsam (And, for addicts, don’t forget Salon ArtWois at http://www.salonartwois.com/ )

If you liked the above you may also like:

1. Misanthropy
2. Countenance #Magritte
3. Confabulate