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Grook

A grook ("gruk" in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem. It was invented by the Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein. The name is short for "GRin & sUK" which means "cry and moan" in Danish. The poems were meant as a spirit-building, yet slightly coded form of passive resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II. The characteristic irony, paradox, and the duality of quantum logic of the poems is the only distinguishing form.

EDIAMATIC
Know it all cold?
Or lank with acedia?
Share and be bold;
Come build Wikipedia.
-- Anon.

ASSY-METRY There's nothing that goads Like no-passing roads With a slowpoke in front And a hot rod in back --- 'Cause you'd never speed It's just that you need To get past that grunt And away from that devil on crack. -- Anon.

DRIVE ON Schadenfreude Grook Flare spoor, white powdery burns: Like funerals without the urns. Mark the passages of lives before eyes And the uttering of inhuman cries. Still we're always glad to see'um, Cause it means we didn't be'em. --Anon.

THE ROAD TO WISDOM? Well, it's plain and simple to express. Err and err and err again, but less and less and less. -- Piet Hein. See http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/h-k.eps.gz