Donald J. Trump
You make me feel all humph
Draining the swamp means booting career-ies
Not those who don’t kiss your rear-y
I’m kind of doubting the given reasons for our president’s firing of James Comey.
I’m working my way through A Kick in the Head for a second time. Today’s poem: the clerihew.
A clerihew is a biographical poem that pokes fun at a celebrity. The poem consists of two rhyming couplets of unequal length, and the first line is always the subject’s name.
cat
sleeping peacefully
on my chair
danger lurks in blackness
— ticks
I know this is temporary. Tick season will end and I’ll stop rationally (or irrationally) imagining ticks crawling up my leg or walking across the back of my neck all the time.
Until then, because I know that the little black buggers hitch rides on my cat, I won’t sit in my chair while she sleeps across the chair back.
Working my way through A Kick in the Head. Today’s poetic form is the Cinquain. I chose to construct my 5 line poem like this: one word, two words, three words, four words, one word
Snowflakes in the air
Hit the ground and disappear
For gosh sakes, it’s May!
Did they miss the spring memo?
Most unwelcome visitors
Trying not to feel bitter about their presence.
Working my way through the poetic forms in A Kick in the Head. Today, a tanka — syllable count 5-7-5-7-7
Dvije kave, molim
That means, two coffees please
But now I’m not so sure, my friend –
I think you’d rather tea
(Chorus) Jednu kavu, jedan čaj
Sipping drinks ‘neath Croat sky
Two months from now
My friend and I
Have I mentioned I’m excited
To travel ’round the world?
To open up my heart and mind?
New cultures be unfurled!
Will Turkish coffee taste
Like the Kona that I brew?
Will the mountains look like Rockies
When they come into view?
Will I love the beaches
On the Dalmatian Coast?
Will I love the people?
Will I love them most?
(Chorus) Jednu kavu, jedan čaj
Sipping drinks ‘neath Croat sky
Two months from now
How time will fly!
The swirl of my excitement
Leading up to when I’ll roam
Is great, but even better
Will be when I get back home.
(Chorus) Jednu kavu, jedan čaj
Sipping drinks ‘neath Croat sky
The days will pass too fast
Then we’ll have to say good-bye
Jednu kavu, jedan čaj
Sipping drinks ‘neath Croat sky
Preparing for a summer trip to Croatia and Bosnia with a friend.
I’m calling this my ballad for round two of A Kick in the Head, because I can hear it as a song. Not quite a ballad…. but a song.
Off-center fulcrum
Light – passive namby-pamby
Heavy – ballistic
This describes the American political lifestyle.
Paul Janeczko says, “A senryu follows the same pattern as a haiku — three lines of 5-7-5 syllables — but it is about human nature rather than about the natural world around us.”
Golden trumpets sound
Hope! Joy! Renewal of life!
Springtime daffodils
Nothing panicky here — just the joy of spring.
And a haiku —
as I work my way through all the poetic types found in
A Kick in the Head.
Priscilla was the oldest, she died at 82
Guilford died much younger, the uncle I never knew
Warren lived ’til 90, the last surviving son
But when my mother passed away, then there were none
To try to get back to writing poetry, I’m doing a second round with “A Kick in the Head” — a book I picked up at a thrift store that gave examples of 29 different poetic forms.
Today’s poem is a quatrain.
Pry my fingers open, break them if You must
I’m tired of clutching junk that will deteriorate and rust
Place in my hands the things that last although I am but dust
Daily prompt: control
To try to get back to writing some poems, I’m going a second round with “A Kick in the Head” — a book I picked up at a thrift store that gave examples of 29 different poetic forms. Today’s poem is the Tercet.
“Unable to strengthen justice, they have justified might”
True. ’tis what they do, but is it right?
Two things:
A longer quote from Pensée #298 says — “Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognized and is not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice, because might has gainsaid justice, and has been declared that it is she herself who is just. And thus, being unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.”
(gainsay definition — deny or contradict)
I roll these thoughts around in my head — justice and might — because we have a president who has promised to “make America great again.” Is that accomplished through justice or might?
2. To try to get back to writing some poems, I’m going a second round with “A Kick in the Head” — a book I picked up at a thrift store that gave examples of 29 different poetic forms.
Heads bowed in prayer
Listening to death, life, earth
Snowdrops whisper hope
Spring is a time for all things new —
So, Stephen, I’ll try to write a poem or two.
Bits of Poems 