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January
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Maryland Author: Ogden Nash Genre: Poetry - Light Verse
“I am a conscientious man, when I throw rocks at seabirds I leave no tern unstoned.” Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (1902 - 1971) Nash was born in Rye, New York and attended and then dropped out of Harvard after one year. He worked on Wall Street and then as a teacher before becoming a copywriter. In 1925, he took a job in the marketing department with Doubleday publishing house.
Throughout his life, Nash loved to rhyme. "I think in terms of rhyme, and have since I was six years old," he stated in a 1958 news interview. Nash published Hard Lines, his first collection of poems, in 1931. The book was a tremendous success allowing Nash to quit his job. He married and had two children. In 1932, Nash devoted himself to verse full-time. Ogden Nash moved to Baltimore in 1934. In the 1950s, Nash focused on writing poems for children, including the collection Girls Are Silly. One of his best known lines is;”If called by a panther / Don’t anther.” With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry. Nash died in 1971 at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Genre: Poetry - Light Verse. This type of poetry attempts to be humorous. The poems are usually brief , can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Limericks are also light poetry.
A partial reading list includes: Everyone But Thee and Me; Girls Are Silly; Verses From 1929 On; Versus; I’m a Stranger Here Myself; Hard Lines. You can read his poems online at: www.best-poems.net/ogden_nash/index.html.
Writers Prompt - Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing light verse using up to 100 words. Because light verse can be short, you may submit up to three poems for this prompt. Pick your own frivolous topics and have fun rhyming and playing with words. Please visit www.mwawritersroundtable.org/fun-with-words.org , to read a sample response from this prompt, if you are unsure of how to write this. Submit your Fun With Words response to www.mwawritersroundtable.org/submit-fun-with-words by the 20th of the month and receive an MWA Fun With Words Submission Certificate. Selected prompts will be published next month.
DOLLARS AND SENSE by Patsy Snyder - Ridgeley, WV
Given the choice of a hospital bed
I think I’d opt for prison instead.
They’re both confining,
and you are forced to wait,
until your body or your morals
recuperate.
With the high rising cost
of hospitalization,
you could pay for a
fabulous super vacation.
It might not be sensible
except to me
but hospitals cost money
prisons are free.
RESPONSIBILITIES by Patsy Snyder - Ridgeley, WV
Children are very nice,
when they don’t belong to you.
You are not obliged to comb their hair
or find that missing shoe.
DON”T GIVE ME MONEY by Patsy Snyder - Ridgeley, WV
Don’t give me money,
I’ll spend it,
Or a good book,
I’ll lend it.
Flowers wilt and
Make me sad.
A thoughtless gift
just makes me mad
I’m hard to please.
I admit it. It’s true.
What is it precisely
I want from you?
I want love and respect,
some romance too.
Help, when in trouble,
kindness when blue.
I don’t want mere tokens,
Things only money can buy.
I want the real thing,
and I’ll tell you why;
things never last,
I can’t be bought honey.
I’m not that kind of girl,
you don’t have that kind of money.
Given the choice of a hospital bed
I think I’d opt for prison instead.
They’re both confining,
and you are forced to wait,
until your body or your morals
recuperate.
With the high rising cost
of hospitalization,
you could pay for a
fabulous super vacation.
It might not be sensible
except to me
but hospitals cost money
prisons are free.
RESPONSIBILITIES by Patsy Snyder - Ridgeley, WV
Children are very nice,
when they don’t belong to you.
You are not obliged to comb their hair
or find that missing shoe.
DON”T GIVE ME MONEY by Patsy Snyder - Ridgeley, WV
Don’t give me money,
I’ll spend it,
Or a good book,
I’ll lend it.
Flowers wilt and
Make me sad.
A thoughtless gift
just makes me mad
I’m hard to please.
I admit it. It’s true.
What is it precisely
I want from you?
I want love and respect,
some romance too.
Help, when in trouble,
kindness when blue.
I don’t want mere tokens,
Things only money can buy.
I want the real thing,
and I’ll tell you why;
things never last,
I can’t be bought honey.
I’m not that kind of girl,
you don’t have that kind of money.
FOCUS ON METER by Nicholas Carrera - Frederick, MD
If in poems of love, you focus on meter,
Then Erato may flee and you'll seldom if ever meet her.
But Ogden Nash found his focus on rhyming,
Even though it meant that sometimes he had to give up completely on timing.
RHYME - by Nicholas Carrera - Frederick, MD
For a verse to be sublime,
It's gotta rhyme.
Oh, you can put in lots of soft sentimentality and high-flown phraseology, but it's still a crime,
If it doesn't rhyme.
So, take your time:
Rhyme.
If in poems of love, you focus on meter,
Then Erato may flee and you'll seldom if ever meet her.
But Ogden Nash found his focus on rhyming,
Even though it meant that sometimes he had to give up completely on timing.
RHYME - by Nicholas Carrera - Frederick, MD
For a verse to be sublime,
It's gotta rhyme.
Oh, you can put in lots of soft sentimentality and high-flown phraseology, but it's still a crime,
If it doesn't rhyme.
So, take your time:
Rhyme.
PATENT PENDING - By Jon Ketzner - Cumberland, MD
"Twas a bad idea from the start,"
Thought Bart as he bled from his heart,
"Toy tycoons won't want any part
Of my new 'Boomeranging Lawn Dart.'"
GREAT PIECES OF ASPIRATION - By Jon Ketzner - Cumberland, MD
The great one behind Bardot is first class
Jennifer Lawrence's can't be surpass
Johansson's is a beauty
J.Lo's is rooty-tooty
These stars each have a perfect rounded career.
AIN'T ENGLISH THE GOODEST? - By Jon Ketzner - Cumberland, MD
If you sanction you allow
If I sanction I disavow
When you're left you're still here
When I've left I disappear
Cleave and you hug to you
Cleave and I split in two
I'd sure like to quit this silly poem
But if I resign I can't go home.
"Twas a bad idea from the start,"
Thought Bart as he bled from his heart,
"Toy tycoons won't want any part
Of my new 'Boomeranging Lawn Dart.'"
GREAT PIECES OF ASPIRATION - By Jon Ketzner - Cumberland, MD
The great one behind Bardot is first class
Jennifer Lawrence's can't be surpass
Johansson's is a beauty
J.Lo's is rooty-tooty
These stars each have a perfect rounded career.
AIN'T ENGLISH THE GOODEST? - By Jon Ketzner - Cumberland, MD
If you sanction you allow
If I sanction I disavow
When you're left you're still here
When I've left I disappear
Cleave and you hug to you
Cleave and I split in two
I'd sure like to quit this silly poem
But if I resign I can't go home.
Quite the epiphany, By Carlo DiSalvo - Hebron, MD
maybe the epitome,
one day time will see
the very end of me.
I know I can write,
of that I'm not contrite.
Though my poetry in sight,
never seems quite right.k here to edit.
maybe the epitome,
one day time will see
the very end of me.
I know I can write,
of that I'm not contrite.
Though my poetry in sight,
never seems quite right.k here to edit.
THE PLURAL OF OX by James Burd Brewster - Pomfret, MD
He learned the plural of Ox was Oxen
So he mused about Boxen and Foxen
When he wrote more than one versen
The teacher died and went home in a hearsen
He learned the plural of Ox was Oxen
So he mused about Boxen and Foxen
When he wrote more than one versen
The teacher died and went home in a hearsen
Karen McIntire - La Plata - Independent
Squirrels
Squirrel One ran blithely up the tree,
Squirrel Two cried out – I will catch thee!
So up they ran,
tails whipping about,
on branches getting ever thinner.
Squirrel One miscued and plunged screaming down
While Squirrel Two yelled – I am the winner!
Squirrels
Squirrel One ran blithely up the tree,
Squirrel Two cried out – I will catch thee!
So up they ran,
tails whipping about,
on branches getting ever thinner.
Squirrel One miscued and plunged screaming down
While Squirrel Two yelled – I am the winner!
Katie Brewster - Pomfret - Independent
A LADY OF BOOKS
There once was a lady of books
She looked and she looked and she looked.
But she couldn't find any good reads,
None at all to meet her needs.
So a bookless vacation she took.
ELUSIVE IRISH SPRING
Slip-sliding
Out of my fingers
All the way
Past my toes
Swirl-twirling
Under my
Drenched
Sudsy self . . .it g-o-e-s
A LADY OF BOOKS
There once was a lady of books
She looked and she looked and she looked.
But she couldn't find any good reads,
None at all to meet her needs.
So a bookless vacation she took.
ELUSIVE IRISH SPRING
Slip-sliding
Out of my fingers
All the way
Past my toes
Swirl-twirling
Under my
Drenched
Sudsy self . . .it g-o-e-s
achel Brewster - Independent - Pomfret
Confession an admission
Not necessarily
But often of sin
Confession restores broken relationship
Reveals fears and hopes
Frees us from popes
Acknowledges God's Lordship
My Slaveship
My Daughterhood
His Fatherhood
Our Friendship
Most wonderful intimacy
He really sees into me
Knows me completely
True gratitude
an attitude
of love
Polite thank you
normality formality
True gratitude
springs from the heart
Spirit's fruit
grows slowly from the start
not a brute
Polite thank you
is a nice legal eagle
Legalism a club
to beat others with
you it will drub
don't be a sith
Legalism fear's product
don't let it leer
Confession an admission
Not necessarily
But often of sin
Confession restores broken relationship
Reveals fears and hopes
Frees us from popes
Acknowledges God's Lordship
My Slaveship
My Daughterhood
His Fatherhood
Our Friendship
Most wonderful intimacy
He really sees into me
Knows me completely
True gratitude
an attitude
of love
Polite thank you
normality formality
True gratitude
springs from the heart
Spirit's fruit
grows slowly from the start
not a brute
Polite thank you
is a nice legal eagle
Legalism a club
to beat others with
you it will drub
don't be a sith
Legalism fear's product
don't let it leer
Lee Chapman - Crownsville, MD
Pluto—all “dwarf planets”—are not planets,
though every “dwarf star” is a star.
Astronomers aren’t inconsistent
save for when they are.
(Can’t august societies inventing nomenclature
overcome the liabilities of human nature?)
Stephen SONDheim
KNOWS how TO rhyme.
So do I but I’m not able
To accent the correct syl-lāb-le.
Maybe I’m just dense,
but modern physics makes no sense
to my cerebral hemispheres,
not even just a smidgeon.
But quantum logic’s crystal clear
compared to your religion.
Pluto—all “dwarf planets”—are not planets,
though every “dwarf star” is a star.
Astronomers aren’t inconsistent
save for when they are.
(Can’t august societies inventing nomenclature
overcome the liabilities of human nature?)
Stephen SONDheim
KNOWS how TO rhyme.
So do I but I’m not able
To accent the correct syl-lāb-le.
Maybe I’m just dense,
but modern physics makes no sense
to my cerebral hemispheres,
not even just a smidgeon.
But quantum logic’s crystal clear
compared to your religion.
Reggie Greenberg - Westminster - Facebook
Spell check teems with wordplay humor
Changed a tuba to a tumor.
Phone Dictation is even worse.
Translating horrible rumor to a hospital room -ER.
Writing verse to riding in hearse,
in a rage to in a grave.
Instead of talking on my phone,
I’ll stay alive with those at home.
Spell check teems with wordplay humor
Changed a tuba to a tumor.
Phone Dictation is even worse.
Translating horrible rumor to a hospital room -ER.
Writing verse to riding in hearse,
in a rage to in a grave.
Instead of talking on my phone,
I’ll stay alive with those at home.