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Monday 30 October 2017

Poetry Monday: I'd Love To Have A Blue Pair

The weeks are getting shorter--or so it seems. Here it is, Poetry Monday already! Didn't we just have one?

This week's theme is "feet" as suggested by Diane  (her blog is HERE). Join Diane, Delores (her blog is HERE), Joan (in the comments here), and me, as we waltz, quick-step, two-step, hot polka, run, jog, mince, flounce, or otherwise use our feet--and brains--to cover this topic. Anyone can play and you can write a poem on a different topic if you prefer. The more the merrier, so sharpen your pencils (or your fingers)(no, wait, not your fingers)(maybe your typing skills),  bookmark your favourite "rhymes with" website and write a few lines just for fun.

Feet. FEET. FEEE-E-E-ET. . . Is there anything that can be said about feet that Dr. Seuss has not already said? He did a smashing job of writing about them, didn't he? For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure, here is the first bit of his book on feet, to give you a sense of just how deeply he delves into the subject:

Left foot, left foot
Right foot, right
Feet in the morning
Feet at night.
Left foot,
Left foot,
Left foot,
Right.
Wet foot, dry foot
Low foot, high foot
Front feet, back feet
Red feet, black feet
Feet, feet, feet
How many, many feet you meet.


(You can read all of it HERE, if you like. I would, if I were you. You will find yourself mentally chanting it the next time you have to walk somewhere and you need some rhythm.)

This short week is getting only a short poem from me, because for a short week it sure had a lot packed into it. Crafting and baking for the craft sale, the all-day craft sale itself, root canal, work deadline, trip to Emerg with my mom--yep, that short week covered a lot of ground.

Here's my short poem.

Big Important Question

If feet rhymes with feat,
And meet rhymes with meat,
And beet rhymes with beat . . .
Why doesn't greet rhyme with great?



Blue-footed booby feet. Aren't they a great colour? Who needs blue suede shoes with feet like those?


Here is the whole bird:

(Photo by Benjamint444 on Wikimedia)

What kind of feet would YOU like to meet?

(BFB feet courtesy of Pixabay)



47 comments:

Red said...

You had some fun with a few kinds of "feet"

Elephant's Child said...

Smiling at your poem and the booby's feet. Wincing at your week.
I think I would like obedient feet. Ones which I can rely on to do as directed...

baili said...

Very interesting write up dear Jenny!

I adore "feet" as without them i will not be able to walk towards my destination.
Destination of my dreams ,the joy and peace of my family ,for which "feet" help me to run all the time here and there .

loved the blue feet of adorable lovely bird ,thank you for sharing s i was not aware that someone could have feet of my most fav color

River said...

I like your little rhyming poem.

Anonymous said...

What a terrible week you've had! How is your mom? I hope she's recovering from whatever the emergency was. My week has been the usual, no dramas, tragedies or excitement. I thank heaven for the first two, but a little of the third would be nice.
Feet wouldn't have been my first, second, third, fourth, fifth or any choice for a poem and I couldn't think of anything. However, a couple of nights ago I couldn't get to sleep and was thinking of the theme when the first verse started to form in my head. So here it is.

Feet

"What have we done so wrong
To get disrespectful abuse?
We can't be held responsible
If once again she wears those shoes".

Her two feet when together
Had talked of their distress.
In being crammed into shoes too tight
When she wore a certain dress.

Her toes had been the loudest,
To voice their great concern.
They're quite happy as they are,
Without the painful corns that burn.

Next her heels, the hardy rear-guard,
Who spoke together as sisters.
"If she carries on wearing those shoes,
We'll end up covered in blisters".

Last, but not least were her soles to speak,
Of their discomfort and despair.
"We should be treading on flat ground,
Not somewhere high in the air".

She listened to her aching feet
Agreeing with how they felt.
Deciding to end this problem,
Went shopping and the problem was dealt.

So it came when she next wore the dress,
The shoes she put to one side.
She'd bought herself a new pair,
Preferring comfort to her vanity's pride.

They weren't the latest fashion,
With high stilettos and narrow toes.
But her feet were once again comfy,
And that's important; as she now knows.

I think we've all suffered like this at some point in our lives, mainly the teenage years I remember.

Hope you have a better week.

Joan (Devon)

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

Your poem is excellent as well as the picture of the blue footed bird.

Marie Smith said...

Oh the English language! Great poem!

Love the colour of those feet!

You had a busy week for sure. Hope this one isn't as hectic.

Joanne Noragon said...

Beautiful bird, weird feet.

Steve Reed said...

Oh, yikes. A root canal AND a trip to Emergency? What a week! It's impossible not to love a blue-footed booby, and a good Dr. Seuss rhyme is always welcome.

only slightly confused said...

I have no idea why greet doesn't rhyme with great...one of those mysteries of the English language I guess...

Chicken said...

That is excellent. Well done. Dr. Seuss has nothing on you:-)

jenny_o said...

I love this poem/book by Dr. Seuss. Really. So it WAS fun :)

jenny_o said...

There's a lot to be said for reliability, especially when it comes to our bodies. I hope yours aren't being too obstreperous at the moment.

jenny_o said...

I love how you describe your destination, and how your feet have an important role in getting there!

Doesn't that bird have amazing feet?

jenny_o said...

It was all I could squeeze out of the poem corner of my brain, River :)

jenny_o said...

Thanks, Joan; my mom is fine. It was a precautionary visit to make sure a weak spell was nothing more than that.

I love your poem. It has been many years since I wore uncomfortable shoes but the pain is hard to forget! Your verses describe it well. We take our feet for granted when we are young.

jenny_o said...

Thanks for reading, Arleen. That booby has amazing feet, doesn't it?

jenny_o said...

Thanks, Marie; I'm not planning any hectic-ness this week, thank goodness. The unplanned stuff is less of a sure thing :)

The English language isn't too bad if it's what a person grows up with, but it must be hard for others learning it.

jenny_o said...

I bet he can paddle up a storm, though :)

jenny_o said...

It was a week, all right. Not one I want to repeat soon.

Glad to have a Dr. Seuss appreciator in the room :)

jenny_o said...

I think it's among that category of "what the . . .??" known as "exceptions" ha ha

jenny_o said...

I'd rather have written Dr. Seuss's poem, but I didn't/couldn't/wasn't quick enough :)

Diane Stringam Tolley said...

I don't care how many I meet as long as there are "many, many"! :)
I loved this! (And why indeed doesn't greet rhyme with great?! Who do we talk to . . .?)

Janie Junebug said...

My feet are cold. I'd like to meet some warm feet to keep me cozy in bed.

Love,
Janie

dinthebeast said...

From Douglas Adams' lecture "Parrots, the Universe, and Everything":

"Now you can actually see another example of this if you go to Galapagos, there is a type of animal, there is a bird on the Galapagos Islands called the Blue-footed Booby. And the Blue-footed Booby is so called—I believe—for two reasons: one of which has to be with the colour of his feet, (laughter) and the other has to do with this piece of behaviour I’m about to describe. Because, apparently you can walk up to a Blue-footed Booby—it will be sitting there on the beach or on a branch—and you can walk up and you can sort of pick him up. (Laughter.) And what the Booby will be thinking is that once you finish with him you’ll put him back. (Laughter.) And if you haven’t lived through generation after generation of people trying to eat you, it’s very easy to come to that conclusion. (Laughter.)"

It's a lovely talk recorded about a month before he died that has some of his best stories in it,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZG8HBuDjgc

I wish both of my feet could do the things I ask them to, but the left one doesn't really move very much...

-Doug in Oakland

Martha said...

HAHAHA! I had a good laugh with this post. Love those blue feet on that bird :)

And I loooooove Dr. Seuss. I have many of his books and I am not willing to give them up even though my kids are all grown up. I use to read these stories to them when the were little and we had so much fun with that.

Jimmy said...

Those blue feet are wild looking, Dr. Seuss would give you a thumbs up on your poem and also for using his to introduce yours, nice job.

jenny_o said...

If you ever find out, let me know and I'll go with you to talk to them . . .

jenny_o said...

Until you do, two words: fuzzy socks. And they don't hog the bed.

jenny_o said...

I'm making my way through the video right now. Thanks for that, Doug.

Does your doctor think you will regain any further function in your left foot? I watched my dad struggle with not being able to use his left side, too, and I try to be appreciative every day for the abilities I have.

jenny_o said...

Dr. Seuss had a wonderful sense of rhythm, didn't he? He left behind a lot of unforgettable poetry.

jenny_o said...

Thanks for your encouragement, Jimmy :)

dinthebeast said...

They told me after my MRI that I probably wouldn't, and as much work as I've done on it, they've been right about every single thing they told me right then.

-Doug in Oakland

jenny_o said...

After my father's stroke I read a fascinating book by Normal Doidge called "The Brain That Changes Itself" about neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to compensate for lost abilities due to neurological disorders such as stroke. Have you come across it? I always wondered how the patients in the studies did in the long term.

Geo. said...

O_Jenny, I'm sure if feat rhymed with great then feet would rhyme with fate, and that would be overthinking enough to leave us weak for a week. Most enjoyable post!

Anonymous said...

Although I have bought my grand-daughter a few Dr. Zeuss books I am not that familiar with them and didn't realise that the poem you wrote wasn't his. So well done you for pulling the wool over my eyes, I couldn't tell the difference.

Joan (Devon)

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Feet

We measured our mountains in feet
Edging up them one foot at a time
Until finally, finally
We reached their summits
Where sometimes
We found piles of stones or cairns
That added more feet
To those mountain tops.
But now it seems
We are required
To measure our hills in metres
And to drink our beer in litres
- One of the features
Of the modern world.

Jono said...

Are the Booby's feet blue because they are cold? Inquiring minds want to know.
A fine bit o' rhyming, lassie!

jenny_o said...

Thank you, Geo.; I think you've just written the second verse of that poem :)

jenny_o said...

That is a lovely compliment--thank you, Joan.

jenny_o said...

Do the hills seem higher? Does the beer seem more potent? When we switched to the metric system in Canada, I went from knowing the Imperial system well to not knowing how to measure anything.

Great poem, YP.

jenny_o said...

No, it's a fashion statement. I think :)

Thanks, Jono. I am worrying that I didn't make it clear enough that the first poem is that of Dr. Seuss and only the four line bit at the bottom is mine. You caught that, right?

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I can only think in imperial measurements but I notice that our children are fine with the metric nonsense.

dinthebeast said...

No I haven't. Thank you, I'll check it out.
It has gotten better. As long as I keep working at it, it does get better. As far as neuroplasticity goes, there's the actual bits of function that grow, such as the movement of my left toes when I'm lifting my barbell with my right hand, and then there's the re-arranging of the functions I already have to enable better function, like the way my left hip lifts up when I walk because my knee doesn't lift my foot very well.
I seem to be having better luck with the latter than the former.
And I was also curious about how the other patients I was in rehab with did. I saw a few of them about a year after I got out, and they all seemed to be doing about as well as I was, with respect to their original conditions. We met when we all had an appointment to see the PA at the rehab hospital to check on how our recovery was going. When we first saw one another, the little Asian woman named Marie asked "How many times have you fallen down?" We all said one, except Peter, who hadn't fallen down at all.

-Doug in Oakland

jenny_o said...

The brain, and the body in general, is so very resilient. It sounds like you work hard to make the most of that. Good luck; I hope you have continued improvements.

Diane Henders said...

Love your poem, and the blue feet! (But I'm glad mine aren't that chilly colour - warm and pink is a much happier colour for my feet.) ;-)

jenny_o said...

I never even thought about blue feet meaning cold feet for people! You're absolutely right.