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Monday 20 March 2017

Two Poems! And One Of Them Is Mine!

Actually, three poems. Technically speaking. But, still, only one of them is mine :)

It's Poetry Monday! Started by Diane at On the Alberta/Montana Border; picked up by Delores at Mumblings. Join in, or just read, or just skip - your choice, as always!

First of all, my inspiration poem, by American writer Gelett Burgess, with the original title of ...

The Purple Cow's Projected Feast/Reflections on a Mythic Beast/Who's Quite Remarkable At Least

... but more commonly known as ...

Purple Cow

I've never seen a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.


Sound familiar?


Now, according to Wikipedia, Mr. Burgess was less than pleased with his poem as time went by. It was widely quoted, often without giving him proper credit; it became his best known work, and he eventually resented it. Whereupon he wrote another poem called ...

Confession: and a Portrait, Too, Upon a Background that I Rue 

Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow" --
I'm sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it!


Now, I've been having a bit of trouble coming up with a poem for today's post. I wrote one in free verse, but it was long and kind of depressing, and I'm saving it for a soggy grey day when the news is bad and we are all about to weep into our soup to start with. A public service, if you will, to help everybody have a good cathartic cry.

In its place, I set about to try to write some rhyming poetry. The only success I've ever had with rhymes in the past has been when lines just pop into my head -- it's like a crack of lightening, only less painful. To sit down on purpose and try to compose something with the proper rhyme and meter is quite difficult. (For me. I'm not sure how hard it is for Diane, because she produces them regularly, as if by magic.)

You may have heard the saying "The perfect is the enemy of the good." In the spirit of "good" rather than "perfect," I offer these mushrooms from my soul. They are not 100%, but they're 75%, and y'all are welcome to leave only 75% of a comment (if you choose to leave any at all).

HUGE apologies to Mr. Burgess.

 My Rhymes Don't Work/I'm Going Berserk

I've never written rhyming verse.
With every line the chore gets worse.
Lines One through Three I can coerce --
It's Line Four that messes everything up.

I wonder how the scribes of yore
Found just the words they needed, for
They never seemed to be word-poor,
Unlike me, who has to Google "rhymes with" in order to come up with anything.

They must have had so many words
Flitting in their heads like birds.
Today we'd call them rhyming nerds
Or maybe rhyming ninjas, and it would definitely be a compliment.

When all is said and done, I say
A poet's work is hard -- but, hey!
I'm not a poet anyway,
Which is painfully, obviously, irrefutably, and undeniably clear.

 ****

Tha-tha-that's all, folks! Hope you have an excellent week :)



Pixabay, how I love your pictures. Although, this is more a lavender cow than a purple cow. But it will do.

39 comments:

  1. Big smiles.
    I can only write blank verse. No rhyming. And I can remember submitting a prose poem to a writing challenge and having one of the judges not recognise it as a poem.
    Sometimes in comments I can produce rhymes - when it happens all of an accident.

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    1. Accidental rhyming, yes! Quite familiar :)

      It's sad that a writing judge would not recognize a blank verse poem when he/she saw it. Well done for entering the challenge.

      Have you thought about joining us on Mondays? (after you recover from the last bit)

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    2. As I said to the judge, it said more about my poem than it did about the quality of her judging. I have considered joining you three. But not yet.

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    3. You may have been too generous with the judge :)

      Take your time, but I would love to read your poetry.

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  2. I'm sorry to sound so basic but that lavender cow looks like he's doing a massive fart and winking about it. And that doesn't rhyme either.

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    1. I hadn't thought about that, but you're right, and now I can't NOT think about it! Bonus points for Joey for writing free verse without intending to :)

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  3. HAHAHA...this was fun to read! Rhyming poetry is pretty tough to do. Have a great week ahead.

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    1. It actually surprised me how much trouble I had with it :)

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  4. Recently Laura had to write a poem for her English class. She was not pleased.

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  5. You had fun with this poem and I enjoyed the toying around with the form.

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    1. Hey, when I can't do it right, I try to at least have a good time :)

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  6. I like your poetic wit! I had no idea that any specific person "wrote" purple cow. It just seems like one of those things that's always been around. A folk verse, if you will.

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    1. Yeah, I was surprised to find that out too. And felt sorry for Mr. Burgess that it was often not attributed to him! It's just so darn catchy.

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  7. Well, I love your poem 100%! Bravo! The rhymes are sure and it has a sense of humor too. You brought a smile to my face this morning.

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  8. That was fun...and I know what you mean about rhyming verse....I find it terrifically hard unless, as you said, lightning strikes. Ouch.

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    1. I don't know, Delores - you seem to come up with more rhymes, statistically speaking, than can be accounted for randomly ...

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  9. The last one made me LOL. It really did.

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    1. LOLs are good, except - wait, did you just LOL at my lack of talent? lol

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  10. LOL here, too and alas, because of that, I must use the loo!

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I think you made a rhyme there, e!

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  11. Oh, my goodness! That is wonderful! One of the most fun things I've read in FOREVER!!! Read it out loud. It's absolutely hilarious!

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    1. I'm so glad you got a laugh, Diane! And thank you :)

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  12. Rhyming is hard, and often not worth it. I used to try and make my song lyrics rhyme, but sort of left that aside as I found I could only really write songs all at once, and no matter how hard I tried to make the lyrics work by themselves, I just wasn't very good at putting music to them afterward. That's how I ended up with a bunch of "poetry" in my journals...

    -Doug in Oakland

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    1. It seems to me that putting words to music just adds another layer of difficulty to a rhyming poem. I wrote a four line "song" with rhyming lyrics when I was about ten years old. That was my one and only inspiration, music-wise :) You're welcome to post more of your poems here on Poetry Monday; anyone can, but especially those who don't have a blog of their own. I'd like to read them if you feel like sharing them.

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  13. Bahahaha!!! (Three exclamation marks.) Brilliant! You gave me my best laugh of the day. :-D

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    1. Oh, good!!! Partial repayment for all the laughs you've given me on your blog!

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  14. Your poem is cute. Poor Mr. Burgess and his purple cow. Martha sent me!

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Thanks for reading, Janie! I feel badly for Mr. Burgess, too :)

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    2. I delight in your poems! I too tend to abandon meter because it gets too ponderously awkward the way I go about it, but that's the fun of poetry. As to Gelett Burgess, I just unshelved my 1907 Bobbs-Merrill 1st edition of "The Heart Line (a drama of San Franciso}" to see what it's going for --ebay has it up for $9.77. Another insult to Burgess, and the fine illustrations of Lester Ralph. I'm keeping it!

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    3. I am in awe of your poems, Geo., and wish I could produce even one like them. I'll keep trying, but it's not boding well that today's effort is the kind of thing that I come up with!

      Old books are treasures. Just to think that they were printed and held in someone's hand that many years ago - it's a bit like old photos to me - fascinating.

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  15. That's not just a poem, my friend, that's a stand up routine. I adore those fourth lines.

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    1. Thank you, Chicken :) I had a lot of fun with this one.

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  16. I enjoyed your quirky poem. Very original and honest too. As the comments above prove, it connects effectively with others. Well done Jenny!

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    1. Thanks, YP - I was quite surprised how well it was received, for a piece of fluff :)

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  17. Thanks for the chuckle, I enjoyed your rhyme, and each rather jarring fourth line.

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    1. Ha ha! Nicely done :) Thanks for commenting!

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