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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday Poetry XXXIV: POEMHUNTER

I'm stealing (or steeling--either works here, I think) a minute or two away from my inlaws to post up some poetry.  Unfortunately, all my typical resources are packed in an ABF truck waiting to be picked up tomorrow.  That considered, I thought I'd try online what I've been doing recently with textbooks--that is choose a basic categorization of poetry and select to share a few that I'm not familiar with.  My category?  "Poem."  I typed it into Google.

Here's the website that pops up first:  http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/

I'm familiar enough with Poemhunter, as they often provide texts that I can copy and paste rather than me having to plink out the whole poem by hand (though, I've found, the latter is sometimes more reliable for accuracy).  What I didn't know about them, as I've never casually surfed its content, is that it also publishes user-submitted poetry.  Here's the first one available--top of the list:


An Ode to Dr Hitesh Sheth
Sidi J. Mahtrow
Once came into view
A man of tallents, not a few
For he wrote as others might
That human experiece is a given right
A right to see the world in a different way
Not as one would like it to be or to endless stay
For Dr Hitesh Sheth (no period after the Dr) as he chooses
So as not to be confused with those blue noses
That study the lint in their navel
Before exclaming, it’s a dark hole of which I alone can marvel.
For Dr Sheth has been there before
And knows Medical facts (and more) 
Which he places into rhyme in an easy way
As if to say, 
“Diogenes and I strive to teach
On the tree of life, the low hanging fruit is in easy reach.”

s 

May I just say in brief comment: "sic".

From there and on to their list--top 25/500--of "top" poems (which I guess means these are the poems most searched from their extensive database), here are two poems with which I'm unfamiliar:

On the Ning Nang Nong
Spike Milligan
On the Ning Nang Nong 
Where the Cows go Bong! 
and the monkeys all say BOO! 
There's a Nong Nang Ning 
Where the trees go Ping! 
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo. 
On the Nong Ning Nang 
All the mice go Clang 
And you just can't catch 'em when they do! 
So its Ning Nang Nong 
Cows go Bong! 
Nong Nang Ning 
Trees go ping 
Nong Ning Nang 
The mice go Clang 
What a noisy place to belong 
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!! 

Warning
Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.


2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed "Warning" quite a bit. The second one would have been better out loud, I think. I'm trying to figure out if I would have enjoyed "Ode" without the distracting mistakes. Not sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I don't know anything about the 2nd and 3rd poets, but at least they know how to write/type. The first.... I don't know if even total "correctness" would have saved it.

    ReplyDelete

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