A glance through thickened glass reveals Queer creatures drifting sadly by. Up and down they trail in shoals, As if they're here but don't know why. Ray, my flatmate, thinks they're lost - It seems they crawled from sea to sand - Underwater life they loved but Maybe not so good on land?
images: Dissolve and Flickr
source: aquarium from https://randomwordgenerator.com
Word Generator: Your word today is glue. Me: Urgh, sticky! WG: You don't have to interpret it literally, you know ... Me: Hunh? WG: Could be, say, the glue that holds a top band together. Me: You mean a contract? WG: Philistine! No, I mean the musical telepathy that distinguishes great bands from merely good ones! Me: Oh yeah, I know, that's when the band actually start looking around to see if there's a fifth member playing with them! WG: Not if they're a trio ... Me: Hey, I do the funny stuff! WG: Well, get on with it then!
going solo – fed the ego
lit the halo – lost the mojo
up & down – career a yoyo
ever after – just a sideshow
Couldn’t resist a quick New Year peek at https://randomwordgenerator.com and as always felt duty bound to go with the featured word, which was limited. Ho hum …
Liberty seems boundless now as I begin my song.
It’s only an illusion, though, and doesn’t last for long.
Manacles of rhyme and rhythm cramp my real voice.
I struggle to break free but really haven’t any choice.
This poem has me in its grip – these words, they are not mine.
Escape, I cry, but creep and crawl towards the end of line …
Delighted to find myself free from dumpty-dums and jingling couplets!
image: Britannica
There’s an interesting report in yesterday’s Guardian Review of a new book about word games and literary puzzles which certain authors have used to generate writing. Here’s a link to it – The Penguin Book of Oulipo – and reading this review was food for thought because of my curious preoccupation with ‘found’ words, those that appear whenever I click on https://randomwordgenerator.com
I never let a word go by without trying to use it. Of course the results can be patchy – some words trigger more ideas than others – but I always resist the temptation to skip through for ‘better’ words. Language is a currency which can, all too easily, become devalued.
It’s also a democracy – so here are three recent acrostic poems which I haven’t the heart to turn away from the door. Clerk, Twitch, True. Each little effusion is a poor thing but mine own …
crack open any word like an ancient egg and recover long lost meanings killed by thoughtless custom
triumph was finally within reach as I presented His Majesty with my pièce de résistance - the delicious dish that would introduce my hitherto criminally-ignored culinary genius to le beau monde after way too many years in potwashing obscurity - chacun à son goût, I chortled, just before the sudden bite of a horsefly made me dump my steaming-hot chef-d'oeuvre into the Royal Lap!
tell me what you really think unless you feel empowered by drink
This poem was written by me and my grandson, aged six, who also chose the picture.
did you ever
ride
a beast with scaly skin and teeth so sharp that
goes above the town and breathes
out fire for hours and hours
nobody in sight – hmm – wonder why?
image: DHgate
a surf-riding blogger called dave
wrote a post on the crest of a wave
he was cool he was hip
but his mood took a dip
when he found he’d forgotten to save
image: surfer.com
10 of my recent posts featured Comedy Songs – this hyperlink will take you to the first of them. They seemed to go down well so here’s another amusing ditty – Chas and Dave with a slightly cleaned-up version of their cheerful anthem to an archetypal cockney dad.
The words are printed below. Omitted from the original lyrics, the word ‘cowson’ – a mild term of abuse for one born out of wedlock – and the phrase ‘When the dog’s left a message on the step’ – a gentle enough euphemism, you’d think, but clearly too racy for dear old Auntie Beeb back in the day!
As for the line ‘Sister’s boyfriend put his sister up the club’, well, that suggestive ‘put’ is replaced by a more innocuous ‘take’.
Never mind, plenty left to enjoy! And a timely reminder that once upon a time we Brits could make the world smile – on purpose rather than just by accident …
