06 May 2006

Poetry Challenge

I am SO in the mood for a poetry challenge.

I only meant to put it off for a little while and now see that its been three whole months. There are other things I should be doing today, but PLEASE play - this is my fun.

How to play:

All I need, please, are three completely disparate words, e.g.: milk, conga, bogey. Anything. Just leave them in the comments.

My job then is to come up with a lymeric/poem/rhyming thing of sorts that uses all three words and makes then make sense together. Oh, and I have to do it as quickly as possible, ideally inside ten minutes of noticing your comment.

Anyone who leaves three words is welcome to play along with anyone elses three words and post their poetry here, on on their own blog - just say, so we can all come and see.

OK?

58 comments:

Doris said...

aquarium

Egyptologist

hairbrush


and your time starts .......

Cheryl said...

Some say the sphinx was Leo
That he faced that rising sign
And that, 10,000 years ago
(Before the deserts came, you know)
His feet were wet from rivers flow
But not by man’s design.

An Egyptologist would scorn
The very postulation
That Leo-sphinx was river worn
Long after he was built and born
And long before the sands had torn
The great Egyptian nation

In fact he’d think it rather rum
That hid beneath the paws
The hidden chambers could become
A soggy old aquarium
Simply for the want of some
Impermeable doors

And Doris has me scuppered
For a hairbrush doesn’t fit
But at least I did my poem
So, dear Doris, this is it.

Cheryl said...

That should be deep beneath the paws. Two 'hids' - tut. Thats what I get for keeping inside ten minutes.

Wanna play again!

Wulfweard The White said...

Nutmeg

Camel

Horntoad

Doris said...

Ha-ha That is very good. You had me going as I read, quite spellbound but seems you got foxed by the hairbrush in a box! (Or maybe not and the box just rhymed just now)

3 more word then.....

I am being a real minx now....


intelligent

moral

chicken

:-D

Cheryl said...

I am guessing you mean the horny toad, Wulfie, whihc is a lizard. Ok time starts now.....

Cheryl said...

Nutmeg, camel, horny toad

I had a little nut tree and nothing would it bear
Except a single nutmeg, but today it wasn’t there.
I understand a horny toad climbed up my little tree
And managed (though I know not how)
To steal my nutmeg from the bough
And subsequently flee.

I had a little nut tree, a barren, sad display
But for the single nutmeg, which the lizard stole away.
And now, alas, its gone for good
(I’d fed it well on camel poo
And done the best that I could do)
But now its simply wood

Cheryl said...

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Let's not involve the horny toad
though he's intelligent.
This is no lofty moral tale
High principles will not prevail
For whether called or whether sent,
I think the chicken simply went.

Doris said...

very good on both counts.... amazingly, I didn't think of a re-work of "I had a little nut tree".

This was all I could manage:

There was once a camel called Nutmeg
Who limped along with a wooden peg
As she hobbled down the road
Clippity clopped on a Horntoad
Who cried out "Oy, gerroff me leg!"

Cheryl said...

:)
Yay Hurray!

Doris said...

Another three words?

whiskey


sellotape


tennis

Cheryl said...

A whisky pickled tennis coach
Was on the green today
He'd sellotaped his raquet
In a most alarming way,
But once he'd fallen over
He got up and went away.

Doris said...

ROFL Excellent :-D

And in less than 4 minutes!!!

Sall* said...

Hi Cheryl

I've been just following blogs and I got to yours. Oh what fun!

My three words
if you've got the time

Robot

Purple

Duck

Cheryl said...

Hi!

Duck! Said the little robot,
Yet before I'd wondered why,
He threw a purple paper plane
Which hit me in the eye.

I could have fun with those three words - so many possible permutations - thanks!

Ally said...

jam marsupial fireguard.

Go for it. I need cheering up :).

Cheryl said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ally said...

I like it, but have you missed out offering bandicoots jam?

Cheryl said...

Bugger! Re-write! Lost a line in cut and paste and forgot to mention them actually being marsupials. Could be lunch time. (Still in time, I think...)

If bandicoots and wombats should
Decide to come to tea
Then every worthy hostess would
Do well to hark to me.
Marsupials are horrified
If offered honeyed ham,
And bandicoots get hyper
If you feed them strawberry jam.
Its best to offer leaves and such
Served warm beside the fire
But keep the fireguard fixed, so you'll
Avoid a wombat pyre.

Cheryl said...

DOH!

Is a cosmic bad hair day, perhaps.

Ally said...

I love it. Can I copy-and-paste on to my site if I credit? How would you feed a bandicoot jam anyway? Off a teaspoon? Or on a slice of bread? :)

Cheryl said...

Be my honoured guest. (Minus the offer of sandwiches or warm leaves of course - would gin do instead?)

In answer to the 2nd Q - I havent the foggiest - have you?

Sall* said...

The robot shot
A purple duck.
That's sucks

Not as good as yours though

Ally said...

I suspect nibbling off a teaspoon. Is it wrong that I can picture that in my head? :)

Cheryl said...

266 - I don't see why you say that!

Ally - runcible, I would imagine?

Sall* said...

I tried very hard not to use the F word.
:)

Doris said...

LOL I'm playing catch-up. Thanks for the chuckles.

Greg said...

*nods approvingly*
That's very good. They're all very good!
In poetry, as in chess, when under time pressure I go to pieces so quickly that people get hit by shrapnel.

rashbre said...

gasoline
Brooklyn
handcuffed

Cheryl said...

Ok, on that now....

Cheryl said...

He stole her from her bedroom
And then later, in the dark,
Handcuffed her to the iron gates
Of Brooklyn's Prospect park.
His plan had been her murder,
But the cost of gasoline
Meant he'd not enough
to buy the stuff.
(His plans went up as in a puff)
And so he fled the scene.

Ok, its bad. Sorry!

Greg said...

Toast
Blu-tac
Bedpan
;-)

Cheryl said...

The porter by the boiler does a lovely cup of tea
He stokes the building’s furnace but he always brews at three
And if you’re really lucky or he likes you more than most
He’ll offer you a griddle cake or else a piece of toast

No kitchenware presents itself, he has a secret skill
Don’t ask him, please, to share it for the truth will make you ill.
See I enquired what tools he used for this, his baking trick
And deadpan he said “bedpan” and this promptly made me sick.

Cheryl said...

Abd steggy you caught me out, as I forgot the blu-tack and my ten minutes are up.
Congratulations on an evil choice of words!

Cheryl said...

The porter by the boiler does a lovely cup of tea
He stokes the building’s furnace but he always brews at three
And if you’re really lucky or he likes you more than most
He’ll offer you a griddle cake or else a piece of toast.

And if equipments broken, then he is the man to call
He'll mend whatever you present, no matter what at all
To see him work this magic is itself a wondrous thing
For all can be as good as new with blu-tack and some string.

No kitchenware presents itself, his toast's a secret skill
Don’t ask him, please, to share it for the truth will make you ill.
See I enquired what tools he used for this, his baking trick
And deadpan he said “bedpan” and this promptly made me sick.

Greg said...

Uncanny! Cheryl, we are not worthy! I deliberately didn't put "haemorrhoids" as I thought it would be unsporting. Like superannuated. Or dominatrix.
That's not a challenge by the way!

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

You're compiling all of these, right?

(It has already taken me longer than ten minutes to think of three words.)

Odyssey

Zilla

Dragon

(Obviously, I was scanning my blogroll)

Sall* said...

Such prose, superb!
Fine nouns, fine verbs
You've got me all poetical
I'll leave you with three
And soon we will see...
(there's no such word as poetical)


Curious

Squeak

Puss

Cheryl said...

Compiling?
A bunch of rattled off tiddley-poms? Hardly art with heart....

OK theres two of you - so 20 minutes for the set starting now - deal?

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

I'm still here, Googling 'bay tree.'

Sall* said...

Deal

Sall* said...

Or should that be "No Deal"?

Cheryl said...

Dear Zilla is a blogger
Not the dragon she pretends
And I hear she’s quite a snogger
But only with her friends.
She took a little odyssey
To Scotland, green and fair
But as she’s gone back home again
She is no longer there


Our Puss just made a curious squeak
Whilst we were playing hide and seek
Alas I haven’t found him yet
So cannot take him to the vet.

Its late here so I apologise!

Angeline Rose Larimer said...

Bravo!

Sall* said...

But why Zilla?

Cheryl said...

266 - Zilla is great, Writermom & I both count her as a real friend, so she's safe to tease, I hope!

Half eleven here - any more players, I'll start again in the morning.

Thanks for a wonderful day; good night!

She Weevil said...

turf, smurf and mulberry bush.

BTW any help I can give on Cafepress give me a shout.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

aardvark

comic

rain

Is that ok?

fineartist said...

Oh what fun, and I would be so lousy at this one...

tunnel
ants
virgin

can't wait to see your play on words....

Hale McKay said...

Redneck - astronaut - proctologist - a strange set, I know. What I have read (all of them at this point) you will have no problem coming up with a funny for this one.
...I have several posts in draft status status now, but I will have to add this idea to them. I will link you and reeturn to let you know when I take a stab at this.

Cheryl said...

Aaargh!
Sorry I missed you guys - on it now (in between getting warring kids ready for school, rofl).

Cheryl said...

"Here we go round the mulberry bush"
So sang a happy smurf.
I gave the little guy a push;
he skidded on the turf.


The aardvark has a comic nose
but useful in the rain
to offer shade to aardvark toes
da dum de dum de dum ..... coming back to that one.


A maiden dug a tunnel down
to make her mother scowl and frown.
she wanted to present a jar
of ants (she was peculiar)
she tripped and landed in the hole
and landed on the ants, her goal,
who said, as she began to fuss
"thats virgin on the ridiculous"

coming back - have to extracate kids from arm locks and then house...

Cheryl said...

The aardvark has a comic nose
but useful in the rain
It offer shade to aardvark toes;
I guess he can't complain.


Redneck - astronaut - proctologist - Hale you are an evil man! love it. Can't wait.

Cheryl said...

The rotten jobs are on a list
and top of them: proctologist.
The alimentary canal
Is not a spot for Shallow Hal
Yet rednecks will be red there too
If troubled by their number two
And astronauts don't often live
On intergalactic laxative
So pity them but don't make light,
Each has a sorry end in sight

Jennifer said...

Still in the mood?

cymbidium

chloraform

witticism

Cheryl said...

Biology, herbology and chemistry are all a fog
I couldn’t tell cymbidium from other flowers in the bed
Nor chlorophyll from chloroform (I know a collie is a dog)
So keep your witticism, for I’ll go and study math, instead.

Jennifer said...

bravo!

(maths - ick!)

fineartist said...

YOU, YOU are the bomb baby!