[Julie Steiner]

Ah, yes, Roger--that must have been what Van Gogh was thinking!



Ann, I'm flattered by your concern, and appreciate your advice...but I almost never actually submit these things! I'm just having fun with my Erato friends. Perhaps I'll make an exception for this one.

I'll look at changing the "flawed", since nodding is one of the sternocleidomastoid's trademarks and I feel obliged to keep it. Not a lot of promising options, though--odd, God, plod, squad...John, are you sure an off-rhyme would kill its chances with Lucy?

[John Whitworth]

No I don't think the half rhyme will matter, Julie, particularly now I know what the sternocleidomastoid actually is . I think this one has a good chance, I really do. Put it in. After all, it costs you nothing. Incidentally, Lucy is very pleased to have all these overseas entries. She told me so in an email! So make her happier. Cement British/US relations.

[Amber Rose]

What a clever choice Julie. When I walked in I'm thinking "hmm...probably the nails or teeth or knee or something..." then scroll down and find that. Highly amusing and well done. Only suggestion is no comma after bards. I am completely impressed by it fitting it into the meter. I would have chickened out of doing it. You did it wonderfully.

[Roger Slater]

THE SMALL OF THE BACK

I celebrate the small,
the body part that's champ.
Although I like it natural,
I love it with a stamp,

a butterfly with yellow wings,
a red rose of romance,
or any shape that asks my eyes
to gaze down in her pants.

[Ann Drysdale]

Tragus

I will sing you the song of the tragus.
It sits on the edge of the ear
Like the odd metaphorical magus
Who stood at the gate of the year.
It’s a tiny triangular doofus
Ensconced in a prominent place
And it varies from pallid to rufous
To fit with the rest of your face.
It is merely an earhole’s addendum
Whose purpose is hard to define
But I’ll fight for the right to defend ’em
For I know I’d be lost without mine.
They enable our iPhones to hear tones;
If it wasn’t for this little chap
Then my dinky diminutive earphones
Would drop with a plop in my lap.

[Allen Tice]

Originally Posted by Ann Drysdale

Tragus

It is merely an earhole’s addendum
Whose purpose is hard to define
But I’ll fight for the right to defend ’em
For I know I’d be lost without mine.

I suspect the tragus is like the flat secondary mirror in a Newtonian telescope and importantly supplements the sound-gathering effect of the pinna, and thus helps you know which direction a faint sound comes from.

[Ann Drysdale]

I'm sure you're right, Allen - everything has a purpose. Perhaps, though, like the Newtonian example, it is this that causes me to suffer from coma from time to time, rather than the gin. (See - I followed your link!)

However, on this occasion I was just being smug for the Speccie.

Incidentally, I don't have an iPhone (never even had a good look at one)and had to look that up on the Interweb, too, to see if it had headphones at all!

[John Whitworth]

Nice one, Ann. What's an iPhone. Must I have one?

[RCL]

Speaking of ears:

I sing of your enticing ears,
still virgins to those sonneteers
idealizing lovers’ looks—
perfections only found in books.
But bordering your tempting face,
they’re beauties that my eyes embrace.
Though sometimes coy beneath your hair,
attuned to me, they’re boldly bare.
My song then swells with common sense:
its urge to merge becomes intense.
Flooded by sounds as I come near,
each open, ready, loving ear
embraces pulsing lines that mime
the ways our bodies sometimes rhyme.


Ralph

[John Whitworth]

My ear is open like a hungry shark
To catch the tunings of a voice divine.