[Roger Slater]

I'd like to thank Tim, and everyone else who participated in this project, for the most fun I have ever had writing poetry. I'm very proud to have participated in this wacky project and to have the chance to publish my own verse next to poems by poets for whom I have such genuine admiration. My stodgy expression of gratitude can hardly express just how satisfying this whole enterprise has been.

I've long realized that jokes had a lot in common with poems (the idea may have been planted in my head by a WD Snodgrass essay that I read in college), but it never occurred to me to try to versify a classic joke until I came across David Anthony's "Breaking the News" about a year ago. I remember attempting, at that point, to versify the famous joke about Jesus and Moses playing golf, but I didn't get very far at all. I found it just too difficult, and I gave up.

That I was recently able to versify the same joke ("Power Golf Game") is a testimonial to just how much I have learned here at Erato over the last year. And no one here taught me more than Tim and Carol. The two of them managed to bang into my head principles that I had managed to avoid learning my whole life. So I'd like to thank Tim and Carol not just for their work in putting this book together, but also for their work over the last year in teaching me enough about writing formal verse to enable me to contribute to this extraordinary project.

Writing these "joke poems" has been an eye-opener for me. I never before wrote a poem in which I knew the ending before I started. I always thought that a poem had to be "discovered" in the writing, and that knowing the ending in advance was bound to produce sterile results. I now know that even if the "ending" is known, there's plenty to "discover" in devising a route to that ending. I don't know if this approach will work to help me write "serious" verse, but I'm eager to find out, just as I'm eager to continue writing light verse.

The jokes I chose to versify were jokes I had known and enjoyed for at least 20 years, and for me part of the satisfaction was in "commemorating" the jokes I had told perhaps a bit too much over the years. The jokes, in short, had something like a sentimental value for me, and it feels good paying them tribute in verse.

It's been a wild 45 days or so since Tim proposed this project, and it's nothing short of amazing that the entire book has been written during this short period of time. It's been thrilling watching everyone come up with their gems and seeing the book take shape so quickly. Not to mention Tim's amazing success in getting us into Light and (knock wood) getting the book placed. I sure our success has as much to do with Tim's reputation and sway among editors as it does to the merit of the project itself, and I'm forever grateful for what he's done and proud to have participated. Now, on to Volume II!

[Carol Taylor]

I've just updated to Draft 5.3. It's still a draft, because while we have a great collection and I'm sure we're going to have a book, but it's still a long way from Amazon.com. Once we find a publisher there may be changes in the selection, arrangement, etc. But Tim and I feel these are the best of the best. Thanks to all of your for a great job!

Carol

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Nice to see it complete, nice to be in it, and nice to see you went with the traditional 101 jokes.

Kevin

[Tim Murphy]

Kevin, I've not properly saluted you for the Mullah and the Parrot. A very funny, very substantial narrative poem. Anyone who missed it can look it up in Dogscatskids, etc. In an email I marvelled over Kevin's abilities as a rhymer, and he assured me that it runs in the Murphy blood! Clearly a young man who know how to endear himself to an editor. Here's a challange for a rhymer. Yesterday Keillor did his 2000 dumb jokes show from New York. My favorite section was the third grade humor. "What's huge and grey and writes gloomy poems?" "T.S. Elephant."

[ChrisW]

Many thanks to Tim and Carol for making this happen! Can't wait to see it all in print!

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Thanks, Tim. I had fun with Mullah Nasrudin and the Parrot.

Hmm. Challenge for a rhymer.... All right. Here's an excerpt from T.S. Elephant's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Peanut."


In the circus, clowns come and go
slapping each other like Punchinello.

More popcorn bags. I hear them crinkle,
and children cry, "Look! Watch him tinkle!"
Does my trunk have another wrinkle?

A mouse! Oh, I was afraid!

I should have been a pair of tasseled shoes
shuffling my way through drawing rooms.

To be something else, perhaps a vicar.
I listen to the children snicker
at carnival and beach.
I hear the carnies calling each to each.

Do I dare to eat a peanut? Does Dumbo want a peach?

In the circus, clowns come and go,
slapping each other like Punchinello.

[John Beaton]

Thanks again to Carol and Tim for taking this from concept to reality. And belated Happy Birthday to you, Carol. Laugh lots and live long.

John