[John Whitworth]

Is nard a cooking herb? Splendid piece, Brian, whether it is or not.

[Brian Allgar]

Thank you, Bazza. I agree that 'they' is an insidious end-rhyme, and I'm pleased that you approve of my solution.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

Is nard a cooking herb? Splendid piece, Brian, whether it is or not.

Thanks, John.

Nard, or spikenard, is best known as a perfume or aromatic oil used for medicinal purposes. However, I have learnt that it was also

"a common flavouring in Ancient Roman foods and occurs frequently in the recipes of Apicius, though it tends to be used sparingly. Spikenard was used to season foods in Medieval European cuisine, especially as a part of the spice blend used to flavor Hypocras, a sweetened and spiced wine drink. From the 17th century it was one of the ingredients for a strong beer called Stingo."

[John Whitworth]

You can still buy Stingo. I wonder if it's still spiked with nard. I bet I'm the only competitor who has used nard in a poem before.

[Douglas G. Brown]

American skid row drunks used to call cheap wine "Sneaky Pete", but "Stingo" for a strong beer tops that. Its manufacturer should consider introducing it to the US market.

By the way, it looks like Brian wil be in the winners circle on this one.

[Jerome Betts]

Yes, the bookies probably wouldn't give you odds on some of these. I post this pour encourager les autres and at least attempt the challenge of Bazza's fork.

A thoughtful grey-haired trader
In books across the seas
Whose name was Norman Nadir
Once uttered words like these:
'I read a Rider Haggard
Some hippy lady hurled
Across my shop, then staggered
Back to her pot-marked world.
Although much-scuffed and tarnished
SHE passed some hours away;
Would more have been thus garnished
Had it been titled THEY?
Worse mental fare I've eaten
Yet cannot quite regard
His works as things to sweeten
The brain like literary nard.'

[basil ransome-davies]

Deftly finessed, Jerome.

[John Whitworth]

I shall win or Silver's curse will rot the flesh from your bones.

[Martin Parker]

And now for something entirely over the top and representing most of the ills which haunt bouts rimés -- chiefly, too many unhappily contrived attempts to meet required rhymes plus a good sprinkling of " perilous enjambements."

I vote to give Brian the prize now and do something more enjoyable until the copy date has passed.


City banking's vulpine trader
dumping junk bonds overseas
well aware that sub-prime's nadir
seldom reached as low as these.
Cyber blackguard, gambler, haggard
prince of darkness, prices hurled
down phones to other addicts' staggered
ranks of screens around the world.

Though your reputation's tarnished
habit will not fade away.
Still your Bonus is gilt-garnished
with your pride and greed. May they
prove a poisoned dish best eaten
soon by you with due regard
to how the loss of you will sweeten
Mammon's bitter-scented nard.

[Douglas G. Brown]

I was working up a piece on a Wall Street crook, but Martin has beaten me to the punch. I'll have to settle for a used car dealer.

This has perilous enjambmants aplenty; but, its body count of of one murder per 16 lines respectably upholds the Housman tradition.

I’m a crooked used-car trader
Hawking junk from ‘cross the seas;
I’m the bane of Ralphie Nader
Who said “Dealers such as these
Leave the buying public haggard,
Deep in debt.” He also hurled
Other insults, so I staggered
To remove him from this world.

My knife was slightly tarnished
But it put old Ralph away;
Then my pigpen, I had garnished
With this guy. My Berkshires, they
Found him tasty, and have eaten
Him completely. I regard
How I never had to sweeten
Up his bloody corpse with nard.