[Jan D. Hodge]

So There!

O Death, you presume to be clever
and triumph o’er all we endeavor.
.....Though you seem to take scores
.....in age, sickness, and wars,
I’ll but sleep, wake, and live on forever.

[Janet Kenny]

Abou Ben Adhem
(Leigh Hunt)

Abou Ben Adhem liked people
but feared that this fondness was feeble.
The angel told God
who gave Adhem the nod
and placed him on top of the steeple.

May that multifaith message assuage
the zealots of this present age.
As they skirmish and scrabble
like ignorant rabble
all heaven is put in a rage.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited May 17, 2006).]

[Henry Quince]

Song

Go find me a woman who’s true
and send me the news if you do.
....Were she pretty and good, I
....would meet her — or would I?
By then she’d have cheated on two.


Dover Beach

The ocean tonight sounds so sad,
and the ocean of faith (this is bad)
....has ebbed. What a bother!
....Let’s hide in each other,
for the rest of the world has gone mad.


Inisfree

Will I settle in Inisfree —
grow beans to the buzz of the bee,
....the crickets’ shrill singing,
....the linnets’ loud winging,
and the lake’s endless lapping? Not me!




[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited May 18, 2006).]

[Janet Kenny]

Gare du Midi


A man with a pitiful face
strode the platform while clutching his case.
No civic reception
delayed the infection
that finished the whole human race.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited May 18, 2006).]

[Janet Kenny]

Pied Beauty

God did a good job with the spotty,
in fact He enjoyed it a lot. He
speckled and rippled
and dabbled and stippled
as if He were totally potty.


~~~
Daffodils

I drifted along in a vapour
but started to warble and caper
when acres of yellow
all shimmied like jello,
which fact I commit now to paper.




[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited May 18, 2006).]

[Roger Slater]

Ode On A Grecian Urn

They live on a vase, no words spoken,
each figure an image, a token.
.... If beauty is truth
.... there's no end to youth
until this damn Grecian Urn's broken.

[Henry Quince]

(Companion to “This is Just to Crow”)

So Much Depends

I ate the white chicken as well.
It wasn't too fresh, from the smell.
....Then I hungrily gazed
....at the rainwater-glazed
red wheelbarrow, sorry to tell.

[Janet Kenny]

This be the Verse

Your parents have totally screwed
you up. And without being crude,
avoid procreation
and choose masturbation.
Much better be rude than a prude.

[Henry Quince]

Kids Be the Curse

Since man’s imperfection’s inherent,
my advice is, “Do not be a parent.”
....No ifs and no buts —
....I’m a misery-guts
who was born as an awful deterrent.

[Janet Kenny]

Henry,
That's damn good but it's awful of you to leave me exposed with a vulgar poem. Janet