[Roger Slater]

BIRDSONG

Undepressed
despite the rain,
I feel no strain
inside my nest.
I've been blest
on nature's chain
with a tiny brain
that helps me rest.

A chilly blast
makes flowers wilt
yet every day
my nest is built
from scraps of past
for eggs I lay.

[Martin Elster]

Out In the Rain

Through the window you look undepressed,
while I stand out here soaked by the rain.
It seems you are hearing the strain
of a bird faraway in some nest.
Your eyes look beyond me. I’m blest
if I know what you’re seeing. What chain
of wild thoughts are now plaguing my brain
as the rain hammers down without rest!

I have a compulsion to blast
a hole through your door. I shall wilt
out here in this storm. Yesterday
you were kinder. What is it that’s built
up inside that you cannot get past,
a thing you won’t let me allay?

[Martin Elster]

Peter,

'Meet The Vladervlok' is a hoot! I love it! 'Master of the looney verse' is inspired.

In "an envied oeuvre matched by few, surpassed" is that last word legal? This is an important question. Namely, can a homonym pass for the given word? Would that be kosher?

Martin

[Martin Elster]

Sun-Depressed

In winter I am always sun-depressed,
whether there’s snow or merely drizzling rain.
I simply cannot take the constant strain
of staying in this claustrophobic nest.
Twilight comes much too soon. Although I’m blest
by having enough food, there is a chain
of murkiness and shadow round my brain
that causes me to sleep less. I don’t rest.

It’s torture waiting for the sun to blast
through this melancholy. I shall wilt
without those UVB rays. Every day
I lose the vitamin D which summer’s built.
I hope I make it till the earth gets past
the solstice. Then I’ll sing a solar lay!

[Spindleshanks]

Thanks Martin. You are probably right that "surpassed" won't make the cut. This was a case of the poetry, such as it is, acing the rules. My feeling is that, if "passed" for "past" is "unacceptable," so also will be the other liberties I've employed, which I hope will sneak in under the radar.

I like your latest, which I think is your best, though I'm having trouble seeing the murkiness and shadow as a chain.

Peter

[John Whitworth]

This must be a record for the number of poems generated by a Speccie/Oldie competition. Brilliant stuff!

[Jayne Osborn]

Without going back through all the posts (I'm feeling lazy!), was it Roger who commented that there's a paucity of humorous bouts-rimés?I've had a go with this one:

I've passed my driving test - I'm undepressed,
to say the least! And in torrential rain,
but after twenty three attempts the strain
had made my nerves a writhing vipers' nest.
At last I'm off the Valium! I'm blest;
the best instructor taught me, though he chain-
smoked through my lessons, groaning that his brain
must need some looking at. Poor man! A rest
would do him good. I knew I'd have to blast
my way through number twenty four. I'll wilt
at some stage, though I won't forget this day.
I'm thrilled - now I can have a garage built
(or, rather, re-built). Four times in the past
is where a massive pile of rubble lay.

Can anyone please tell me how to get words into italics here? The usual 'Control i' gives me a strange bracketed word. I noticed that Spindleshanks put et al in italics in one post - so maybe you're the man to help me, Peter?

[Spindleshanks]

Jayne, the Reply window should have a toolbar across the top providing all the formatting buttons, including the I, which I've just hit. Highlight the selected text then hit the appropriate button. Alternatively, you can bookend the text you wish to italicise with a bracketed I at the beginning of the selected text and a bracketed /I to close, as so, sans the internal spaces: [ I ] . . . . [ /I ]

Peter

[John Whitworth]

What happens, Jayne, is that the strange bracketed thingummy is transformed into real live italics when you press the Submit Reply thing. Like so!

[Jayne Osborn]

Ah, thank you, Peter and John. I'm about to give it a try (as you know, John, I am a blonde, which accounts for a lot!)

Any road up, as they say (somewhere) - feedback on my poem would be appreciated.
The Oldie is going to be inundated with entries for this comp, n'est-ce pas?