On Friday, White Rabbit prodded me into posting some of my Silly Science Poems. Actually, "light verse" has been a popular mainstay of American poetry for a long time with poets like Shel Silverstein, James Clerk Maxwell, Ogden Nash and even Billy Collins. Among the greats of poetry, the like T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, Horace, Jonathan Swift, Lord Byron, Alexander Pope and W.H. Auden have also excelled at light verse.

I think sometimes we foget that poetry can be FUN. We get so wrapped up in "serious" poetry about death, loss and misery that we lose sight of the more enjoyable human emotions that poetry can express and that can bring a measure of JOY into our lives.

And don't be afraid of being "foolish" - I do it all the time and it has yet to kill me. White Rabbit suggested we should have a "bad poetry contest" - but that wouldn't be fair to everyone else since I have had so much practice.

A Rain Song
- by Evaleen Stein

Tinkle, tinkle,
Lightly fall
On the peach buds, pink and small;
Tip the tiny grass, and twinkle
On the clover, green and tall.

Tinkle, tinkle,--
Faster now,
Little rain-drops, smite and sprinkle
Cherry-bloom and apple-bough!
Pelt the elms, and show them how
You can dash!
And splash! splash! splash!

While the thunder rolls and mutters,
And the lightning's flash and flash!
Then eddy into curls
Of a million misty swirls,
And thread the air with silver,
and embroider it with pearls!

And patter, patter, patter
To a quicker time, and clatter
On the streaming window-pane;
Rain, rain,
On the leaves,
And the eaves,
And the turning weather-vane!

Rush in torrents from the tip
Of the gable-peak, and drip
In the garden-bed, and fill
All the cuckoo-cups, and pour
More and more

In the tulip-bowls, and still
Overspill
In a crystal tide until
Every yellow daffodil
Is flooded to its golden rim,
and brimming o'er and o'er!

Then as gently as the low
Muffled whir of robin wings,
Or a sweep of silver strings,
Even so,
Take your airy April flight
Through the merry April light,
And melt into a mist of
rainy music as you go!

HAVE FUN

TAP

d;-)

Busted Moves

When the rhythm's syncopated
All my moves feel constipated
And my partner says my dancing's full of faults
When the beat is slow and steady
You will find at the ready
I'm as graceful as a swan, so play a waltz

NoStar

Glad you could find the time among all your activities of getting ready for the big move. Hope that is going well (?). I hope you and Anna Wolf will be able to make a connection when you travel through Crazy Hose - I know you two arch-conservatives will hit it off. And it's always nice, when visiting a new place to have a "native" to show you around.

Hau cante waste nape ciyuzapi

I was wandering through the "halls of poetry" and came accross these by Alexander Pope. I thought the last one was especially apropos for our discussion the other day -

Couplets on Wit
- by Alexander Pope

I

But our Great Turks in wit must reign alone
And ill can bear a Brother on the Throne.


II

Wit is like faith by such warm Fools profest
Who to be saved by one, must damn the rest.


III

Some who grow dull religious strait commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sence.


IV

Wits starve as useless to a Common weal
While Fools have places purely for their Zeal.

V

Now wits gain praise by copying other wits
As one Hog lives on what another sh---.


VI

Wou'd you your writings to some Palates fit
Purged all you verses from the sin of wit
For authors now are so conceited grown
They praise no works but what are like their own

TAP

d;-)

I'm so tired
That I'm wired
And I cannot fall asleep.

I'm so sleepy
That I'm weepy
Don't want to hear another peep.

(song to that familiar tune)

My Favorite Science Things
- by denny

Black Holes and quasars and quantum mechanics
Muons and leptons and thermodynamics
Bright constellations and theories on Strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Gravitons and positrons and deep cosmic echoes
Einstein and Feynman are two of my heroes
All of the wonders that puzzle us earthlings
These are a few of my favorite things

Theories on matter and our evolution
And saving the earth from global polution
Looking at Saturn with all of its rings
These are a few of my favorite things

When it's Tuesday
and the poem sucks
and I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad.

TAP

d;-)