Friday, April 14, 2017

PAD Day 14:Let Us Now "Praise" Famous Men

Today's dual prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) write a poem whose title is a popular saying, and (2) write a clerihew. 

A clerihew is four-line poem, usually about a famous person, which pokes some fun at them. The first line always contains the name of the poem's subject, and the poem is rhymed "aabb". There's no particular meter, but there should be some semblance of one. Of course, with humorous poems, the rules are pretty loose. Here are a few I just wrote about some famous 20th century poets. (The one about Williams breaks up the lines to pay homage to the form of his famous poem.) I admit I "shoehorned" the Poetic Asides prompt with my title.

Let Us Now "Praise" Famous Men

1.
Dylan Thomas
kept his promise.
One too many pints was his plight -
he didn't go gentle into that good night.

2.
With Wallace Stevens
I have no grievance,
but would his fame have such endurance
if he'd only sold insurance?

3.
Ezra Pound
was profound -
loved his epigrams, you see -
but most were Greek to me.

4.
William Carlos
Williams

is known to countless
millions

for that little
narrow

poem about a red wheel
barrow


And here's one for a recently departed celebrity:

Don Rickles
had a face like sour pickles.
If he met you, the result
would be a witty insult.

I may return later with another one for the Poetic Asides prompt, but today begins a very busy holiday weekend for me.

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