My lim’rick obsession’s severe;
I write rhymes night and day ev’ry year.
My addiction is brutal.
Resistance is futile…
And I warrant the fault lies with Lear.
Happy birthday, Edward Lear, and Happy Limerick Day!
Archive for the ‘Light Verse’ Category
Make Me Laugh Contest – Prompt 1: FOOL (Deadline Jan 10)
Monday, December 29th, 2014Oh please make me laugh.
Any verse form is cool.
My only proviso:
Include the word “FOOL.”
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1: Deadline: Submit your funny verse as comments to my blog post by Saturday, Jan. 10, 10:00 p.m. ET. Winners will be announced on my blog shortly thereafter. (Feel free to cross-post your verse as a comment to my Facebook post, as well.)
2: Hashtag & Cross-Posting: If you cross-post your humorous poems on your Twitter, Facebook, or GooglePlus page, please use the hashtag: #MakeMeLaugh.
3: Newsletter: To receive an email alert whenever I post the winners and the new #MakeMeLaugh contest, please email Madkane@MadKane.com Subject: MadKane’s Newsletter. Thanks!
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Fool around with words–
they may lead you into thought,
if you’re listening.
Macaronic Music (Limerick)
Thursday, July 26th, 2012This is my second attempt at macaronic verse — a poem that mixes two languages in a humorous manner. While Latin is often the second language, this macaronic limerick uses musical terms:
Macaronic Music
By Madeleine Begun Kane
If you fiddle around while I speak,
Then I’ll trumpet your lousy technique.
If you flaut me, beware!
Your bass secret will air —
Broken G string and all, horny freak!
(Poets United prompts us to writing something about sound.)
Acrostic Limerick: Hot, Cross Lovers
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011Last month I had such a good time writing these two acrostic limericks, that I had to try another in response to a new prompt from Acrostics Only.
Acrostic Limerick: Hot, Cross Lovers
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A flexible gal who is spry,
Gymnastically gifted, and sly
Initiates sex,
Leaves her lovers as wrecks —
Enticing, entrapping — oh my!
UPDATE: April 23 is Lover’s Day
Macaronic Limerick
Monday, April 25th, 2011First off, this limerick (despite its name) has nothing to do with macaroni. I’m not suffering from Passover pasta-withdrawal. Nor do my dreams (or nightmares) ever feature anything of a noodle nature.
So why the title? I just learned, from the delightfully informative Miss Rumphius, about the rare and usually comic form called macaronic verse. What the heck is macaronic verse? We’re told that it’s a usually absurd and nonsensical “poem in a mixture of two languages, one of them preferably Latin,” and that “the poet usually subjects one language to the grammatical laws of another to make people laugh.”
So naturally I had to try it, mixing legal terms (mostly Latin) in with standard limerick English:
Macaronic Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
The corpus is AWOL. Oh my!
I attest that I left it hereby.
What a bona fide mess.
My mentis has stress.
It’s de facto I mortemed that fly.
(Linked at We Write Poems pairings prompt.)
Itching For Another Acrostic Limerick
Friday, April 8th, 2011After my first fun foray into acrostic limericks, I just had to try another:
Itching For Another Acrostic Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Bemoaning her red, itchy bites,
Undone by her sleep-deprived nights,
Gabrielle said, “No more!
Going out to the store.
You mosquitoes have earned your last rites.”
(More bug related poems here.)
Update: A case of insect revenge? Right after posting this, I noticed that my left foot was itchy and discovered my first mosquito bite of the season.
Update: August 20 is World Mosquito Day.
Ode To Breakfast (and a Caffeinated Haiku)
Friday, March 25th, 2011Did you know that today, March 25th, is International Waffle Day? Me neither. And if you feel compelled to celebrate waffles twice each year, National Waffle Day and the waffle iron patent are celebrated on August 24th.
So why am I telling you this? Because I’m obediently rising to the challenge of writing a poem about breakfast. And I stumbled upon all this waffle nonsense while doing some poetic procrastination.
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Ode to Breakfast
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Oatmeal breaks my fast
when I arise,
though it tastes like paste
in breakfast guise.
Why not something else
I don’t despise?
Cuz I hate each choice
those chefs devise.
Waffles, eggs, French toast
grits — some may prize.
But hot oatmeal’s quick.
So enough with the “whys.”
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While I’m at it, here’s a haiku about my favorite morning (and afternoon and pretty much all day) beverage:
Coffee never tempts,
but denied cappuccino
then call me verklempt.
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UPDATE: October 29 is National Oatmeal Day.
Limerick Ode To a Vigorous Old Lady
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011Limerick Ode To A Vigorous Old Lady
By Madeleine Begun Kane
An old grandma with spring in her walk
Moved so quickly that people would gawk.
When asked if a gym
Was the source of her vim
She said, “No — Jim, Kim, Henry and Hawk.”
(Posted at this spring prompt and at Poetic Asides’ spring prompt.)
UPDATE: July 23 is Gorgeous Grandma Day.
Bad Memory Limerick
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011My memory is so bad, that when I spotted the upcoming memory prompt at Haiku Heights I forgot the obvious — that the prompt was for haiku. Ah well, here’s my Bad Memory Limerick:
Bad Memory Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
My mem’ry is bad — getting worse.
It’s a failing I constantly curse.
I forget what I’ve done,
People’s names, whom to shun.
Now what was the theme of this verse?
(For those who can actually remember something, here’s a spot to post your memories in verse.)
And Now For Something Different — Double Dactyls
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011One of my limerick-writing pals has challenged me to hold a Double-Dactyl-Off. My initial response was “What the hell’s a double dactyl?”
So I Googled it, read the rules, and attempted to write a couple of them myself. I’ll try to summarize the rules here and will provide links to some good resources and samples. (Don’t worry if you find the rules confusing. Once you read a couple of examples, they make more sense.)
1) A double dactyl is a two stanza (eight line) humorous poem consisting mostly of dactyls. What’s a dactyl? A dactyl has three syllables, one stressed followed by two unstressed (/ _ _ ).
2) Line 1 is a nonsense phrase consisting of two dactyls (like Higgeldy Piggeldy or Dickery Dockery or Flippity Flappity.)
3) Line 2 is the name of a famous person (usually historic) but must be a double dactyl (like Emily Dickinson or Joseph DiMaggio or Hans Christian Andersen.)
4) Lines 4 and 8 must rhyme.
5) Somewhere in the second stanza there’s is a double dactyl formed by a single word (like megalomaniac or gubernatorial or idiosyncrasy.)
Here’s the form which I borrowed from Miss Rumphius.
1 – double dactyl nonsense phrase (like Higgeldy Piggeldy)
2 – double dactyl of a person’s name
3 – double dactyl
4 – one dactyl plus a stressed syllable (/ _ _ / )
5 – double dactyl
6 – double dactyl
7 – double dactyl
8 – one dactyl plus a stressed syllable (/ _ _ / )
(Wikipedia provides the rules and examples.)
Here are my first two attempts. (I invite you to post your own in my comments.)
Higgledy Piggledy
Ludwig van Beethoven
Wrote the Eroica,
Sadly went deaf.
Incontrovertibly
Gifted and masterful.
Some say he’s better than
Brahms. Need a ref.
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Rickety Rackety
David A. Paterson
Got to be gov cuz boss
Spitzer resigned.
Patterson governed us
Counter-productively.
Sure’s been a while since a
Governor’s shined.
I’m looking forward to your double dactyls. Have fun! And if you’re on Facebook, please post your double dactyls here on Facebook too.
