Admin Post: The Poetry Page: Social Distancing with Mrs. Hudson

[scfrankles]

Thank you everyone for joining me at this small cocktail soirée outside under the plane tree! There are plenty of refreshments and I hope later everyone will take their turn at singing for us—I believe Mrs. Small-Hobbit has brought her banjo!

But the main reason I have arranged this get-together is to illustrate and celebrate one of my greatest passions—

What’s that, Mrs. Frankles?

Yes, I suppose gin is one of my passions but I really meant—

Oh, I see! Yes, do top me up, dear, now you’ve brought the bottle over.

Now, where was I? Ah, yes. The passion I’m talking about is friendship. That wonderful support in difficult times. Where would we be without it?



Let me just add here Mr. Holmes’s written record of Mr. James M. Dodd’s eloquent words, from his piece “The Blanched Soldier”:


We formed a friendship—the sort of friendship which can only be made when one lives the same life and shares the same joys and sorrows.


Perhaps this might spark some ideas for poems and songs for our gathering.


Here as usual is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith


So please join me now in raising a glass:

To friendship!

Comments

It's not a banjo, it's a ukulele

[smallhobbit]

I’m leaning on a lamppost at the corner of the street
Because the gin we’ve drunk has gone to my feet
Oh me, oh my
I’m starting to ask myself why
I suppose I’ve had more than a mug full
Rather, in fact, like a jug full
But with friends like mine
I can do nothing but shine
They’re absolutely wonderful, and marvellous and beautiful
And really they’re the reason that I’m
Leaning on a lamppost at the corner of the street
Because the gin we’ve drunk has taken away my feet

Re: It's not a banjo, it's a ukulele

[scfrankles]

Well played, madam - in both senses ^___^

Re: It's not a banjo, it's a ukulele

[smallhobbit]

Thank you. *Bows* *Topples over*

Re: It's not a banjo, it's a ukulele

[debriswoman]

Coffee?
Ice pack?
Horse stabiliser?

Re: It's not a banjo, it's a ukulele

[smallhobbit]

Probably the last one!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Oh dear. Hopefully a cab's en route!

[smallhobbit]

'Sorry, ma'am,the singing will upset the 'orse.'

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Especially when you also try to ride it side saddle.

[smallhobbit]

:D

a friendship sonnet

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I saw a thing today and thought of you,
a little thing that chance bade me to see.
I said, ‘I’ll tell her soon, and when I do,
she’ll laugh and cry, ‘Oh dear, that is so ME!’

I made a thing today and thought of you
a thing, hand-wrought, I was a little proud.
I said, ‘I show her soon, and when I do,
she’ll ooo and ahhh and speak my joy out loud.’

I cried a bit today and thought of you,
a spot of bother fresh that made me sad.
I said, ‘I’ll rant to her and when I do,
it really, truly won’t seem quite that bad.’

exchanged and shared and halved from end to end
and passed from hand to heart and friend to friend

Re: a friendship sonnet

[smallhobbit]

That is beautiful, and so very, very true!

Re: a friendship sonnet

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you very much! Glad it resonated!

Re: a friendship sonnet

[debriswoman]

This is just lovely and right on the nail.
The final two lines in particular say it all:-)

Re: a friendship sonnet

[scfrankles]

That is a really lovely portrait of friendship ^^

Re: a friendship sonnet

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you very much!

a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Dylan ail Don was a sea-faring son,
fast foe of mongrel and cur.
Borne of lynx and of panther,
he never did answer
to anything other than ‘sir.’

No squall could capsize ‘im; ball o’ twine’d mesmerise ‘im.
Such were the fancies o’ Dylan ail Don.
No storm could outwit ‘im,
‘n’ his Scratchin’ ‘n’ Spittin’
‘twas ship-envy of e’ry sea-faring son.

Now Dylan ail Don’d sack a port ‘fore the sun
had finished its crack o’ dawn chores.
And when asked, he’d reply,
with a grin in his eye,
“It ain’t lootin’ when everything’s yours!”

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[debriswoman]

This is brilliant:-) Thank you so much:-)
Suits him so well.

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

That icon always makes me laugh. I think he would do quite well on the high seas! You're very welcome!

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[smallhobbit]

That last line sums up cats perfectly!

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, it's a cat world, we're just muddling through.

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[scfrankles]

Very taken with the line: No squall could capsize ‘im; ball o’ twine’d mesmerise ‘im. ^__^

Re: a token of friendship: Dylan ail Don the Pirate Cat for debriswoman

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Even pirate cats have a weakness :) Thank you!