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

[scfrankles]

Now, last time we were lent Mr. Holmes’ telescope. This time, Mrs. Frankles has used her contacts to supply us with another interesting object: Dr George Merryweather’s Tempest Prognosticator!

Though it never went into full production, I believe it was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 to much excitement. It is a form of barometer to warn when a storm is coming, and we have been allowed to keep it for the month to study it and to use it for creative stimulation.

Would you like to explain more, Mrs. Frankles...? These twelve bottles at the bottom for instance—what do they contain?

I’m sorry, did you say “leeches”?

And they do what, dear? Climb up the bottle when a storm threatens and set off a bell?

Where did you hear about this again? Via a… tumbler. Was it full of gin, by chance?

(Great heavens…) Anyway, they’re here now and we must be thoughtful towards our guests. What do leeches eat, Mrs. Frankles? Oh, they don’t need to be fed for at least another month! Pity. I was thinking Mr. Holmes might have been of some use for once…

But please, everyone, gather forward and examine this fascinating device.



As added inspiration here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s story, “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”:


As I turn over the pages I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby the banker.



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

And so, let us talk about the weather!

Comments

[scfrankles]

Supreme Commander of Puns ^___^

And, FYI, the red leech, according to The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, a pastiche of what Holmes was up to in the Hiatus, is a Hirudinea Himalayaca Giganticus or The Giant Red Leech of the Lower Himalayas. I hadn't heard of that pastiche before - I've just been looking at a review of it. Sounds like spooky stuff ^__^

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I enjoyed the first half but once they get to Tibet it starts to veer into the supernatural and the author loses me. Really, the Leech was the highlight.