Poetry: How do you spell love?: Gen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Title: How do you spell love? [by I. Quill]

Rating: Gen

Length: 177

Author’s Notes: From Inky’s Poetry Journal; for the fffc September challenge: day 3 [Prompt: How do you spell love? - I don’t spell it, I feel it. (Winnie-The-Pooh)]

How do you spell love, young poet of the Scots?

I spell it with a ‘u,’ you see,
for if luve is good enough for Uncle Bobby’s red, red rose,
it’s good enough for me.

How do you spell love, noble fir of the woods?

I spell it with an ‘i,’ you see,
for when I live,
scent, shade, and boughs I give,
a Magi of a tree.

How do you spell love, breeze of Spanish plains?

Por mí, I spell it with an ‘e.’
For leve soy,
a-waft with fragrance, cry, and joy
from vast Iberian sea

How do you spell love, dame proprietress?

I spell it with an ‘a,’ you see.
A-wash, a-scrub, a-lave
whilst gentleman misbehave,
my care persists, from tea to tea.

How do you spell love, faithful scribe aside the sleuth?

I spell it with an ‘o’
'cause the schoolmarm’s slate once told me so.

How do you spell love, Mister Sherlock Holmes?

My reply may trouble you.
I don’t, but when I do, here’s a clue:
it commences with a ‘w.’

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Lovely - I especially like the last line :)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

See below question about the origins of all the animals. The why I don't know... :)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, I'll answer that one!

[debriswoman]

This is lovely:-)
Such clever use of words and connections.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[mafief.livejournal.com]

Awe!!!! That was squishy and lovely and now I'm filled with warm, happy feelings. I loved the part with the tree. :)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yay! So glad you like it!

By the way, Inky Quill is an original character. He's an American expat porcupine living in Victorian London in the Regent's Park Zoo. He's a poet and friends with Watson and Holmes. Every month I write a column for him about an adventure and when the muse inspires I write his poetry.

Here's the whole collection: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6848800/chapters/15633211

[mafief.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that explanation, I've been wondering. Since we are on the subject of critters, how did they come about and why?

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

99% of the world-building is Small Hobbit's. I play in her world. When I came along, they were all established characters: Ocelot, the editor of magazine, Sloth, the sub-editor, Mouselet (who lives at 221b and is in love with Stanley Hopkins) had a column. Ferret is another character. He's involved in a lot of capers with Holmes & Watson and he often has to wear a disguise or costume and he eats a lot of snacks so a lot of the humor comes from him trying to fit in the costumes. He's a cheeky, but good-hearted creature.

For my part, I wrote a Christmas fic two years ago (I am American) and made some huge errors in terms of the animals that might be found in an English forest. I put a porcupine in it (plus a lot of birds that aren't English). Of course, people pointed out the errors and I was mortified. But a couple months later, Hobbit asked if might want to write a column for the magazine with the porcupine. So I invented Inky Quill.

[mafief.livejournal.com]

Neat! I've been seeing the critters around a lot and I've not been entirely sure what is going on there.

Ek, making errors like that is no fun. :-/ Is there anything else I should know about Inky Quill? Personality? Likes? Dislikes?

Btw, I'm an American too. :)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a completely understandable feeling.

Yeah, my skin isn't as thick as it should be about Britpick errors, especially given how many I make.

Inky likes writing poetry. He likes wearing a tie and monocle when addressing the Words & Whiskers Society and reciting verse. He likes helping other creatures (animals & Watson & Holmes). In the past two years, he's rescued Mother Sloth, rescued Victor Trevor, helped a vole that was being menaced by an owl. He's also had his own Reichenbach and been 'dead' for 7 days underground in a coffin when there was a vendetta against him. He has a doppelganger named Awesome Possum who is as crude a poet as Inky is a proper one (but equally good). He's penned a play called The Importance of Being Ferret and a Christmas play that was too modern for popular taste (he got tomatoes thrown at him). He likes Mark Twain and often quotes him. He once used an eclipse to escape Jamrach & his thugs.

He does not like Jamrach (the only real life person in this world), the most successful import-exporter of 'exotic' animals in Victorian England. Jamrach is responsible for trapping Inky in his American forest home; there was a shipwreck and Inky ended up floating across the ocean to the Thames (where he met Mouselet). He might have lived at 221b but the only space available was the lumber room where Mister Holmes keeps his ear collection, so he opted for the zoo.

He has a Plague Doctor mask that Doctor Watson once borrowed to play a trick on Mister Holmes (it didn't go well). His most popular poem is Thorn the Bone Collector (which I've never actually written).

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

We have read your query and will be providing an answer to it.

The Ocelot, Editor Marylebone Monthly Illustrated

[mafief.livejournal.com]

Yahoo!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That's such a great concept and so beautifully done.

I particularly love:

scent, shade, and boughs I give,/ a Magi of a tree.

How do you spell love, dame proprietress?/ I spell it with an ‘a,’ you see./ A-wash, a-scrub, a-lave/ whilst gentleman misbehave,/ my care persists, from tea to tea.

I don’t, but when I do, here’s a clue:/ it commences with a ‘w.’

But it's all lovely ^__^

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you! Inky hasn't written a poem all summer, believe it or not. He needs to get back at it.

[katleept.livejournal.com]

Ha! Love it! :)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!