Haiku

Eek!

Arachnid spotted;
icy chills run down backbone.
Feet do flamenco.



Haiku for my Dog


Dog groomed; bolls of black
blow across concrete prairie
like fur tumbleweeds.



Haiku of the Ant


Ants, industrious
creatures, toiling day and night,
chewing down my house.



Mad Dog Haiku


Bi-polar canine,
a jackal in Hyde's clothing,
eyes my chicken leg.

Taco Cinquain

Taco
served on a plate--
lettuce green, tomato
red, sour cream white--edible flag.
Tasty



Snail Cinquain


Snails roam
over concrete
after the rain, leaving
inch by white inch evidence of
grand tour



* The cinquain form was invented by the poet
Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914) as a western version
of haiku and tanka. It is a five-line poem
with a syllable count of 2,4,6,8,2. Since these lines
all have an even number of syllables, the effect
of a cinquain is often markedly different from haiku
or tanka.

Patty cake, patty cake,
Lady Von Havishire
spoke with an accent, but
now that she's aged


Lessons in diction and
respectibility
rewrite her past as she
spends all her wage.




Dactyl-y, wacktyl-y
Gilbert and Sullivan
wrote many musicals
tripped off the tongue.


Now that I've learned to sing
wonderful craziness,
multisyllabical
tunes will be sung.




* Learn more about writing Double Dactyls

A Trio of Triolets*

Learning the Triolet

This form will cause my death! This form,
this triolet, will kill me dead.
Before I master metric norm
this form will cause my death! This form,
an epitaph for bod not warm
found carved in stone above my head--
"This form has caused my death! This form,
this triolet, has killed me dead."



Valentine Triolet


When I gave my love chocolate,
a Valentine remembrance sweet,
I soon found out he was a glut
when I gave my love chocolate.
That velvet heart, so quick to gut--
contents plundered, ravaged complete--
when I gave my love chocolate,
a Valentine remembrance sweet.



Rollercoaster


I cling to straps and squeal aloud--
the rollercoaster climbs the peak.
While carny spiels attract a crowd,
I cling to straps and squeal aloud.
My face in frantic glee, its shroud,
reflects pure fear--I cannot speak
but cling to straps and squeal aloud--
the rollercoaster climbs the peak.



* A triolet is a poem or stanza of eight lines
in which the first line is repeated as the fourth and seventh
and the second line as the eighth with a rhyme scheme
of ABaAabAB.

Limericks*

Pyramid Schemes

While in bed with her famed Roman Caesar,
Cleo said, "Jules, you're some kind of pleaser.
When you carpe my cruris
my munitia fall, useless."
"Et tu, my dear vamp--let's reprise 'er!"



Edwina Limerick #1


My much older sister, Edwina,
Took her birthday suit in to the cleanah.
When they shrank it three sizes,
'Ween squealed, "Love surprises!"
And stepped out feeling twenty pounds leanah.



Edwina Limerick #2


My much older sister Edwina's
full birthday suit went to the cleanahs.
When they shrank it a size,
She just squealed in surprise
And felt quite substantially leanah.



Gender Limerick (In response to mine being mistaken on more than one occasion at PFFA)


Though honored with words, kind they be,
Donner's giggling because "he's" a "she".
Her husband of years
Would find it quite queer
If he'd missed all the clues, don't you see?



* Want the low-down on writing a limerick? Click here

All folderol by Donna Smith