I am no poet, but I can write a mean bit of doggerel. I am particularly fond of Limericks.
A limerick is a five-line comic poem with a rhyme scheme of AABBA. Lines 1, 2 and 5 have three feet, shorter third and fourth lines have only two feet.
Well, that takes all the joy out of a funny, slightly ribald, joke poem.
A better definition is this by that ubiquitous author Anon:
The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
Sorry, you are not going to get the dirty ones here. But they aren’t hard to find. You probably even know a few.
Edward Lear was famous for this form of poetry, and he was really good at it. Many are both clean and funny.
Here is another by Anon.
An epicure dining at Crew
Found quite a large mouse in his stew
Said the waiter, "Don't shout,
Or wave it about,
Or the rest will be wanting, one too."
When I have an idea for a story, or a journal entry or any number of other things, I stick it in a word file, try to give it a title that I will recognize, and save it on a thumb drive. Every now and then I will go through one of my drives and find all kinds of treasures. Yesterday I found a file entitled Newlin Doggerel. In it were two bits I don't remember writing.
A word about the setting for these bits of idiocy. Newlin Grist Mill is a bit of nature set on Route 1, in the midst of suburban sprawl. We have an operating 1704 grist mill, 160 acres of trails with various habitats. Balancing the history, the nature conservancy and the needs of the park goers isn't always easy.
First the limerick.
Said the snake to the toad and the frog
We live in this wonderful bog
But life isn’t gay
When every day
We are chased by that gentleman’s dog.
And then the blander form of poetry. If this form has a name, I don't know what it is. Do you?
Little drops of water
Fall upon the pond
Overflow the mill dam
And the stream beyond.
Cover up the parking lot
Turn the paths to mud
So welcome to the grist mill
And our annual spring flood.