Solomon's poetry thread

[redrobbo]

Children love poetry. They enjoy rhyme, metre, alliteration, and they really love a poem which tells a story.

 

I happen to believe that even adults are children at heart. So, whether you are young, or young at heart, here is a tale which I think you'll all enjoy, and it's by one of the greatest writers of children's poems - Ogden Nash. Enjoy!

 

THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

 

Belinda lived in a little white house,

With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,

And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,

And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

 

Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,

And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,

And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,

But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

 

Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,

And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,

Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,

And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.

 

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,

Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,

But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

 

Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,

Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,

They all sat laughing in the little red wagon

At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.

 

Belinda giggled till she shook the house,

And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,

Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,

When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

 

Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,

And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.

Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,

For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

 

Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,

And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,

His beard was black, one leg was wood;

It was clear that the pirate meant no good.

 

Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!

But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,

Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,

And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.

 

But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,

Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,

With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm

He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.

 

The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,

And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,

He fired two bullets but they didn't hit,

And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

 

Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,

No one mourned for his pirate victim

Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate

Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.

 

Belinda still lives in her little white house,

With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,

And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,

And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

 

Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,

Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,

But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.

[hazel]

Custard the Dragon brought back memories Rob.

 

I can't place from where tho-- it was probably in one of the books I bought and read to my children it seems so familiar.

 

hazel

[jobee]

that made you jump

[hazel]

Thank you for the floor

Poems I really adore

Ryhming text

Your turn next

Do you have any more?

 

Well Mr Blue

I'm in a stew

cos I can't find

words in my mind

cos I'm 72

 

 

hazel

[Solomon1]

i had an uncle named Sol

 

alreet there wee nephew o mine!

[Solomon1]

If you can remember a day at the seaside, either as a child yourself or in the company of children, then you'll probably delight in this poem by e e cummings....

 

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)

 

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

 

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

 

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

 

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

 

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea

 

love it red

[Solomon1]

THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

 

Belinda lived in a little white house,

With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,

And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,

And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon....

 

brilliant

[Solomon1]

time for some luuurrrve

[pattricia]

This lovely quiet thread is so peaceful and enjoyable. (Im snowed in )

[Solomon1]

Last Night

 

The next day, I am almost afraid.

Love? It was more like dragonflies

in the sun, 100 degrees at noon,

the ends of their abdomens stuck together, I

close my eyes when I remember. I hardly

knew myself, like something twisting and

twisting out of a chrysalis,

enormous, without language, all

head, all shut eyes, and the humming

like madness, the way they writhe away,

and do not leave, back, back, back,

away, back. Did I know you? No kiss,

no tenderness - more like killing, death-grip

holding to life, genitals

like violent hands clasped tight

barely moving, more like being closed

in a great jaw and eaten, and the screaming

I groan to remember it, and then we started

to die, then I refuse to remember,

the way a drunkard forgets. After,

you held my hands extremely hard as my

body moved in shudders like the ferry when its

axle is loose past engagement, you kept me

sealed exactly against you, our hairlines

wet as the arc of a gateway after

a cloudburst, you secured me in your arms till I slept -

that was love, and we woke in the morning

clasped, fragrant, buoyant, that was the morning after love.

Sharon Olds