As the norm of popular poetry these days shifts strongly in the direction of free-verse, I’ve been missing some good ol’ rhyme and meter.
So, this week I thought I would invite everyone to join me in having some fun with theme and structure. I figured we could start with a round of limericks – they’re easy and entertaining, right? If you need a refresher (or just like nit-picky specifications), a limerick is a five-line poem, often comical in nature, with an A/A/B/B/A rhyme scheme, and typically a 3/3/2/2/3-foot meter – every foot usually amphibrachic (short-STRESS-short), but sometimes anapestic (short-short-STRESS).
The theme for these limericks will be…mythological creatures. Well-known or obscure, from any culture.
If you’d like to participate, just post your poem in the comments! As a bit of incentive, I’ll give the author of the best one (in my very subjective opinion) a $10 USD Amazon credit (as regionally appropriate).
Buy a book, or…anything else.
Once more, simplified – write a limerick about a mythological creature, post it in the comments, and next week (November 3, 2012) the ‘winning’ contribution will get some Amazon money.
To start things off, I’ll leave you with a not-particularly-humorous example of my own:
A dragon lay siege to a castle
And said to himself, “What a hassle
To plunder unaided
And end up half-sated;
I ought to get myself a vassal.”
Bene scribete.
Writin' Fish 
A leprechaun’s rainbow came out
He caused the whole village to shout
Till out came your mom
She sat down with aplomb
And a mountain of skittles fell out
(>^-‘)>
A minotuar was lost in his maze
His mind was in a total haze
He had smoked a rope
Made out of primo dope
So he ate some donuts with glaze
Those dang stoner minotaurs. Always eating my old-fashioneds.
A hurricane named Sandy draws near
Striking the East Coast with fear
Folks prepare for themselves
No water left on store shelves
It’s ok… I’ve got plenty of beer
sorry… didn’t read the part about the mythical creatures first… but hopefully Sandy will end up being mythical in the hype and not cause too much damage for everyone in it’s path.
If only hurricanes were merely myth. (>^-‘)> But, yes, hopefully this one’s bark will be worse than its bite, in any case.
Glad your cooler’s prepared, though. (>^-‘)>
He lay in his crib just a-sleepin’
When in came a snake a-creepin’
He throttled its neck
And said, “what the heck!”
“I’d long for a cat to be peepin’!”
!
A unicorn born to a mare
Sought solace in a punnett square:
“My horn though impressive
Is clearly recessive –
Not wrought for Celebrity’s glare.”
Nice one!
With brazen sword
Across the fjord
The knight traveled far
Into the bizarre
To find night’s magical ward
(though I confess I did not pay attention to the foot meter…)
(>^-‘)>
Second try…
There once was a Baggins named Bilbo –
He renounced his estate in his will though –
And while Hobbits did stare
He vanished mid-air
Leaving Frodo to face the imbroglio.
Ooh.