Tag: Amusing

Killing Miss Muffet’s Spider

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 13 Comments

Today’s prompt at the Writer’s Digest April 2023 Challenge site is to write a response poem.

This poem may respond to one of your own poems, or to a poem by another poet. It could also be a response to something you read in the news, to the person who cut you off in traffic. Use your imagination.

Okay, here’s my imaginative response to an old nursery rhyme.

Killing Miss Muffet’s Spider

Little Miss Muffet
likes to sit on her
tuffet, consuming
her Cheerios and whey
but if a spider –
in all innocence, I’m sure –
happens along and
sits its minuscule self
beside, above, below,
or – Heaven forbid! –
on her,
she comes running
to me! “You’re the one,”
she flatters,
“brave enough to deal
icky squishies
their death blow.”
“Hurry,” she wails.
“Come kill
this loathsome bug
or it surely will bite me
somewhere!
And what can one say
to such wide-eyed terror?
So I play the heavy, 
Jack the giant killer,
the meanie who murders
the monsters that menace
Miss Muffet
while she sits on her
tuffet
and leaves me to it.

Spider image: Peter Schmidt — Pixabay

Intimate With Light

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 5 Comments

Here’s today’s prompt for National Poetry Month. However, this morning I’m going back to the third prompt and do another OPPOSITES verse. I’ll publish the poem that’s inspired me, then my opposite, which is quite whimsical. I’ve made it rhyme and had fun working it out. 🙂

Acquainted with the Night

by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Intimate with Light

I enjoy being intimate with light!
I gaze up at rainbows and soak in the sun;
I amble my way down the bright city streets
where cars and pedestrians frown and run.
I wander aimless down candescent country lanes
Or stop to chat with some guy sweeping street,
Lift my eyes to each person, bold to share
joy and lightness with folks I might meet.
I may waltz through some suburb sanguinely
even should passers-by stop to gawk,
warnings issue from stores near at hand,
or some schoolmarm-type gives me a talk.
Shady folks tell me off or shout “Hey, you!”
Or the clang of twelve bells from a steeple,
tones mingling with the cooing of pigeons
and migrations of lunch-going people
may warn, “It’s high time!” I’m indifferent,
for I enjoy being intimate with light.

A Cosmic Law?

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 7 Comments

Have You Noticed…

a hole in your sock
always finds a toe,
a coin, the hole in a pocket
a law of the universe
the curious sheep
finds the one gap in the fence,
the Sunday-dressed child
find a puddle en route
fly balls are drawn toward
neighbours’ windows
and roving deer toward
the choicest blooms
a law of fatal attraction,
was written down in stone
on the day Eve reached
for one forbidden fruit?

National Poetry Month

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 8 Comments

I’ve just realized National Poetry Month starts April 1st.
Here’s the link from the League of Canadian Poets.
I imagine a lot of bloggers — and very good poets — will be taking up this challenge in April. Will you be one of them?

Hmm… Could I actually write a poem every day for a month? For sure I could string together words – even verses that rhyme – but how many would be very memorable, would resonate with readers? How about…

The Flirt

Roses are pink;
violets are mauve.
He may give you a wink
but his eye’s apt to rove.
😉

Or maybe I’d have this discussion with my muse…

Gazing
into my coffee
searching its creamy swirl
for poetic ideas.
Calling up my muse
ordering her
to dream up a verse.

“I’m busy,” she says.
"Tied up with your last
WIP. Remember,
you haven't finished it yet.
Call me later."

"Well, then – shall I
turn to AI?
You’ll be redundant, Muse.
Out of a job
if you don’t get cracking!"

“Fire me
and you’ll be brain dead
next year,” she replies
petulantly.

Haiku in Chocolate

~ Christine Goodnough ~ 7 Comments

I’ve just checked out The Haiku Foundation’s Troutswirl and read the submissions for the monthly KUKAI. The theme is chocolate and I can see it’s not the easiest subject on which to write a short, proper haiku. Still, an amazing variety have been submitted and readers are invited to vote on which they like best. Some are humorous, some romantic, some are almost risqué. Others deal on the child-labour aspect of harvesting cocoa pods. If you’re interested, you can READ THEM HERE.

Inspired by the various thoughts, here’s a hodge-podge of verses I’ve written on the theme. I trust some will give you a smile.

chocolate bunny
the hesitant child
nibbles the tail
mom’s chocolate chippers
still warm on memory lane
abiding comfort
children’s party
a stack of Oreo wafers
all licked clean
shopping Plus Sizes
the chocolates I’ve eaten lately
come along
eying the curves
of her chocolate cake
his heart races
her longing gaze
wanders once more to his
plate of brownies

The Ragtag Daily Prompt this morning: RISQUÉ