Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
This month, our Poetry Princess challenge was limericks around the theme of birds and bees. Take that them any way you like;>) This was Tanita’s pick, and I was so glad she picked something short and fast, as I have been teaching at Young Authors Conference all this week, and I wrote these in my classroom between sessions on Wednesday. This picture of my dad’s gladiolas really goes with the Twitter Outage limerick below. He has been on a gardening tear lately, both as a tribute to my mom, who died in 2016, and also to try to coax some of the birds she loved back into the yard.
Scarlet in Late Snow
With a flutter and flurry of wing,
Cardinal announces, “Spring!”
He’s the hopeful red heart—
a flash of fresh start.
Even nature appreciates bling.
Dance with Bee… [He wants to sip your pollen, can’t you see…]
When the honeybee enters its hive,
he jitterbugs, then does a jive.
His honeybee dance
is a map to the plants
whose nectar will keep bees alive.
Twitter Outage
(coming up on two years after my mom’s death)
It’s hollow and quiet at dawn.
No birds congregate on the lawn.
There’s nothing they need.
No welcome. No seed.
It’s emptier now with Mom gone.
–all poems © Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
I know you’ll enjoy the fun and silliness of more limericks with my Poetry Sisters! I didn’t participate last month, as I was out of the country. I missed it! (These links are correct but won’t work until their posts go live, so if one doesn’t work, try back later today:>)
Kelly
Liz
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Andi is taking 2018 off from the pressures of deadlines and sharing, but she’ll return :>)
Click here to see all our previous Poetry Princesses collaborations.
And don’t forget to check out the Poetry Friday Roundup with Buffy Silverman at Buffy’s Blog. I always love her sciencey, naturey poems!
28 Responses
Love the bling rhyme–made me smile. And now you’ve got me singing “Dance with Me.” Orleans was a favorite with my buddies freshman year in college, but now I will associate it with waggling honeybees!
Excellent. The song has been in my ear since writing this dang thing. Plus “Letter B” from Sesame Street because of Sara’s limerick. I’m getting a bit tired of both songs!
I love each one, that “flutter and flurry of wing”, always miss the cardinals here, but that final one, the “Twitter Outage” is a subtle title, poignant and beautiful, Laura.
Thank you, Linda–that one took me by surprise a little bit…
Thanks for this trio that shows the depth possible with a form that’s usually saved for silly. I love all three: the “bling,” the “jitterbug,” and the heart-sore “Twitter Outage.”
Thank you, Mary Lee. Hugs in memory of our moms…
So cute!
Hope, happiness, and sadness captured beautifully in your limericks. Thank you for sharing them, Laura.
Thanks, Kimberly:>)
I love that line “hopeful red heart” YES. All of these are lovely, including the poignant empty lawn. They will come back. Surely they will.
By the way, I gave you the wrong link for my post. Sorry! It’s: http://saralewisholmes.blogspot.com/2018/06/poetry-friday-trio-of-limericks.html
Thank you, Sara–my dad is sure doing his darnedest. But Mom was the nurturer…
What I loved about yours is how they all three felt so unique in tone and feeling — something that’s hard to accomplish in this form, I think. I love that honeybee dance — and the cardinal’s bling!
Thanks, Liz. It felt odd to go more serious with a limerick! But that’s what came out in that third one…
I usually frown upon limericks. I guess we all have our favorite forms, but these help me see that you can go deeper with a limerick. The last one with your mom missing tugs at my heart.
Hehe–I see your teacherly disapproval! And I’m not big on limericks, either. But I actually enjoyed writing these. Thanks for reading!
I really think you nailed this form, which is a funny thing to say — ANYONE can write a limerick, right? Well, maybe. But not everyone can write them WELL and make us FEEL with them, so well done to you.
And for year two, may your mother’s memory continue to be the blessing that brings you and Dad good moments.
Thanks, Tanita–I’m not a huge limerick fan, so that means a lot. Thanks for the good thoughts, too!
That last poem is so bittersweet, but I love it. And I so love the first poem. Lovely work!
Thanks, Tricia.
My favorite is the honeybee limerick. And that last one is so haunting–not what I expect from a limerick, but I like it.
Thanks, Kay!
I like how you’ve stretched these nature base limericks to have meanings all there own, and especially the melancholic yet beautiful one about your mom, thanks.
Thank YOU, Michelle. I appreciate that you read them:>)
I have to echo the previous comments about how your limericks really show the depth possible within the form–depths I certainly hadn’t imagined before. Each is wonderful (the bling line made me laugh), but your final one is so beautiful and moving. Having that intensity of emotion within the traditionally light-hearted form of a limerick really enhanced it.
Thanks, Molly. I appreciate that!
Love these lines in Scarlet: “He’s the hopeful red heart—a flash of fresh start.” And I agree with everyone else, your last poem was a surprise, but an effective one. Hope the birds come back.
Thanks, Michelle! The birds are coming back, slowly. There was a flashy cardinal at the feeder most of the time I was down there:>)