Poetry Stretch Results - Limericks

The challenge this week was to write a limerick. What fun everyone had! Here are the results.

Nesting, An Egret Limerick from An Egret's Day
by Jane Yolen

Our home it is here in the sticks,
With three very boisterous chicks.
They bully and fight
Until they take flight,
But it’s nothing that we cannot fix.

©2010 Jane Yolen, all rights reserved


Andrea from Just One More Book!! took a break from chemo to offer this poem. Send some healing vibes her way and see how she's doing at We Can Rebuild Her.

a woman on chemo one day
thought the world was just crumbling away
then she felt the clouds lift
and said thanks for the gift
of my life. Now I think I will stay.


Jane Yolen shared this chain of limericks.

A writer who wrote only prose
Took a very unwelcoming pose:
“There are things that no poet
Could bloody well know, it
Takes more than addressing a Rose.”

But the poet, in turn, gave a look.
Said, “It’s more than just writing a book
Of hundreds of pages,
Of arcs, plots, and stages,
Or catching your fish with that Hook.”

The reader addressing the two,
Said, “Nothing you say or you do
Can make my heart twitter.
So stop with the bitter.
Really, you haven’t a clue!”

So which of the three has it right?
Is there poetry or prose in your sight?
Or do both have a place
In the read-writing race,
Bringing all of us readers delight?

© 2010 Jane Yolen, all rights reserved


Kate Coombs of Book Aunt shared this poem.

A housewife once started to jog
With a ferret, three kids, and a dog.
She set a slow pace
And got red in the face,
So instead she decided to blog.

--Kate Coombs, 2010


Jane's Back! Here's what she had to say.
"OK--so limericks are addictive. In honor of Barbara Cooney AND our fair hostess here, I wrote this last one. And now I am quitting cold turkey."

Miss Rumphius loved things of blue
So decided she knew what to do.
She spent her spare hours
By planting blue flowers,
And my! How those hours just flew!

© 2010 Jane Yolen, all rights reserved


Sam wrote this limerick for the Pinkwater Podcast contest. The theme was insects...

There's a fly who parasitizes
and on one beetle it specializes.
It lays eggs in their larvae.
Maggots hatch and are starvy.
So they eat them from their insideses.


Amy Ludwig VanDerwater shared this poem.

There once was a cat with no tail
who ordered herself one by mail.
When it came she said, "Thanks.
I’m no longer a Manx.
It’s too small, but I got it on sale."


Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader shared a limerick she wrote many years ago.

Gorillas and camels and gnus
All hurried to line up by twos...
Couldn't wait to embark
Upon Noah's new ark
And relax on a forty-day cruise.


Williamean Limerick
by Liz Korba of Correspondence.org

I want to write poems – it’s true.
Amazing Word-Art – wouldn’t you?
But how is it done?
I’m having no fun.
Is this meter right? I’ve no clue.

A poem – I think shouldn’t be
So hard that one needs a degree
To understand it,
To deem it legit -
But then I watch lots of TV…

They say Shakespeare wrote in fine rhyme.
I wonder if he’d have the time
If he lived today
Could he find a way
To cook, work AND write words sublime?

OK, so a Shakespeare I’m not.
I’m just a raft. He’s a yacht.
Is that metaphor?!
Would you like some more?
It may be that I have a shot!

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.