There’s nothing like a good dare. Jack Foley wrote:
Can Clara use
Clerihews
Or is their augury
Pettifoggery?
According to Jack, “The clerihew was invented in 1890 by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who was a schoolboy of sixteen at St. Paul’s in London when the divine numen of Orpheus struck him.
S.P.Mackin
his lips are smack’in
He feeds on books
It’s the library that he cooks
*
Stephanie Manning
gets a lot of tanning
Berkeley to Davis she goes by rail
observes shell mounds along the trail
*
Dore Stein is a blast
he can run very fast
He’s a damn good pitcher
but it won’t make him richer
*
When Julia Hsu makes a moue
birds would fluster and begin to coo
she is someone’s yum-yum
and my sweet chrysanthemum
*
Everyone knows Daniel Brady
who is animated like O’Grady
Life of the party is he
Jokes and silliness are key
*
Wendy Wolters is a rare find
She is very kind
Writes poetry and sings and dances
melts you with her glances
*
Pity Jack “legs” not Diamond, but Foley
in a gangster hat, oh holy moly
He writes clerihews for all his buddies
except for those who are fuddy-duddies
*
Invite Jeanne Lupton to tea
Lipton wont’ do it, says she
Two pink flowers grow out of her hair
Surely they’re sharper than the ears of a hare
SOL! (Smile Out Loud!)
Pity Foley, who has the blues
writing all these clerihews
they seem like bottom of the tank verse:
will he ever get back to blank verse!
My wonderful Clara Hsu
We, your friends, all love you,
For you are keeper of the inn,
The Poetry Hotel, our dearest tradition.
Clara, I love your marvelous crew
of playful curlicues
especially smiled over the lines
for Jack and Jeanne, but all are pretty darn fine!
Clara Hsu
writes a clerihew
for Hsu’s friends who
write them too (IF they do–some write few)
Hey there Ms. Hsu
I think I give up the clerihew
To terse
To be anything other than doggerel verse