Poetry And Prose comic poem number 342 by Angela Lansbury

 [09:55, 12/10/2023] Angela Lansbury BA Hons: 

What is a poem and what's fancy prose?

Everyone thinks they're the expert who knows

It's metaphor, image, rhyme and reason

Rhythm and hope, extolling the season

Show life and death, without them, that's treason

Poems should end up with ribbons and bows

I hope this line's strong rhythm clearly shows

Bricks which build poems, not poetic prose

The rhythm and rhyme help you to recite

Good rhymes should be strong, but lines not too long

If you can remember it, it sounds right

But check the grammar so you've done no wrong.

A poem has rhymes you will remember

What's written in March lasts till December

What's learned as a child lasts through life's dips

When needed revives mood, like fish and chips.

-ends-

Humour, passion, reason, the ridiculous or mundane.

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Forest Path comic poem 341 by Angela Lansbury

Path in Botanic Gardens, Singapore. Trevor and Angela pause to pose. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

 I walk from darkness into light

Happy to be alive, alone

From the city, in the forest

Peaceful, quiet like baby's home

I need no bath nor water glass

All I need is the pure fresh rain

I don't need to find a toilet

I hide behind the trees again

I don't need a bike nor a car

Don't need sign posts nor story books

My little feet will take me far

Each tree tells stories if you look

And yet at last lunch time has past

Lonely trails are known for murder

So I'll trot back, catch coach, bus, train

Seek hot coffee, big hamburger..

-ends-

Copyright Angela Lansbury 2023 

The essence of humour is to go in one direction and then, at the last minute, go in the other direction.

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Nothing To Wear comic poem 340 by Angela Lansbury

Drawers full of clothes. Photo by Angela Lansbury.
 

I do not have a thing to wear

I've loads of clothes like uncombed hair

I've silk which does not go with leather

And jeans which do not go with feathers

I've boots although it's hot outside

A missing button, or a stain

I've lots of stuff, too much to hide

Broken umbrellas for the rain

My new top is a size too small

I can't do its zip up at all

And most of the elastic's gone

One dress too short and one too long

I ought to sell what I don't need

But selling's such a dirty deed

An empty shelf? Destroyed! Not freed!

An empty shelf need socks like seeds

Although the bedroom looks like hell

Looking at it makes me unwell

I hunt and sort, but truth to tell

I cannot find one thing to sell.

I cannot throw a thing away

I know selling should start today

What I'd ask is too much to pay

And so the whole lot has to stay.

What do you wear, I hear you say

I cannot make a decision

So I've found a good solution

I wear the same dress every day.

-ends-

Two Girls' Reflections comic poem 339 by Angela Lansbury

Two girls were walking arm in arm

Each right leg matched the other

Both the same race, both the same pace 

Like twins, triplets, sisters,

 brothers

Like two matched cogs, like two matched wheels

I'm sure that they sing together

Matched tee-shirts and matched umbrellas

Matched for rain or summer weather

Like two hear music. and both dance

Two see the same sight, and both glance

Two walk along a country path

Sit at a table, share a bath

Like a horse matched with a rider

Like two bike wheels or four car wheels

Each girl has a friend beside her

Who knows exactly what she feels

I am apart, I am outside

And yet I feel part of their scene

They are performing as I watch

Like a bride, singer, or a queen

Now they have gone like fallen leaves

Like memories of two roses

Part of the jigsaw of my life

Which my tiny brain encloses.

A happy moment which will last

 I see arms locked, recall their laughs

Like a dog's four legs like two halves

As two girls arm-in-arm paced past. 

-ends-

A Writer's Big Decision comic poem number 338 by Angela Lansbury

 

A writer's one big decision

Is producing fact or fiction

Careful not to upset factions

Of well organized religion

when can you reveal a secret

When they'd said promise you'll keep it

Years later, when they're dead and gone

Surely you can speak up, move on?

Until you unexpected find

That distant folk are not so blind

For unaccountably they mind

Protecting what\s been left behind

They think of their reputation

Of their family and nation

Is it damaged beyond repair

We share our ancestors as heirs

So in the writer's anxious eyes

Is built the heaviest disguise

For no matter how hard one tries

The world fights over all your lies

And when you smiling read aloud

To entertain a happy crowd

Prepare, when cornered, what to do

When one demands, was that girl you?

Be honest, is that story true?

You can think and blink, um and ah

But saying no won't get you far

When you sell signed books in the bar

So here's the safest thing to do

You must pretend it isn't you

Set your wild plot up in the stars

Put your whole family on Mars

You can't defame the old, deceased

And at the very, very least

You can escape, and find release.

Pretend the villains wanted peace

Of course you pity those who hide

Of course you pity those who died

It's tempting to kill enemies

Wishful thinking is sure to please

However much the readers scoff

You can't kill hated villains off

That's not the clever thing to do

You need to save them for book two.

-ends-

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A Short Poem comic poem number 237 by Angela Lansbury

 A limerick has just five lines

But gives you lots and lots of rhymes

Japanese, haikus, like cups of tea

Reduce lines' size to only three.

A shorter poem's succinct and tough

One last couplet is quite enough.

-ends-

Angela Lansbury writing with outsize pencil. Selfie photo by Angela Lansbury. 

(How can I be sure it is a selfie if I did not save it with a caption saying so? Because it has the green background of my study and my red chair. The photographer would have to be sitting on my laptop on the desk in front of me. I have obviously taken it with my mobile propped up on the desk top.

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Dreaming, Dreaming rhythmic comic poem number 236 by Angela Lansbury

Dreaming dreams beyond belief

Waking up is a relief

Clearing, clearing, clearing head

Getting, slowly, out of bed

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning teeth

Search for shoes hidden beneath

Just one shoe, who was the thief?

Find the other, what relief!

Waking, waking, waking woke

Eating, eating, eating, yolk

Quickly, quickly, quickly, quick

Licking, lovely, licking, lick

Feeding, feeding, feeding, fed

Reading, reading, reading, read

Speaking, speaking, speaking, spoke

Telling, telling, telling, joke

Boating, boating, boating, boat 

Floating, floating, floating, float

Writing, writing, writing, wrote

Gloating, gloating, gloating, gloat

Building, building, building, brick

Feeling, feeling, feeling, sick

Some people are rather thick

Getting, getting, on my wick

Some people can do no wrong

Longing, longing, longing, long

Moving, moving, moving on

Going, going, going on.

Lovely, lovely, lovely sun

Time to run, and run and run

Til the exercise is done

Some people's idea of fun

If it rains, more rain and rain

It waters the flowers again

As for me, never complain

Ten umbrellas match all  rain

Angela with red umbrella. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Shopping, shopping, shopping shop

Carry bags until I drop

Wonder if I'll ever stop

Keep them till buttons pop

Lovely dresses, dresses, dresses

Nine successes, what success is

Only ever had one flop

Never, ever, ever stop

I'm a poet, poet, poet

So I show it, show it, show it

If you have the talent grow it

Let the whole world love and know it.

Angela writing with outsize pencil. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

-ends-

Copyright Angela Lansbury 2023, Thursday September 5th. 

Read this aloud. It is a triumph, a joy of rhythm. A perfect piece of performance poetry.

I hope to perform it at Swanwick Writers' Summer School in 2024. I must put it on Tiktok.

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