Inspired Poetry

[Eureka]

(The winner of the challenge to change a quote into a rhyming couplet is.... kb83! )

"When you deplore the conditions in the world, ask yourself, am I part of the problem or part of the solution? " — Unattributed

kb83
May 30, 2023, 2:26 pm
Conditions in the world which you deplore, Ask if you help or are the reason for.

[Eureka]

"We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's." — Henry Ward Beecher

DrCryptell
November 25, 2021, 9:34 pm
God can take tomorrow; I'll cede God yesterday. I want to keep the present, And frolic in today.

hrossa
December 27, 2022, 11:49 pm
It the poem yours, DrCryptell? If so, nice going!

[LLapp]

"All changes are more or less tinged with melancholy, for what we are leaving behind is part of ourselves." — Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

kb83
January 2, 2019, 8:19 am
Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr Went for a drive in a shiny white car, ...

letfreedomring
September 16, 2019, 3:03 pm
to get to the neighborhood deli. She didn't go in, and continued her spin, going home with her still empty belly.

[Eureka]

(A two-author poem is particularly charming when one player finishes a poem that another player inadvertently starts.)

"Forgiveness is the scent that the rose leaves on the heel that crushes it " — Unattributed

wobray2
January 18, 2016, 12:57 am
The first time I saw this quote, it was "violets" (though there have been several variations per (link)

LLapp
April 8, 2017, 10:20 am
wobray2, the main difference is that roses are red and violets are blue.

darkyr
July 17, 2017, 8:02 am
Your heel smells of flowers, what did you do?

[Eureka]

"Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers. " — George Orwell

bansaisequoia
February 3, 2010, 7:34 pm
This ode is not for shirkers,But earthly common workers, What bliss it is to be on, The level of a peon.

universalmom
January 14, 2013, 10:34 pm
Hahaha...that's awesome

LLapp
December 11, 2014, 7:10 pm
Bansais, did you write that? It's excellent.

skeeter
August 15, 2015, 9:52 am
I wish my pup would be on / The papers meant to peon.

universalmom
January 22, 2016, 1:55 pm
Even better, skeeter!!

abra
June 28, 2016, 2:32 pm
Such poets!! LOL, Skeeter.

[LLapp]

"It takes two to speak truth - One to speak, and another to hear." — Henry David Thoreau

kb83
May 18, 2017, 2:56 am
A one-legged monsieur from France
Asked Carmen Miranda to dance.
Said she 'neath her mango,
"It takes two to tango,
I can back up but you can't advance."

LLapp
January 2, 2019, 3:43 pm
kb83 -- Original, right? Wonderful.

kb83
August 5, 2022, 11:42 am
Yes, LLapp, this was one of my best efforts. I am particularly proud of the implied double meaning "two legs", which is a twist on the usual meaning of the phrase "it takes two".

[LLapp]

(First line in kb83's comment is not part of the limerick; it's meant to correct the spelling of the author's name.)

"Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due." — Domitus Ulpian

kb83
March 9, 2022, 11:59 am
It is Domitius Ulpian. A bright young lad named Domitius, Thought the law would be highly propitious, He studied nonstop And rose to the top But was killed in a manner most vicious.

[LLapp]

"There was a young man of Dundoo, whose limericks stopped at line two." — Anonymous

kb83
October 26, 2014, 9:46 am
But thanks to his friends/ There were no loose ends,/ And so he could start all anew.

CryptoB
October 19, 2018, 8:14 am
He left unafraid, his lines were unmade, and was cited for limerick abuse.

[Eureka]

(Okay, technically this is a song, but I couldn't resist including it. And isn't a song just a poem paired with music?)

"Be enthusiastic. Remember the placebo effect - thirty percent of medicine is showbiz." — Ronald Spark

blueladyblue
June 14, 2018, 8:36 am
There's no business like the science or practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease business like no business I know. Everything about it is ahealing, everything that insurance will allow. Nowhere could you get that sickly feeling when you are reeling an extra "ow."

[hrossa]

Oh that is just wonderful darkyr

[Eureka]

(I'm so glad I came across this delightful version of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"!)

"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply and did not take, my heart is like to break." — Akhenaton

Lurker
July 23, 2013, 4:34 pm
When I did this one, the letters representing the word "look" were "beer". While that made it easier to decide that the double letter should be O, it was very distracting!

montyb
April 25, 2015, 7:17 am
The beer not taken?

badbob
August 15, 2016, 12:12 am
it is obvious that he was looking for beer

darkyr
April 6, 2019, 3:54 pm
So true montyb. May it please the court: Two beers presented on a bar of wood And sorry I could not drink both And be one drinker, long I stood And pondered the first as well I could Of the select ingredients of which it quoth. Then looked the other, just as cold, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was frothy, rich and bold; Though as the ABV foretold, They were really about the same, And both that evening equally dear In bottles frosted and dark. Oh, I kept the first as a second beer! As knowing how beer leads on to beer, I wandered out into the park. I shall be telling this with sigh Somewhere days and days hence: Two beers presented on a bar, and I I took them both to keep me high, And, may it please the court, that is why I peed the fence.

LLapp
July 13, 2019, 1:48 am
Pretty deft adaptation, darkyr. We need to have a poetry festival made out of impromptu poetry in the comments.

[LLapp]

Haiku from kb83. I've changed his slashes to line breaks.

"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain." — Aeschylus

kb83
May 5, 2022, 10:58 am
Fear can oft be good.
Watching over all of us
Wisdom won from pain.

[Deanna48]

KB83 just penned that one this week!!

[Deanna48]

"When your suffering is a little greater than my suffering I feel that I am a little cruel."
— Antonio Porchia

kb83
March 21, 2023, 12:13 am
Alas, poor Antonio Porchia, His brain went through mental contortia, It's always in vain, All pain and no gain, No wonder he had no consortia.

[Eureka]

"To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all. " — Walt Whitman


blueladyblue
January 30, 2020, 5:07 pm
There once was an artist in humanity when bad manners were conflated with vanity But let's interject With the most picturesque and significant of all: it's insanity.