From Mad To Verse
(Old note on the day Ogden Nash cached in.)
Jabberwock, ode to a skylark,
he'd used any device (licit or il)
slyly to entice words to a lip tease;
that harlequin in word-paint on a stanzaic trapeze,
slapstick Houdini of phonetic cajolery
hocus-pocused versentences into breathless, paragraph-long forced (Holy Moly)
marches until they began to huff and puff, then yank them somersaulting
into rhyme-ribbing drollery.
Alas and alack, from mad to worsa,
his quipster's pen stalled, smack in mid-snicker,
candy still dandy and liquor quicker,
that clanging prankster,
that tricktionary, syntaxical most-wanted gangsta
bequeathed us pun-ditry of snigger and flashery-
crackerjack, whip-snap, impish, funny-boned, taffy-pull
Ogden Nashery.
poem by William F Dougherty
Added by Poetry Lover
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