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| tiger, guard, cannon, birdie, grin and bear it.
Image from the Internet.
The opening poem contains all the words (or variations of them) from today's Jumble.
Comments are welcomed! And couching them in Poetry is definitely NOT required.
Do not explicitly reveal any of the actual answer words until after closing time, but embedding them surreptitiously in comment sentences is encouraged.
It's not difficult to kick the bucket,
ReplyDeleteTo tell Life it's time to go and suck it.
Work in a coal mine, where it's gassy and dirty,
And then just ignore the fate of the birdie.
Apply for a guard job at the local zoo,
Stand fast when a tiger escapes at you.
Join a navy that searches for a privateer,
Let a broadside cannonade end your career.
There's a legend that says any suicide
May become a Reaper, to take others aside.
A scythe-blade like an upside-down grin you'd inherit,
With no other recourse but to Grim and bear it!
Thanks for the gift, Owen! A clever review of life-ending ploys, wry & amusing.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked the final stanza.
FLN ~ Misty ~ No, "Curb" wasn't in my poem. As it was part of the solution, I saved that for the title, and while I often use a rhyming hint when using the title to point toward the solution, I don't necessarily rhyme each word.
Just enough to aim a reader in the right direction.
"He Grinned & Dared It"
Tiger Woods guarded his lead to the final hole.
No cannon could faze him; his concentration was such
that the crowd fell silent as he faced the 18th pole.
He tapped it for a birdie--and the win!--his ol' magic touch*.
~ OMK
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* Amazing, isn't it? How Tiger can steer that tiny ball around acres of grass & sand, up and down greensward, hillocks, and pits, yet can't aim an automobile down a public road...
Brilliant poems this morning, Owen and Ol' Man Keith! A Tuesday delight!
ReplyDeleteEach one of them included every single Jumble word, and you both did a great job including the solution.
Yours had a very serious theme mixed in with the humor, Owen.
And what a kind tribute to Tiger Woods, who has a very difficult road ahead, Ol' Man Keith.
I had a long, miserable wait (the clinic made us wait outside in the cold until we were allowed to come in) to get my second Moderna vaccine this morning. But at least I finally got it, even though I was freezing. Am just praying that I won't now come down with the flu or some other ailment caught at the clinic.
"Pet Choice"
ReplyDeleteFor a pet, should she get a birdie,
or would a tiger be more worthy?
To decide was somewhat hard
--which would be the better guard?
Of course, she could get a bear
who might give her the best of care.
But, like a cannon, he might sound,
and she didn't want huge noise around.
No, the birdie would make her grin,
so he was the one to win.
He sang in his cage all day
and that made her happy and gay.
My mind set was similar to OMK
ReplyDeleteHe was on the Carson show when just a tyke
The Golden Bear* said with a grin, "I've never seen his like"
The Old Guard were wary "Let's wait and see."
What they saw? Birdie after birdie.
Off the tee the drives were like cannon shot
High and straight they flew
And his irons? Sheer beauty they wraught.
The Masters, the Open everyone knew
That it was often this man they'd toast
Tiger Woods. Better than most**
*Jack Nicklaus the other G.O.A.T.
** Famous call on a pivotal chip in 2001 Masters
WC
Tiger needs to hire a full-time chauffeur. Prescription drugs are dangerous too especially for causing drowsiness. Then again, what a tell-all book that driver could tell.
ReplyDeleteFLN, I guess I don't have TCM. I YouTubed and found a dozen segments. What an amazing extravaganza. Drama? "We don't want no stink'n drama!"
As I've said, Sir Brian was the real dramatic hero. A deeply flawed human facing unrequited love. Rebecca too, with unrequited love. Athelstane, who's neglected in most scripts is one who's character develops from Cedric's pawn to his own man.
In my script we'd never actually see or hear Ivanhoe and in the last scene he'd be walking off holding hands with Richard.
OMK, how to portray the stereotypical miserly Jew is a challenge. The Saxon peasant who risked all to bring him the message to bring Ivanhoe to the final battle to save Rebecca's life is barely given A pittance. That's Scott, 1833.
WC
Also, thank you Misty and Sandy for appreciating my penultimate Ivanhoe poem
ReplyDeleteMisty, your poems are getting to be quite good. OMK of course has developed his gift.
Sorry, Misty, you had to endure this morning's cold weather. I don't know if you had any protection at all at the clinic. At least the Bren Center offered the protection of the parking structure before letting people inside.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope you didn't catch a cold waiting for the shot to keep you healthy. Someone should do an SNL sketch on the irony of the situation. (And how many auto engines died while waiting for the drive-up shots?!)
At least you got the Moderna--same as me. One of the "better ones"!
Your poem was fun. Glad she opted for the Birdie. They say "home" to me. My mom always kept a bird, or two or three, when I was a kid. Canaries, budgies, cockatiels.
I don't know that they would be so great on "guard" duty, not nearly as fierce as the tiger. But they make for a terrific early warning system.
I liked your tribute, Wilbur. "Better than most" is a neatly qualified judgment. I'm sure you know much more about golf than I do. I went with the sports theme mainly because I try for a "special" poem by choosing an unusual or secondary meaning of one of the clue words.
Today it was the particular sense of "birdie"; yesterday I went with "plump" as a thing we do with pillows instead of "plump" as an overweight condition.
~ OMK
Better than most was Gary Koch's iconic account of an impossible putt by Tiger Woods
ReplyDeleteWC
Wilbur, delightful golf poem. I'm not a golf player, but nice to see the 'birdie' in your poem--something I recognized.
ReplyDeleteOMK, thank you for your kind comment. Except for having a quick breakfast and taking the pills and putting drops in my eyes, I've slept nearly the whole time since coming home from the clinic, and just woke up a little while ago. I'm feeling a bit more myself now, and hope I'll have enough energy to cook supper in a few hours. But that nerve-wrecking morning really did knock me out.