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Image(s) 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.
Sorry if I keep sounding negative, but these solutions are, IMO, getting steadily less inventive, less punny, and less fun. That's the first time I've been quite so ctitical; sorry again.
ReplyDeleteA safari, a safari! The family is excited!
ReplyDeleteOff to exotic lands they are invited!
Well, not Africa, not quite that far.
Just down to Tampa, Florida by car.
A tour of Big Cat Rescue still will be a treat.
And staying in a hotel, they will have a suite!
Leopards and tigers, and ocelots and bobcats;
To see them alive, not on videos or broadcasts.
This will be the first time to visit real lions.
Once they were exhibits for circuses to rely on.
Males with their throats encased by manes,
Lionesses in their prides, in sanctuary remain.
Sandy, I'm afraid I agree with you. The answers are only rarely funny any more. I guess after 60+ years, they're running dry, so best to look at them mainly just as puzzles, that occasionally result in a worthwhile pun. Today at least had a double meaning, even tho neither was particularly funny.
ReplyDeleteFLN, Wilbur ~ Enjoyed your Reagan/O'Neill dialog, though I admit it took a few readings to figure out where you intended the quote marks to close.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the infamous Boston tunnel that had tremendous cost overruns? And didn't it collapse or something?
BTW, re. Shelley and his "mills": He was entitled to screw around with word order back then. His generation of poets affected a rarefied English usage, as they meant for poetic expression to appear stilted & "unusual."
Compared to us they were all scholars, familiar with Latin where (because of its different cases) word order can be jiggled about with no harm to sense.
~ OMK
"Verse? Rhyme?"
ReplyDeleteThe Ma-&-Pa baby video cam
covered a two-room suite,
showing the twin cribs of the Franklin Fam-
ily, with density crisp & neat.
The caged canary in the window
graced the audio with his full-throated cry.
He timed his call to fill the limbo
when the babies' screams went dry.
A fortnight after the twins came home,
the Franklins heard silence-- first time!
"What a blessing," sighed Ma, "Hear that, Jerome?
Back to our verses! Ya gotta good rhyme?!"
~ OMK
Sandy, you say you wanna go back in time?
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a video of what was to be the first time
The tightening in the throat , expectations sublime
Just me and my friend. The family home in their suite
And when the climax finally came it was oh so very sweet
That was day, I never felt so happy, so joyously alive
As when my friend the bat met ball. I'd just turned five
WC
Fln, yes. What a boondoggle. They used Summer epoxy and a support beam fell- right on top of a car killing the passenger.
ReplyDeleteRonny got his missiles, Tip got his tunnel. A few billion turned into 20+. But downtown traffic could finally move.
Wow! Wow! Wow! Three fantastic verses in the morning, each one containing all the Jumble words and solution! What a terrific way to start the week! Thank you all, guys, for this great start!
ReplyDelete"Reunion"
ReplyDeleteThe family had rented a suite
where their relatives they would greet
and at last have a chance to meet.
For some this was the first time
seeing children now in their prime,
an occasion they must tape on video
to record this memorable show.
Grandfather had written a note
that his son at the service did quote
with warm sentiment in his throat.
The event ended with a libation
to commemorate this grand occasion
of a wonderful family celebration.
Bravo, Owen!
ReplyDeleteYou lead us off this week with a reminder of the joy of witnessing wild animals in a natural habitat.
I enjoyed this--especially reading the stanzas backwards! Tampa is always more fun when it comes as a surprise.
Surprise is what you use, Wilbur, in your sweet poem of a boy and his bat--same technique Tolstoy uses in "Kholstomer"!
I'd say you're in good company!
Although written in past tense, Misty, yours is what was known historically as an "occasional poem." Not meaning "random," but to celebrate a special "occasion."
We don't seem to have many of them any more. (Well, maybe at presidential inaugurations.)
~ OMK
Keith, I just looked at your verse again, and love that it deals with a family that now has infant twins in the house, along with a canary. I had canaries for years, and I believe my last one was named "Tweety." I should have gotten one again after losing my sweet doxies Misty and Dusty to coyotes. Those little birds are actually pretty safe in their cages and so can live at home for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Misty!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a home with birds--singing canaries, and beautiful parakeets, budgies, and cockatiels. We also kept cats. While that may seem a dangerous combination for the birds, it was perfectly safe. My mother was in charge, and the bird cages were always higher than any cat could jump.
On the occasions when we let the larger cockatiels out to fly around the living room, we each kept guard at a door to be sure the felines were on the other side.
Why don't you get one or more canaries now? What a good idea!
~ OMK
I've thought of it too, OMK, but I'm really into the wildlife in my back patio these days, with many birds, including tiny little ones and occasional pigeons, and squirrels, and occasional rabbits, and, of course, lizards, and my favorites, Monarch Butterflies, and others. And I still have "Gophy", a tortoise of the species Gopherus Agassisi, that my late husband Rowland acquired when he was 22 years old, and tended through three marriages including the last one with me. When we had our house remodeled, we had a large triangular structure built in a back area of the patio, with wood flooring and a drain, and a corner that Gophy sleeps in every night. If my math is right, Gophie is probaby close to my own age in the seventies.
ReplyDeleteOMK, my Tolstoy currently is Anna Karenina. Poor Anna.
ReplyDeleteDid I gull anyone in with "climax" etc. ??
WC
Wilbur, wish I understood your verse about an exciting and wonderful experience you had when you were five years old? But what was it? Something to do with baseball? Would love to understand it better.
ReplyDelete(I was still living in Austria when I was five and had no idea that something like baseball existed anywhere in the world).