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| _silky, igloo, matter, sentry, trying times.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.
It was the worst of times,
ReplyDeleteIt was the best of times.
Poets were trying all the time
To come up with a different rhyme!
Kids had made an ice igloo
To pass the time while out of school.
The silky surface was so cold
It captured tongues of the bold!
To stop this game, a sentry was sent.
To guard the igloo, his intent.
What was the matter with this muddle?
He was guarding ought but a puddle!
”Trying Tribal Ties”
ReplyDeleteThe Inuit guard stood as sentry,
declining entry
to the igloo.
He was not about to admit the silky,
smooth talking, milky-
haired Big Sioux.
Big Sioux thought white hair & his “Native Tribes Matter”
badge should earn trust, so he raised a fresh chatter.
“Brotherhood, or bust!,” he said, “Indigenous folk bar no doors,
Our hearts embrace scores
of First Nations! Don’t you crave
a new wave
of harmony across the land?”
“I do,” said the Inuit. “I do understand.
Between us we could show
the white man the way. But you must know
it’s for your sake I’m on post—
to divert you from the chill & from our ghost.
Once I drop my guard,
what’s left to ward
off your desecration of what we hold beyond price
is, first, the rime, the raw chill of our ice.
“But if the cold fails, once you’re in our home,
you’ll face the sheer horror of a devilish gnome—
Yes! you’ll quake before our guardian spirit—
His awful shriek is starting... I’m sure you can hear it.”
He paused to see if his message had sunk in. Then, one more try:
“Frost!,” he said, “then Terrify!”
~ OMK
"Sentry-fication"
ReplyDeleteThe sentry was a member of the gentry
but his job was often elementary.
It involved a lot of inquiring
that was trying and generally tiring.
He once was obliged to sue
a home with an illegal igloo.
Another silly matter
involved a silky hatter
who lied about denying
that he was doing illegal dying.
But even pursuing ridiculous crimes
gave the sentry some jolly good times.
Quite a sunny poem from our Owen today, from a Dickensian start to an Absurdist finish (& what end is not absurd?).
ReplyDeleteThe inclusion of the tongue freeze supports my own sentry’s threat of “Frost”!
Misty’s verse offers solid bio details, data bits (bites?) from the life of her sentry. I enjoyed the happy tone of her wrap-up couplet.
I liked these J-words. They got me started easily. Once I found I had two indigenous chaps on my hands, I could not see where I was heading.
That I was destined to conclude with a Reagan/Gorbachev encounter truly surprised me.
~ OMK
My goodness, what long, complex, intriguing poems we have this morning.
ReplyDeleteOwen, so cool that you were able to rhyme time with rhyme. And rhyming igloo with school was also pretty cool.
Ol' Man Keith, took me forever to find all the Jumble words in your verse, but there they were, except for your solution. Oh, the title, of course, the theme solution is so often your title. Had to look up Inuit and of course it made sense right away that as a population of Arctic regions they would be very familiar with igloos. Only, let us know more about how your conclusion reflects the Reagan/Gorbachev encounter. My memory is too poor to recall that.
Great verses, fun way to start the day, thank you both.
Sorry you had trouble finding the words, Misty.
ReplyDeleteHere's a hint: no matter how long my poems, I usually cover the J-words up front. Today, for instance, they are all in the first stanza and the first line of the second.
As for the Reagan/Gorbachev reference, there are two famous quotations that came from their meetings. I chose the one that is NOT "Tear down this wall."
In responding to whether the Russians were in compliance with treaty obligations, Reagan quoted a Russian proverb to Mr. G.
You can Google it-- "Doveryai, no proveryai."
I merely saw its Spooner potential.
~ OMK
I looked forward to reactions to this one. I was rather proud of it, as you might suppose.
ReplyDeleteI went back & forth whether to separate the main words with "but," as in the original, but I believe my altered sense required "then" instead.
I could not of course keep ALL the sounds exactly the same. I had to change the fricative "V' to an unvoiced "F" and--what else?--oh yes, the "uh" vowel in the first word to an "aw."
Let me know if you have an opinion.
~ OMK