All hints are in the comments!

Saturday, February 19, 2022

19 Feb. 2022

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|Smiley face| _maize, panda, narrow, gopher, arranged.
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.

11 comments:

Sandyanon said...

Wordplay, but not pun. Doesn't have to be.

OwenKL said...

If you study the fauna of our land
Well the common gopher is at hand.
A voracious little rodent brother,
He'll eat anything from maize to blooming clover!

How unlike the giant panda of China.
His mono-diet would give a man angina!
He eats only bamboo shoots and leaves.
It's a "narrow" selection, if you please!

Nature has a way of arranging these deals.
The gophers must compete for all their meals,
So eat whatever they can find on the ground;
While the panda's unique food makes him round!

Ol' Man Keith said...


All Creatures Great & Small

Some mazes are arranged with narrow tunnels
serving as tracks leading pathway funnels
to test lab animals of various sizes;
encouraged to race by edible prizes,
from raisins to maize (which you may call corn)
to cheese & nuts. Beginning at morn
and lasting till late, gophers & rats
squeeze between slats, with predatory cats
giving chase. For ursine propaganda,
we’ll find a verandah—
an allamanda maze for grizzly or panda!

(Whatever you may hear,
no size bias here.)
~ OMK

Misty said...

"Caring Zookeeper"

Could a gopher be fed some maize?
These were the questions Gary did raise.
Is the best home for a panda
an open space, like a veranda?
And where can you keep a sparrow
in a cage that's not too narrow?
The zoo's homes Gary constantly changed
to make them comfortably arranged.

Misty said...

Well, there was no way we could avoid working a variety of "fauna" into our verses this morning, was there?

Nice to have you focus on the eating habits of your various critters, Owen. And they do have a variety of different diets, don't they?

I love "All Creatures Great and Small" but sadly my TV offers no sound for the channel on which it's presented. So I loved your verse, Ol' Man Keith, and especially the way you worked in both MAZE and MAIZE.

Have a great weekend.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Owen, gophers are indeed “at hand.” We had a classic “gopher problem” in our previous home’s back yard.
To date, old home or new, we’ve not been troubled by pandas*.

Sandy ~ I agree: I guess “wordplay” is correct, although I can’t say it feels playful.
The cartoon was fun, kinda snaky.

Misty ~ Your Gary seems well-intentioned, of a type we see on current zoo TV shows. He may find that mazes—a type of which I merely scratch the surface—help his wards find the ideal layouts for their “biosphere cognition,” surroundings where they feel most at home.
We all just wanna kick back, no?
~ OMK
____________
*
Whew.

Wilbur Charles said...

No longer a barroom gopher, Chet was now a generous giver
Whether his time and caring for a newbie or a gift to deliver
To his chere femme. His latest was the cutest stuffed panda
Which Lois admired while visiting aunt Nora on her veranda.

Chet had narrowed it down and almost chose a Teddy Bear.
Naturally, Lois, was amazed by the present and that he truly cared.

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Since y'all were busy with fauna and flora I decided to stick with my lovers.

WC

Sandyanon said...

Wilbur, glad to know that Chet continues to care about Lois, but especially happy that he cares for newbies too. Chet seems like an all around great person these days.

Misty said...

Wilbur, I just love following that sweet love story of Chet and Lois, and especially his kindness in giving her a stuffed panda for a gift today. They're becoming one of my favorite couples!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yes, Wilbur, it is good to see your originality…
both in avoiding animal house, and in granting a-maz-ing traits to romantic Chet!
(But we all gotta admit to giving that veranda a real workout.)
~ OMK