DEC 10, a brief saga (garden intruders): stinkhorn (red-basket) fungus

( a ‘brief saga’ in five singable limerick stanzas)

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: These verses can be sung to “We Three Kings” as per YouTube HERE. The song, as discussed in Wikipedia, was the first popular Christmas carol written in America. 

ORIGINAL POETRY LYRICS: The original two stanzas were composed in limerick format by registered pseudonym Giorgio Coniglio in November 2016. After undergoing their rigorous collaborative editing process, these have been published at the poetry web-site OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form); they have then been displayed as poetry lyrics on our personal blog. 

SETTING WORDS TO MUSIC: Readers might be interested to know that of more than 1000 short poems that we have published, only 50 or so would qualify as “brief sagas”. We had arbitrarily set the limit for this entity as including at least three standard limerick verses. Although almost any limerick verse (e.g. the “Nantucket limericks”) can be set to music, we were particularly interested in exploring this transitioning for these multiverse poems that warrant the time to pick up your ukulele. Although this particular poem was one of our favorites, you can see why it did not quite qualify as a “brief saga”.

Readers may be surprised to realize that “We Three Kings” embodies the limerick rhyming scheme. As the lines of the original Christmas carol are quite short, some modification of the poem was required to fit the template.

first stanza:/ Could it be that aliens brung us/ That strange life-form, red-basket fungus?/ Send and ban it/ From our planet/ Lest it move in among us. Oh! 

second stanza:/ Orangey nerf-ball, named for stench/ Watering eyes, teeth want to clench/ Swarms of flies/ It’s no surprise,/ Are guided to your garden bench.

third stanza:/ Plastic bags wrap flyers thrown on drive — / Perfect size so spores won’t survive./ Enclose the stench,/ Trash what you trench,/ For now, bits of joy derive. Oh! 

fourth stanza:/ Orangey nerf-ball, named for stench — / Watering eyes, teeth want to clench./ Full-sized flies,/ And gnats misprized/ Likewise despised by swain and wench.

  

 Authors' Note: Clathrus ruber is a startlingly shaped species of saprophytic fungus that resembles an orange plastic toy ball. Its interior surfaces are coated with a foul-smelling slime that attracts flies, which then disperse the fungal spores. The characteristic fetid odor of the fungus resembles that of rotting meat. Other common names include latticed stinkhorn, red cage fungus, and basket stinkhorn. 

Readers, you are fortunate to have all our poetic comments on creatures (animal and vegetable), devoted to subverting your gardening plans. To view this collection our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense", click HERE! You can also review illustrated verses about orderly garden inhabitants by proceeding to 'Poetry Praising the Charleston Garden' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

For the purpose of this blog, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 11 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. 

 There are now over 40 of these lengthier bits of doggerel featured at OEDILF in Giorgio's "Author's Showcase". The OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly since January 2020. And the good news is that almost all limerick-derived verses can be se to music!

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (November 2023 ), back up to 'creep, crept and variants'.

To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.

2020
2021
2022
2023.