FEB 11, poetic non-sequitur: epistaxis

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 16, non-sequitur: epistaxis

 Here's a verse that exemplifies use of the prefix EPI- ...

Authors' Note: 

peccadillo: loan-word from Spanish meaning 'little sin’

epistaxis (eh-pih-STAK-sihs): bleeding from the nostrils

b) birdie-pic (from last summer)

blue jay

FEB 10 (2024), singable satire: The Eagles sing "BROKEN ARROW"

 SAD ANTI-WAR SATIRE:

ORIGINAL SONG:  "Desperado", The Eagles, 1973. "Desperado" is also the name of the second studio album recorded by the band. 

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, March 2018.
PARODY-WORDLINK: The original story was encountered as a 60th anniversary reprise by the Charleston SC daily newspaper Post and Courier. Another take on this interesting episode has been twisted into limerick verse by  Giorgio in a 3-stanza poem HERE. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: The same tune was used as the vehicle for a parody song posted in 2014 entitled "Macadamias".

To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Broken Arrow" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

BROKEN ARROW

(to the tune of "Desperado")

"Broken Arrow" - Why don't we drop the pretenses
The Department of Defense has hidden truth 'til now.
Hardened warheads (or just training simulation),
And the trigger didn't detonate the payload somehow.

We're talking Cold War '58, and a farm near Florence in our rural state.
Air pocket, training crew, bomber overhead.
They lost control of a big device
A nuclear explosion wouldn't be nice.
Had it triggered, folks in Florence'd all be dead.

"Broken Arrow" - from the heavens bomb tumbled.
When A-bombs are fumbled, there's no time for alarm.
Flattened farmhouse, and left a 30-foot crater, but
No plutonium detonater, so 'no serious harm'.

Just months before, off the Georgia shore, two Air Force planes collided;
Never found, an H-bomb ditched into the sea.
Plutonium capsule had been removed (official account's not yet disproved)
Near Tybee Island, the device rests quietly.

Broken Arrows - there are dozens of examples.
The evidence is ample, we should close off this gate.
World leaders, we're needing
Diplomatic moderation.
Let's halt reckless provocation, reckless provocation,
Let's stop arms proliferation before it's too late.

FEB 9, defining opinion: housewife

 

Our blogpost "Defining Opinion" on the topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" shows a selection of similar verses submitted to OEDILF (the online Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.

FEB 8, wordplay maps: new world palindromes (#5,#6)

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 8, wordplay maps: new world palindromes (#5,#6)

You can view the entire collection of these 50 wordplay maps, by accessing the collection 'Tourists Palindromic Guides: The Americas'. Start by clicking HERE! 

b) current birdie-pics

bluebird window strikes
resumed  despite marker installation.
intentional, maladapted behaviour?

bluebird silhouette

FEB 7, poets' corner: the depressed limericist

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 10, poets' corner: the depressed poet

Authors' Note: In the above limerick verse, dehiscitude (reminiscent of 'dehiscence'), and remissitude (reminiscent of being 'remiss' in the sense of 'culpable') are neologisms (word concoctions) invented by the author. Wound dehiscence, or 'failure of primary (wound) closure', is a feared surgical complication, found mostly in the province of abdominal surgeons and trauma surgeons; it seldom affects the professional practice of psychiatrists or limericists. 

You can find lots of other verses on this blog under the listing "Poets' Corner".  Click HERE. 

b) current birdie-pic

ongoing problems with window strikes:
a pair of apparently deranged bluebirds

FEB 6, Carolina lowcountry: Shipping News

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 6, Carolina lowcountry: Shipping News

b) current birdie-pic

downy woodpecker

  

FEB 5, savoir-faire: Gallicisms

 

a) reprise from February, 2020

FEB 5, savoir-faire: Gallicisms

 

 You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Check the post 'Vers Francais: Savoir-Faire' by clicking HERE. 

b) current birdie-pic    

                                                           

House finch, house sparrow and goldfinch
remote shutter (bluetooth) initiated 

             

   

FEB 4, trees: Muir Woods

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY to JMH!!!

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 4, trees: Muir Woods

TO ENLARGE any slide or stand-alone photo on this blog, just click on it. To reverse the process, and return to this standard view, find the little 'x' in the upper right corner of the black field and click there.

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Uprooted Verse: 'Poems about Trees' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". 

b) current birdie-pic

Carolina chickadee

FEB 3, palinku (poetic novelty): precepts

  In this post, we will continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, this new form is used for a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its classic Japanese analogue, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence in English (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards). 

  To help the reader discern the origin of the lyrics, each palindrome (generally occupying one of the three lines of the poem) has been color-coded. 

ADDENDUM: Anyone for tenets?

(Ed. note:) Verses of this unique type have continued to accumulate. You can view them all at one swoop if you  proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

FEB 2, Dennis sinned: celebration of palindromes

 

a) reprise from February 2020:

IN CELEBRATION OF A PALINDROMIC DAY -- 02/02/2020

(With many thanks to my good friend, Eric K., for his reminder about this important occasion.)

If you are overwhelmed by an urge to sing about Dennis's sinful relationships, you can satisfy those urgings by clicking HERE. 

b) current birdie-pic

Northern mockingbird

FEB 1, homophonous verse: deserving/commendable

Authors' Note: 

syl: jargon used in the doggerel trade; a short form of syllable

Although the adjective deserving has come euphemistically to be applied to the needy, it classically was applied only to people or things that were commendable or admirable.

You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Check the post "Homophonous Verse" by clicking HERE. 

JAN 31, Carolina lowcountry: 'winter' excursion

 a) reprise from 2020

FEB 1, Carolina lowcountry: winter afternoon bicycle outing

If you are viewing these photos with an i-phone:
1) Hovering the selection arrow over any photo will prompt the appearance of the 'title'.
2) You can enlarge any photo (a black background may appear) by clicking it.
3) To escape from black-background-display limbo, look for a TINY 'x' in the far upper-right corner, and click there.
The procedure is mostly the same on a PC, but the tininess of the escape mechanism on my iphone7 is truly remarkable.

Giorgio (on the left) with
Pete the Plastic Pelican

Other Canadian retirees

At the harbor,
Mt. Pleasant SC

Lunch: Heron-herring?
No! That's a great egret with a shrimp

lowcountry pizza-boxes

b) current birdie-pic

window-strike by persistent bluebird: frontal view

JAN 30 (2024), singable satire: Jake Shimabukoro plays "WHILE MY UKE WORDLESSLY SINGS"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" written by George Harrison, and recorded by the Beatles for their 1968 album "The Beatles".         

JAKE'S RENDITION, "While My Uke Wordlessly Sings": Jake Shimabukuro had started playing instrumental ukulele as a band member, but in 2002 broke into a solo career. In 2006, a video of Jake's virtuoso rendition of the Beatles song became one of the first to 'go viral' on that site, and has accumulated 16 million hits. The author of this blog has been privileged to attend three Jake concerts in the last 5 years; recently these have included guitar collaborators and a few vocals, but the emphasis remains on instrumental ukulele. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January 2019.

SONGLINKS: The parody-lyrics for "While My Uke Wordlessly Sings" with accompanying chords for guitar or ukulele players are found on our lyrics-blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" HERE. 

(Giorgio's other satire lyrics substituted to Beatles' songs include "Vonnegut" (Imagine); "Saturday Night" (Yesterday); "Brennan's Tweet" (Let It Be), and "Relic Submarines" (Yellow Submarine).)
 

WHILE MY UKE WORDLESSLY

 SINGS

George Harrison

(to the tune of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps")

To Jake Shimabukuro I listen enraptured

While his wordless ukulele sings.

I look at his band, the song's spirit they've captured,

Arranged so his ukulele sings.

Hawaiian family that enclosed you

Teach and perform on uke.

Though you don't sing, some force convinced you to 

Play virtuoso uke.

You played with teen bands, then began upward spiral,
Developing a novel style.

And "While My Guitar.." went iconically viral

You did instrumental uke all the while.

Your reputation's undisputed --

The world's saluted you.

On concert tours you speak unmuted,

Ukulele-san, that's you.

I listen enraptured to Jake Shimabukuro

While his wordless ukulele sings.

I look at his band, the song's spirit they've captured,

Arranged so his ukulele sings.

JAN 29, magical palindromes: introductory poem

 

a) reprise from January 2020 

JAN 29, magical palindromes: introductory poem and examples #1 to #5

b) current birdie-pics (repeated window strikes):   Almost with this timing, a foolish pair of Eastern bluebirds repeatedly attempted to fly from their perching spot atop the birdfeeder's crook, through the upper part of our dining-room window; this despite our attempt to cut down the reflection of the sky behind the feeder and the false appearance of a nesting space in the interior. Finally, the feeder was removed from the crook, and the drama ended. See further posts for the follow-up.

bluebird repeatedly trying to fly through the dining-room window

temporary "cure":
markers on window to prevent bird strikes

JAN 28, waterfowl : great blue herons

 

a) reprise from January 2020

JAN 26, waterfowl: great blue herons

  

b) (live action) birdie-pics

great blue heron, near Pitt St. Bridge,
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense".