David Galef: April Revisited
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
Thanne longen I to goon on trippes
Based on Fodor’s travel tippes.
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Diana Devlin: Wanders with Wordsworth
I don't believe that clouds are lonely,
I don't believe they wander.
I don't believe that flowers dance only
to make a poet's heart grow fonder
but now my mind is set to musing -
what if flowers and clouds could see?
I wonder if they'd start confusing
us with Nature's poetry?
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Kim Cherub: Sumer is icumen in
Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing achu!
Groweth sed
And bloweth hed
And buyeth med?
Cuccu!
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David Galef: April Revisited Once More
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
Showers seem like stupid stuff.
For flowers, I have no yen.
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Martin Choules: Poet’s Corny
(In response to Wendy Cope’s Engineer’s Corner)
Oh, shut up, Wendy, carping still,
Like a Guardian trendy, elite and crabby.
I suppose you write your poems with a quill
By candlelight, in a world chock-full of balladeers.
But I warn yer, without the engineers
There wouldn’t be a corner, for there wouldn’t be an abbey.
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L. A. Mereoie: Afflatus Interruptus
Hood’s Muse would visit him in bed
As pain fuelled punning toil;
It seems she fancied him half-dead,
If not quite ‘mortal coil’.
So lines that earned his daily bread
Were laced with midnight oil . . .
But now the boil’s gone off my head
My head’s gone off the boil!
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Martin Parker: Larkinade
Larkin’s life was pretty dull.
He ran a library in Hull
and thumbed his lonely way through scenes
in pornographic magazines -
a quick release for one who had
been fucked up by his mum and dad
and simply couldn’t wait to see
the start of sex in ’63.
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Daniel Galef: Byron’s Lunch Lady
She cooks in beauty, day and night,
Serves sloppy joes and curly fries
And all that’s best of dark and light
Meat in her Aspic Ham Surprise.
Who tastes her chicken tenders might
Taste heaven in a serving size.
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Midge Goldberg: Frost Weighs In On Vegan Coffee
Some say it should be drunk with soy,
Some say with rice.
From what I’ve tasted and enjoy,
I hold with those who favor soy.
But if I had to drink it twice,
I know enough of Coffee-mate
To say that, for a vegan, rice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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David Galef: The Cut-And-Paste Land
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memories that are fast receding
With allusions that require fixing.
