Jan 2, 2012

Open Link Monday

Kerry O'Connor at "Imaginary Garden with Real Toads" welcomes poems new or old for the first Open Link Monday of 2012.  I first posted this poem on February 13th last year (2011, remember it?) for "The Poetry Bus"



Stopping By Settees on a Snowy Evening
(with apologies to Robert Frost.  And his little horse)

Whose couch is this? I think it's lost.
Who threw it out? What did it cost?
It has not seen me stopping here.
It's arm-rests are all stiff with frost.

My motor-chair thinks I am queer
to stop because a couch is near.
I always do a double-take
when snowbound sofas do appear.

It gives my ass a gentle shake
to ask if I've made some mistake.
But frozen couches make me weep.
I'd thaw them with a long, slow bake.

Its pattern's lovely! Cushions deep,
a couch I'd really love to keep.
But - miles to go before I sleep -
So! Leave it for the rubbish-heap.


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21 comments:

  1. Haha! A delightfully witty parody of a Frost classic. Much enjoyed.

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  2. oh loved it :-) ... what a marvellous witty write ...

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  3. Brilliant! You made parody/humorous poetry look deceptively easy :)

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  4. Fabulously wonderful and wonderfully fabulous!!! I think R. Frost would be honored if he read this. I am reminded of something I read awhile back about "Stopping by Woods..." Someone recalled an interview with Frost. You know how folks have analyzed the repetition of his famous last two lines? Most likely there are even a master's thesis or two and a few doctoral dissertations on the subject of "miles to go before I sleep." But I digress. When Frost was asked about the deeper meanings of that repetitive last line, he simply said, "I simply needed another line." So much for deep analysis and introspection! Have a greatly blesssed day! 8-)

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  5. Haha very nicely done! as others have said, a witty piece, with a brilliant four beat - tight rhyme and humour - great to read today, nice seeing it up at Real Toads. OT

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  6. That's terrible! And hilarious. I took out the original and read stanza by stanza from Frost's to yours, shaking with laughter the whole while.

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  7. This us delightful. Whatt fun!

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  8. Thank you for all your kind comments. I had no wish to disparage Frost's poem. Heavens! The last 3 lines usually reduce me to a blubbering wreck. And the understanding between the rider and his little horse is just magic.
    Even the "little" is perfect, if inexplicable.

    Our BBC devoted a whole program to Frost's poem recently. Interesting to learn that he wrote it very quickly after working all night on a longer poem, in the early morning, in midsummer.

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  9. Wonderful! I believe a good parody is a form of flattery. Yours was a good parody! Thanks for the morning laugh.

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  10. reduced to a pile of blubbering giggles. this takes real talent. that vibrating chair has got to have its benefits. *giggle*

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  11. This was just a delight to read, and imagine. So clever!

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  12. My oh my! How satisfying this was. Happy New Year to you!

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  13. I LOVE IT, on so many levels, the humor and also, the modernization of the horse etc.

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  14. Wonderful! I did the same thing as Fireblossom, compared Frost's and yours and laughed and laughed. Perfectly done.
    When bloggers have ideal photos to accompany poems, I always think of the chicken-and-egg question, but of course you didn't write the poem and then go looking for snowbound sofas.
    Great fun, though. Great fun.
    K

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  15. Silly indeed, and fun and creative and upbeat.

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  16. Love it...Who leaves it out in this cold and snow?

    Happy day to you~

    http://a-sweetlust.blogspot.com/2012/01/gently-weeps.html

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  17. ...its pattern's lovely! Brand new I would have dumped that couch! :)

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  18. How clever and fun! I love the lyrical tone and you want to bake a couch! How fun~

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  19. such a clever lad. and such a subject. i lived in mexico at one point, in a none-too-delicate part of a not-at-all-overly-concerned city, and one morning the neighborhood woke to find a rather hideous teal-colored couch sitting nonchalantly on our streetcorner. ... it became quite a favorite spot for the 'vecindad' to gather. it seems these couches of yours were not so lucky.

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  20. What a lovely piece, the sharp wit really brought a smile to my face. You made the entire thing look so easy!

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