How I Became A Poet & A Limerick Writer
Here’s the deal with the poetry. I could always do it since elementary school but I never considered it a talent. I was a jock growing up and writing poetry was uncool so it lay dormant for a long time. Then in college I had the lead in a Moliere’ play where I was on stage 80% of the time, had half the lines in the play and they were all in rhymed couplets. By the end of the rehearsal period I was talking in rhymed couplets. My fraternity brothers would beat me up every day but they couldn’t beat the rhymes out of my head where they have been lodged ever since. After college I started writing poems for all my friends for their early milestone birthdays and anniversaries and they encouraged me to “go pro.” I made decent “mad money” from it but it was definitely a more for fun than for profit enterprise. .
I do not write coffee house SLAM poetry bemoaning the problems and injustice of society. I do not consider that an artistic art form. I don’t Howl. My mini schnauzer howls.
The purpose of my poetry is to put a smile on peoples faces. I call my stuff SMILE poetry. It is all about the smiles. .
Ge Now here’s the deal with the limericks. I always liked them. As a kid you learn the classics, which are all dirty. There once was man from Pawtucket. I loved that guy. And he saved my ass a lot. “How?” you ask. My first wife could not keep herself from cracking up every time she heard that limerick. By the time the man from Pawtucket “said with a grin while he wiped off his chin”, she was gone, laughing hysterically. So when those situations came up where I had to answer the question, “What do you have to say for yourself?”, my answer was always, “There was once a man from Pawtucket.” She’d start laughing and I would turn and run.
These things just pop into my head and when they do, I write them down and then work them as best I can. I have won a Saturday Evening Post limerick contest. Here is a link to it – http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/06/30/humor/limerick-laughs-4.html
I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them..