Tag Archives: short verse

John Gallas, ‘Timmer’s new specs’

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See the horses run.
Mares’-tails in a row.
Yurt No 1
a toy drum way below.

Del-skirt sponged with dew,
up the hill goes Timmer:
bright the early air,
grasses waft and shimmer.

Brand new SPFives.
High above the plains
he counts the hairs of horses
and sees the songs of cranes.

*****

John Gallas writes:

*’Timmer’ is often used in Mongolia as a short-name version of Timmerlane/ Tamerlane/ Tamburlaine – adds a little heroic element to fat-boy’s climb and specs. 

*SP5s – SP (with an H) means (according to Specsavers!) ‘Sphere’ and is a power-measure of a spec lens: and ‘the higher the number the stronger the lens’ – so Sp(h)5s are a power. I’ve cheated for the rhythm (with no ‘h’), but hopefully all will understand they were the specs!

This little poem is from a set of 10 formal pieces describing scenes from YURT life in Mongolia. I made books full of notes when travelling there years ago, and mined them for the whole set. They range from bike-generating electrics, a horse-riding tiny-tots’ ‘raid’, a new felt lining, and a wash-your-yurt product, to a quiet Winter camp, a visit from a People’s Painter, and a ‘moving house’ journey. The poems are intended to have no ‘meaning’ beyond what they are and say: something I’ve tried hard to do for the whole of ’10X10′.

’10X10′ is:  

  1. 10 formal, 3-verse poems called ‘ffenstri’ (people-sketches/resurrections from Welsh gravestones)
  2. ‘Southern Critters’: 10 not-real Aotearoa/NZ animals, made to look real. Spot the lies.
  3. as set 1, but telling the sad tale of ‘Lawrence of Australia’.
  4. ‘Wasted by Whitemen’: 10 awful colonial disasters: all true, fully researched. 4 prize-winners amongst the 10. 
  5. YURTS as above. 
  6. ‘The Persian Version’: my take on 10 medieval Persian poems, redone from a 1931 booklet by the Rev. H. Minkin.
  7.  ‘It’s Your Sam’: as 1/3/5, 10 formal little poems dedicated to Samuel Beckett.
  8.  ‘News from Niue’: 10 brief travel-poems from my favourite Pacific island.
  9. ‘Luminosities’: little formal poems from literal ‘bright spots’ on my travels over the years.
  10. ‘Episodes from the Cuban Revolutionary War’: 10 utterly objective poems from Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s writings: these intentionally a ‘bowing-out’ of the poet as him/herself an interesting person with interesting thoughts and feelings. Guevara’s unselfish eye is a lesson to all.

I try not to ‘explain’ the poems in ’10X10′ as they are truly an exercise in not-me writing: or, when there, using the ‘unselfish eye’. I’ve always preferred telling tales to parading my thoughts and emotions, except in ‘The Extasie’ (Carcanet) – which is the Big Download of personal Love. 

*****

John Gallas, Aotearoa/NZ poet, published mostly by Carcanet. Saxonship Poet (see www.saxonship.org), Fellow of the English Association, St Magnus Festival Orkney Poet, librettist, translator and biker. 2025 Midlands Writing Prize winner. Presently living in Markfield, Leicestershire. Website is www.johngallaspoetry.co.uk which has a featured Poem of the Month, complete book list, links and news.  

Photo: “_WIL0594.jpg” by Paul Williams www.IronAmmonitePhotography.com is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Damian Balassone, ‘The Mormon and the Mermaid’

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Wounded and winded
by the wind and the waves,
he scratches her name in the sand,
her love is rescinded,
she hides in the caves
where the water caresses the land;
he sings her name in spite of his distress,
and fashions beauty out of loneliness.

*****

Damian Balassone writes: “With regards to the poem, I have no connection to either Mormons or mermaids – it’s about polar opposites.  I think the last line came first.  He doesn’t get the girl, but he gets the poem.”

‘The Mormon and the Mermaid’ was first published in the Shot Glass Journal.

Damian Balassone is the author of four books, including the forthcoming collection of short poems and epigrams Love is a Weird Cat and the children’s book Here, Bear and Everywhere. You can read more here.

“the Other Side of the Tunnel” by ihave3kids is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Short poem: RHL, ‘Home Thoughts from the North’

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Dog-skinny, winter’s mangy sun
Slinks between clouds.
A West Indian dog – there are none such here in the UK ….
Nor, there, such mangy suns.

*****

Some people equate a good Christmas with a family walk in the snow, others with family time on a beach. It all depends on what you grow up with, doesn’t it? With my first twelve years being on islands with palm trees, it has remained difficult for me in my decades of climate exile to appreciate more than a month or two of bleaker weather at a time. ‘Home Thoughts from the North’ was originally published in Snakeskin – thanks, George Simmers!

Best wishes for an appropriately weathered Merry Christmas to all… and apologies to Eliza for subjecting her to non-Canadian winters for so many years!

Photo: “Skinny puppy in Udaipur” by Dey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Unforgettable nonsense: Anon, ‘I Eat My Peas With Honey’

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I eat my peas with honey;
I’ve done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.

*****

The staying power of well-turned nonsense rhymes is testament to the value of rhythm and rhyme for keeping something intact, perfectly remembered. The poem’s joke is well done, with a good punchline; but the word-for-word memorability comes from the magic of verse.

The Poetry Foundation recognises this poem as having been recited in the American comedy/quiz show ‘It Pays to Be Ignorant‘ on 2nd February 1944 (or more likely 7th February 1944), you can hear Harry McNaughton read it here, and my guess is that he (or another of the show’s writers) was the author. Apparently some people have thought it was written by Shel Silverstein (1930-1999), but this is denied by his Estate and its archivists. Others in the US have stated it is by Ogden Nash. In the UK it has been labeled as Spike Milligan’s. It is an object lesson in optimistic (i.e. false) attribution. But even in Arnold Silcock’s collection ‘Verse and Worse’ (Faber & Faber, 1952) it is only credited to Anonymous… whose birth was a long time ago, and whose death is not expected any time soon.

Photo: “I eat peas with honey – Day 101 of Project 365” by purplemattfish is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Short poem: RHL, ‘Flying to Majorca in March’

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Drop me down out of the cold wet gloom
into the orange trees in bloom:
the olives, almonds, windmills, cypresses,
the black-eyed girls with wild tresses;
where once were barren hillsides, peasants, mules,
are now estates with swimming pools.

*****

Mallorca, or Majorca to the English, has always been an attractive destination for people from further north. Frederic Chopin and George Sand moved there at the beginning of their relationship, spending three months while Chopin completed his 23 preludes in each of the major and minor keys (but the locals were suspicious of his coughing, and were antagonised by George Sand’s avoidance of church; the couple moved on). Robert Graves (whose Wikipedia entry’s Sexuality section is mind-boggling) lived for decades in the village of Deia, also associated with Anais Nin, Richard Branson, Mick Jagger, Mark Knopfler, etc. And these days Mallorca gets over 10 million tourists a year.

My short poem is inconsequential, but it has just been published in the September issue of Allegro, which is themed on ‘Flight’. It was a simple reflection on revisiting Mallorca decades after summer holidays there.

Photo: “Parella i ase” by Arxiu del So i de la Imatge de Mallorca is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.