Tag: Humor

Humor, Joy of Reading, Poetry, Writing Award

Dogs, Humor and Poetry?

My dog Jasper loves taking walks and spending time with me in my gardens. He doesn’t even know he is mentioned in some of my books and poems, but I think he would approve. He would also approve of this fun thing that arrived in the mail this week: a recognition for a humorous canine poem in my mostly otherwise serious collection of poetry, Glimpsing Glory.

Do “humor” and “poetry” go together in your mind?

Well, we might ask, why do we write and read poems, anyway? I found a few famous answers to the question “why poetry?”:

“Poetry calls upon us to probe our deepest emotions and longings.” ~Sharon Olds

“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a love sickness.” ~Robert Frost

“People who pray, need to learn poetry.” ~Eugene Peterson

“To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.” ~Edgar Allen Poe

I think most of my poems in Glimpsing Glory do reflect “a homesickness, a love sickness,” they “probe deepest emotions and longings,” and express a kind of “prayer.” But sometimes we need our hearts lifted and loads lightened as well as our souls elevated, something to help us tilt our heads and look at circumstances with a different perspective. Sometimes everyday experiences cause my sense of humor to erupt in fun poems. When these are included in a volume of poetry, they are like lucky limericks teasing Irish elegies or perky wildflowers surprising in cultivated gardens. These things I find delightful, and I hope my readers do also.

Do you have a favorite humorous poem that brings a smile to your face and quickens your step? Perhaps it’s a folk song or ditty, or a poem like this one for which I received the above recognition:

CANINE SOCIAL MEDIA

My dog, Jasper, reads
pee mail with his nose.
And he’s a dexterous texter
as he lifts four toes.

Some moms dole out tech time;
but me? I give trek time.
Each bush, post, and bench
offers doggy wifi.

When he wiggles and whines
and starts to holler,
I lace up my shoes, click
the links of his collar.

When he meets other dogs, it’s
‘Will you be my friend?
Follow me in the net-erhood,
my hashtag’s a trend.’

Dogs carry screen names
on their behinds;
Cuz that’s where they sniff,
their profiles to find.

With his nose he scans lawns
for the latest chatter
from cute Lily on the corner
or Bruce the Irish Setter.

–Catherine Lawton

Here’s to soul-elevating and prayerful, as well as playful poetry!

~Catherine Lawton

Autumn, Humor, Poetry, Seasons

As the Trees their Glory Hurl

by Catherine Lawton • 1 Comment

Leafy Lament

I’m raking leaves and raking leaves,
scrape, scrape, scraping leaves;
reds and oranges, greens and yellows,
all the crispy, crunchy fellows
in soft piles under the big
Mulberry trees.

Leaves are falling all around me,
on my head, before, behind me,
making mockery of my raking,
all my nice green lawn o’ertaking.

It’s a leafy, leafy world
as the trees their glory hurl.
Oh, I need a vacuum sweeper
or a giant tree-leaf eater.

–Catherine Lawton

This poem was written a number of years ago before our neighborhood had leaf blowers. Extracted here from the book, Remembering Softly: A Life In Poems. This post was first published five years ago. I thought we could all use a little humor again.

Book Publishing, Creative Nonfiction, Nature Writings

If Your Animals (and Characters in Books) Could Talk

by Catherine Lawton • 0 Comments

When I visited author Marilyn Wentz on her farm, I saw these sheep in a pen. The scene struck me as humorous, as if the one sheep in the foreground was holding a meeting of the flock. She seemed to have their attention. And a discussion seemed to ensue. Many of Marilyn’s (and her mother Millie’s) sheep have names. In All We Like Sheep the two shepherds tell stories of lambs and ewes named Carla, Charlene, Foxy Lady, Scotch, Squirt, Pumpkin, Spring, Teddy Bear, Gomer, Pibb, and Blue.

Book Publishing, Communicating Clearly and Effectively, Editing Your Own Writing, Helps for Writers

A Writer’s (Tongue-in-Cheek) Checklist

by Catherine Lawton • 4 Comments

Are editors always this long-faced? 🙂 Maybe we have all seen too many proposals and manuscripts with these errors in them. (See the list below.) In this photo, I’m sitting in the middle of a panel of book editors and agents at CCWC May 2016. We’re all considering a serious question posed by a conferee. But plenty of light, humorous moments occurred at the conference also–and lots of encouragement and inspiration, as well.

One constantly-recurring theme for writers is that we must strive for clarity. To that end, at my workshop on “A Checklist for Writers” I shared my list of writing techniques. Then I offered this bonus “checklist” that uses tongue-in-cheek humor to help us avoid murky writing.
(This list comes from Professor Howard Culbertson at Southern Nazarene University, and I use it with his permission.)

Don’t use no double negatives.
About them sentence fragments.
Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
Between you and I, case is important.
Do not submit writing in email or cell phone text format — thx!
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
Use your apostrophe’s correctly. Omit the apostrophe when its not needed.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Of course, if any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
Avoid clichés like the plague. They’re old hat. So, go around the barn at high noon to avoid clichés and colloquialisms.
Do not be redundant and keep repeating yourself; do not use more words than necessary; eliminate the superfluous in your writing.
One should NEVER generalize.
Be more or less specific.
And avoid starting sentences with a conjunction.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Don’t use commas, that are not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed. So, take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Be careful to use the write homonym.
DO NOT use multiple exclamation points and all caps to EMPHASIZE a point!!!!!!!!
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.

Leafy Lament

Photo © Can Stock Photo, BackyardProduct