It’s unusual to
find myself laughing out loud while reading a book of poetry, but that’s what I
did with You
Are Here: Poems New & Old by Leon Stokesbury.
Stokesbury doesn’t
write comic poetry, but he manifests a sense of mischief and a willingness to
poke fun at even some of the most serious of poems and poets, like Alfred, Lord
Tennyson.
Morte d’Arthur
Higgledy-piggledy
Alfred, Lord
Tennyson
Lost his pal
Hallam to
Fever and flu.
“One-hundred
thirty-one
Ultramemorial
Verses, and man,
I still
Can’t bury you.”
In eight short
lines, Stokesbury takes on two of Tennyson’s famous poems – “Morte
d’Arthur” and “In
Memoriam,” playing off the first name of Arthur Henry Hallam, the subject
of “In Memoriam.”
To continue
reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
