Hello there, Listservers! I hope you’ll enjoy
A message that’s based on a Seussian ploy
If you want to write poems the Seussian way
Anapestic tetrameter brooks no delay
But Seuss saw this form in its hard, rigid glory
And said ‘Hey, I can do it, and tell quite a story
‘While doing it, too, it will be my new tool
In telling kids things that they won’t learn in school’
When he came to a line that just wouldn’t quite flourish
He’d pluck up a word from thin air, and he’d nourish
That young little word, brand new to the world
And he’d place it in just the right spot, where it whirled
Where it danced and it sang like a fresh coat of paint
Over language grown solemn and tempered and quaint
The words he invented were zong, zax and zillow
And grinch, nerd and vipper, they were bofa and yekko
They told all the stories he needed to tell
And they broke through a form that would otherwise dwell
In the musty old drawers of the humorless past
He made it seem joyous, a form that would last
In the memories of every young kid who was read
From a Dr. Seuss book before going to bed
And so, if I’m going to be true to my muse
I’ll leave with a moral that you all might just use
Dr. Seuss saw a dark thing and turned it to light
If we all do the same, the world sure will be bright.
Wesley Brown
[email protected]
Ardmore, PA, USA