Limerick, Poetic Form Exercise Options

[Larry]

If you’re wielding a knife fighting back
then you must have been under attack
by a certain someone
who did not have a gun
for that fight would end quick from your lack.

[JustDaniel]

If while fighting, you don't give a lick,
then it's likely the bout will be quick;
as you lie on the floor
you may look at the door,
wishing using it had been your pick.

[Larry]

If you're wishing your picking had been
based on love rather than a quick sin,
then do all your wife shopping
when you’re not bar hopping
‘cause some chicks turn into an old hen.

[Alan]

Little chicks will oft follow old hen
behind them is a poet, with pen
who wrote on the eggs
despite his bow legs
and absense of muse, now and then

Alan

[Larry]

If your muse in absentia has been
because words you would write start to spin;
thoughts you're wishing to share
dissipate in thin air
and you're finished before you begin.

[Alan]

Dear Larry,

How very true.

If you've finished before you begin,
you've committed a terrible sin
a life-greedy glutton
like Benjamin Button
who went out before he came in

Alan

[JustDaniel]

If you go out before you come in
please dress warmly, and not in some thin
jammy bottoms and frock,
'cause the doors always lock
behind you.... Hear my violin?

[Larry]

Yes! I hear violins and they're good
but why are they out here in the wood
where weird folks play banjos
and wind up at "who knows".
Guess that I'm in the right neighborhood.

[Alan]

you live in the 'right' neighbourhood
it's natively quite understood
keeping kids to a min
eshew original sin
with a so genteely-brought-up brood

Alan

[JustDaniel]

If ya brood about how ya's been reared
it ain't likely that you's pioneered
down no practical road,
an' ya prob'ly plateaued
in yer teens, reapin' what ya done feared.

[Larry]

If your teens are afraid of what’s creeping
through the internet wires for some peeping
you should warn them and say,
“It’s just the NSA,
and you’ve no secret left that’s worth keeping!”

[JustDaniel]

If your secrets are kept in your left
hand, then hope that your right has no heft
to pry fingers loose;
it could cook your goose...
the one in your yard gained by theft!

[Larry]

By the theft of a yard you have feigned
one mere pace on that path which remained
stretching out from your birth
'till departing this earth.
In the end, there is naught to be gained.

[JustDaniel]

In the end, if you're tied in a knot
that is tightening, no matter what
kind of wiggling you do,
you cannot make it though
without help from the friends that you've got!

[Alan]

We seek help from the friends that we've got
though sometimes they put us on the spot
some advice is quite good
gives much-needed brain-food
some dismiss, as it's clear tommy-rot

Alan

[JustDaniel]

While dismissing the clear tommy-rot,
I'm not sure what to do if it's not.
If the rot is opaque,
should I give it a shake
to see if it clears on the spot?


^{(Actually, I am not even familiar with the expression 'tommy-rot' !)}

[Alan]

to see if it clears up the spot
apply liberally - the whole lot
when it gently bubbles
consign it your troubles
a clear winner, or just a long shot ?

Alan

[JustDaniel]

The clear winner gave such a long shout
that he left not a shadow of doubt
who had won the hog-call
at the neighborhood mall;
the old boar rose and twitched his long snout.

[Larry]

His long snout twitched as he bore a rose
with apologies written in prose
trying to explain why
without telling a lie
how his collar was stained by “who knows!”

[Alan]

how his collar was stained, by whose nose
is a question to pose, and re-pose
was it by a sneeze
or mere gentle breeze
such his brilliance, it certainly shows

Alan