The Game of Nonsense

I’m still keeping up (at least most days) with the challenge of a poem a day for Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project. Sunday was my turn to offer a prompt, and I relied on one of my NYTimes word game addictions. I posted the previous day’s spelling bee answers (maybe I just wanted to show-off my queen-beehood?) and suggested folks use the words from that list, or wordle, or another game of their choice, to inspire a poem. My younger kiddo and her spouse are also regular spelling bee players, so I shared the nonsense poem that I wrote with them. Emma categorized it as “a parade of fun sounds, which is a venerable and respected poetry genre.” That’s an advantage of using a word list composed of a limited number of letters–the words share many fun sounds. Here’s my parade:

Bullfrog and Burro at the Links

Bullfrog wore her froufrou,
while golfing with her burro.
She stopped to taste a burgoo,
and caused a minor furor.
“Don’t foul up the fairway!”
“Don’t loll upon the roof!”
Burro stomped, let loose his bray--
“Take your grog and flog your goof!”
The bullfrog swung a boffo stroke,
then bowed and tugged her bolo tie.
“Forgo your booboo!” Bullfrog croaked.
Her bogey logrolled to the sky.

Tabatha is hosting Poetry Friday today. She’s sharing a cliffhanger poem that saves the day!

18 thoughts on “The Game of Nonsense

  1. Love me some BEE! Your poem works on another level, Buffy…it’s perfect for ‘leap year’! Tee-rific.
    (ok, I’ll stop.)

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  2. I missed this one in the FB group — glad you brought it out for all to see. It was a fun prompt and you knocked it out of the ballpark…or golf course, as the case may be! 🙂

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  3. Fabulous, fabulous word play! How fun. I have not kept up well this year…getting sick and trying to keep up with life is just getting in my way. I’ll be catching up for months. But, I just might like that! Stay tuned.

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  4. My husband does word puzzles every day and your poem nails the process, with so many nonsense words encountered. I don’t do them, but as someone looking for words, perhaps I should!

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  5. You are wa-a-ay ahead of me on this one, though I do love word puzzles. Wordl is my fave, and I do love bananagrams, which in my family has been renamed for me: begrammagrams. I make up my own rules and play it solo when I feel the need. Anyway, your poem is indeed boffo, and I’m bedazzled!

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  6. What fun! I’ve sometimes taken photos of the tiles at the end of a game of banagrams with the idea of writing such a poem, but I’ve never managed it so I am in awe of your ability to write a cohesive poem using so many words with such different meanings.

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  7. I’m doing the BEE right now & remember that one, Buffy. I learn new words nearly every time. What a creative idea for a poem, & it begs for an illustration, too! I love that “bogey” “logrolling”!

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