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In celebration of World Poetry Day, write a limerick on the theme of World Poetry Day, poetry in general, or poets. Post it in the comments section below. Learn how to write a limerick here.

An example is provided by this poetry challenge initiator, Paul A. Freeman:

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World Poetry Day Limerick (21 March, 2023)

World Poetry Day has arrived,
of verse we cannot be deprived.
So here is a stanza,
a verbal bonanza
on which, all day long, I have strived… or is that ‘striven’?

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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42 Responses

  1. Morrison Handley-Schachler

    Oh the past was a glorious time
    When a poet’s voice charmed with a chime.
    Now the Muses are gone
    From Mount Helicon.
    We can’t even write lines of poetry that scan.

    Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    The Muse and the Poet

    The Muse asked the Poet to dance.
    The Poet fell into a trance.
    So, he wrote a love note,
    But then fell off the boat.
    That ended the Poet’s romance.

    Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Poe’s Ravin’

    Poe’s face was often unshaven.
    Poe wrote a poem for his maven.
    For his Annabel Lee,
    His love never could be.
    That is why he was left Ravin’.

    Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    A Cautionary Tale

    He wrote a poem for his mistress
    About her low-cut red dresses.
    He is no longer fine.
    His wife read every line.
    He paid the price for transgresses.

    Reply
    • Isabel Scheltens

      I recommend this sorry guy
      To rue the day he bought a lie
      And recognize his wife’s embrace
      Outshines the harlot‘s plastic face;
      In short, to practice love till he may die.

      Reply
  5. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Poems in Front of Me Linger

    Poems in front of me linger
    While I’m counting on each finger.
    When the syllables match,
    I must have a good batch.
    The meter might make a humdinger.

    Reply
  6. Mike Bryant

    It’s a Wonderful Life

    The bankers became oh so woke
    So all the poor folk they could soak.
    They gave loans to greenies
    And one worlder weenies
    Never dreaming they’d ever go broke.

    But Hunter and Joe had a toke
    And pulled off a practical joke.
    They saved billionaires
    And Red China’s short hairs
    Now America’s gone up in smoke.

    Reply
  7. Roy Eugene Peterson

    TIME FOR THE MUSES POWER

    Why is after midnight hour
    The time for the Muses power?
    The misty veil will part.
    Poems pour forth from the heart
    Like a freshly blooming flower.

    Reply
  8. Roy Eugene Peterson

    For Love and Grief

    Poems are writ for love and grief,
    With images beyond belief.
    I feel great poetry
    Is something sensory
    Like turning over a new leaf.

    Reply
  9. Isabel Scheltens

    The greatest poem only shows
    What Everyman already knows
    But never knew he saw until
    The poet looked and looked his fill
    And told us what he found, but never chose.

    Reply
  10. Jeff Eardley

    There once was a poet named Dan
    Whose Limericks rarely would scan
    He said, with a sigh
    “All too often I try
    To fit as many words into the last line as I possibly can”

    Reply
  11. Patricia Allred

    Afraid to be unsupported,
    With not posting, she cavorted!
    Till a spirit appeared,
    Saying, cease all the fear.
    With that, she penned undaunted!

    Reply
  12. Sondra Rosenberg

    LIMNING THE LIMERICK

    A limerick is that kind of verse
    Whose words always reflect what is “cherce.”
    It’s a crime every time
    If the lines do not rhyme
    Or appear overlong or too terse.

    Reply
  13. Stuart Jay Silverman

    THE LIMERICK

    You’ve five lines to take flight like a bird,
    And the rhyming just slightly absurd.
    If one such proves too much,
    You’re a bit out of touch,
    As the French say, un peu dans la merde!

    Reply
  14. Stuart Jay Silverman

    The modern world isn’t poetic,
    Narcissism bent on frenetic,
    “I” in the ascendant,
    And the ego resplendent,
    For this reader verbal emetic.

    Reply
  15. Norma Pain

    How can we trust politicians?
    Who, by their own rhetoricians
    Will get the job done
    With costs overrun
    They don’t claim to be mathematicians

    Said a man by the name of Al Gore
    Global warming should be the new war
    The facts just don’t fit
    He is so full of sh_ _
    That a laxative might be his cure

    A poor, hungry fellow from Crete
    Who was burdened with big, ugly feet
    Got the butcher in town
    To whittle them down
    Then fried up the bits as a treat!

    A politically correct fellow from Kent
    Who was speechless wherever he went
    Did not want to get
    Anybody upset
    So he chose to remain reticent.

    A woman who came from Valdez
    Had a virus that caused wobbly knees
    The doctors predicted
    More would be afflicted
    With viral Valdez Knees Disease!

    The spouse of a callous new bride
    From the roof, fell and split his head wide
    Said his mistrustful wife
    Moving on with her life
    “Now I know he had nothing to hide!”

    Said a father while watching his son
    Playing Russian roulette with his gun
    “I know boys will be boys
    But it’s what he enjoys
    He must clean up the mess when he’s done!”

    A poor girl, so enthusiastic
    Fixed her knickers with brand new elastic
    But she made them so tight
    That she died in the night
    Said her parents, “Now that’s really drastic!”

    A woman whose husband combusted
    Soon after was quite well adjusted
    But she said in a snit
    At her husband’s obit,
    “Such a mess he made after I’d dusted!”

    Reply
    • Jeff Eardley

      Norma, these are all brilliant. Thanks for some great laughs today

      Reply
      • Norma Pain

        Thanks Jeff. Some of my collection that weren’t too rude.

  16. Stuart Jay Silverman

    A good limerick’s not easy to write.
    It needs meter and rhyme with a bite.
    Just a doodle in verse,
    Neither better, nor worse,
    But well done, it’s a poet’s delight.

    Reply
  17. Roy Eugene Peterson

    BLANK VERSE

    The poet wrote down some blank verse.
    The words he wrote kept getting worse.
    He declared it okay.
    It’s modern anyway.
    Who cares if I wrote the perverse?

    Reply
  18. Roy Eugene Peterson

    HIS PROSE

    His words were not real poetry,
    Since he wrote modern as could be.
    ‘Twas no meter nor rhyme;
    He kept wasting his time
    No one will remember, but he.

    Reply
  19. Roy Eugene Peterson

    THE CRUX OF MODERN POETRY

    The crux of modern poetry
    Is writing is not as should be.
    With the blanks in the mind,
    There’s no rhyme you will find.
    The poet is dead mentally.

    Reply
  20. Roy Eugene Peterson

    LIKE DR. SEUSS

    I wish more wrote like Dr. Seuss.
    Too many are writing obtuse.
    They prove that their learning
    Is worth the fires burning.
    They offer pedantic abuse.

    Reply
  21. Roy Eugene Peterson

    POETRY OF PUREST GOLD

    Poetry that is purest gold
    Is that which can never grow old.
    When words perfectly rhyme
    And the meter keeps time,
    A classic is what we behold.

    Reply
  22. Paul Freeman

    Good poetry comes from the heart,
    and muses provide a kick start;
    this helps you immerse
    yourself in great verse,
    even if you’re a miserable fart.

    Reply
  23. Priscilla King

    Limerick for C.S. Lewis, Best Remembered for His Prose

    Early efforts made Lewis sigh: “Dahhn it,
    If Poetry’s a train, I’m not on it.”
    This admirer of Jack,
    Nonetheless, looking back,
    Credits him with his century’s best sonnet.

    Reply
  24. Mia

    There once was a young lady from Bude
    Who liked to parade in the nude
    Now she can’t sleep at night
    As she got in a fight
    With a fellow who called her a dude.

    Reply
  25. Mark Stellinga

    Poetry Wasn’t Enough

    Remember how Daffodil Finnigan
    Was determined to never begin-again
    Loving a man,
    So she constantly ran
    From men — so’s not to fall-in-again!

    Well, into her life walked a poet,
    Who dug her, and — meaning to show it —
    But easy-to-hate —
    And weighhhhhh over-wait —
    To bolster his chance to not blow it –

    Plied her with poetry – sending his best –
    Some of them poignant…others in jest…
    Showering her with verse,
    ‘Til she deemed it a curse,
    Then she *sued* him…for being a pest!

    Reply
  26. Stuart Jay Silverman

    Nothing vexes a poet as much
    As the would-be who hasn’t the touch
    Of Parnassian wit
    But simply won’t quit
    Though his verse needs a walker or crutch.

    Reply
  27. Mia

    There once was a young cop called Fred
    Who liked to spend his free days in bed
    His friends named him hazy
    And his boss called him lazy
    But Fred’s partner was very content.

    There once was a girl called Fran
    Who loved to make judgemental remarks
    She thought she knew more
    Sadly, her friends showed her the door ,
    So now she’s as quiet as a lamb.

    Reply
  28. C.B. Anderson

    Scotch Tape

    A young poet who came from Dundee
    Looked around him and then took a knee,
    For the older he grew
    The less grammar he knew,
    And right now that poor lad is a she.

    But another lad, whom we’ll call Angus,
    Who was known for the lyrics he sang us
    Said, “They want to make laws
    To remove all our claws,
    But, by Jesus, they’ll never de-fang us!”

    And this story, by God, has a moral
    With which no decent poet can quarrel:
    Though it’s good that you tried,
    ‘Twere much better you’d died
    While attempting to gather the laurel.

    Reply
  29. Mia

    there once was a troublesome muse
    who sadly wasn’t much use
    she rarely turned up
    and always messed up
    why she does this, I haven’t a clue

    (except that it’s jolly good fun!)

    Reply
  30. James A. Tweedie

    Magee was a wanna-be pooet,
    And to verse was convinced that he knew it.
    When a limerick he tried
    In the end he just sighed
    For he found that he just couldn’t do it.

    The moral of this story is
    If your poetry turns out like his
    And your verse sounds absurd
    Just make up a new word
    And bedown bine and fleagle the driz!

    Reply
  31. Stuart Jay Silverman

    “A good limerick’s dependent on rhoime,”
    Says a cockney. “It’s never no croime
    To rhoime ‘Full Disclosure”
    And basketry’s ‘osier’.
    You’ll retoire with fortune and foime!”

    Reply
  32. Robert Zimmerman

    Not All Poems Ring A Bell
    9-9-5-5-9

    A poem I read was quite rhymeless
    But yet I was told it was timeless
    The words sounded swell
    But rang not a bell
    In fact, it was totally chimeless.

    Reply
  33. Geoffrey S.

    When I tell you the place you’ll assume a
    Warning you shouldn’t consume a
    Fat enchilada
    From old Ensenada:
    ‘Twill give the revenge Monctezuma.

    Reply
  34. Melissa Rose

    The emotions that arise so real
    devouring as if your last meal
    My gift is taking words
    and making them be heard
    in ways that make you think and feel.

    Reply
  35. Kate Elizabeth Sgambati

    MERELY LIMERICKAL

    The limerick sings often a song
    As simply as Sampson was strong,
    And short metrical feet
    To a fleet-measured beat
    Always speed the timed notes along.

    Wherever an apt word is writ,
    It thrives upon quipped lines of wit,
    For whimsical verse,
    So timely and terse,
    Never tires th’ old limerick a bit.

    Reply
  36. Melissa Dishman

    To be a poet and never know it….would surely be a waste.
    Submit it online, send it in…give your words a face!
    Tell a story or make a rhyme..it works either way….
    But share your talent now! Don’t wait another day!

    Reply
  37. Melissa Dishman

    For your words to go unheard…most certainly would be absurd!
    To hold them all inside…..is everything but fine.
    Shout em from the rooftops, or quietly jot them down…
    A master in the making…
    waiting to be found!

    Reply

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