Writing Fun Poems

Sometimes it’s a necessity as a writer to change your shorts. 

Writing fun poems (long or short) presents one particular genre that can cleanse palettes often desensitized to the sweet prospects of joy in humor. They can be a welcome change of pace! 

A few poetic forms work quite well for tickling the old funny bone. Click on the term to learn the particulars about them!

Edward Lear made the limerick popular in his “Book Of Nonsense”, published in 1846. It’s a short five line poem with a most musical rhyme flow. Consider this gem:

There was an old man on a hill,

Who seldom, if ever stood still;

He ran up and down 

In his grandmothers gown 

Which adorned that old man on the hill.

Not exactly a knee slapper I know… but it WAS 1846! Limericks take all forms, including those of the vulgar varieties about men from Nantucket and other such doggerel.

Another short short would be a monostitch, which could be a line verse in a larger poem, or simply a one line poem. Something like “Literary gnomes make their homes in a poem”… okay, this may be a monostich that does not exactly leave you in stitches, but you get the point.

A kenning can be a blast to use… it is a two word per line poem that describes something without ever saying what it’s describing… a short funny kenning for a child would be something like: 

ankle biter

lamp smasher

bug thief

crazy maker

heart warmer

A clerihew is a quick four line poem created by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956)  who was so bored in his chemistry class he scribbled this out about Sir Humphrey Davy (inventor of sodium):

Sir Humphrey Davy

Detested gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered sodium.

A clerihew’s first two lines rhyme, the last two lines rhyme, and the first line starts with a name. Simple… but most effective for a fast funny!

Consider this one by Invisible Poet Lorna McLaren:

Boris Johnson

sang his own swansong

stammering while addressing the nation afflicted with verbal constipation

Or this one by Invisible Poet Ally Smith:

E.T.

Alien to me

Trying hard to contact home

But couldn’t find a telephone 

Of course you can write anything in free verse using metaphors and funny wordplay. The “anything goes” format of free verse is perfect for the silly, absurd, or just straight out funny truth. I once wrote a love poem called “The Love Wrestler” which compared a professional wrestler to my girlfriend. It had lunatic lines like  “headlock on my heart” and “let down in another town with an imaginary name on my pants”.

These are not the ONLY fun forms to write with, but they are a great place to start. That and a clean pair of shorts. 

Matt Elmore

Image by: Unsplash

#poetry, #writing, #funpoems