Tag Archives: dad jokes

Day 20 — bird’s nests + more dad jokes

Yesterday’s NaPoWriMo optional prompt was:

The word florilegium refers to a book of botanical illustrations of decorative plants and also a collection of excerpts from other writings.  In her poem, “Florilegium,” Canadian poet Sylvia Legris gathers together many five-lined stanzas that describe flowers but also play with the sounds of their names, their medical (or poisonous) qualities, and historical aspects of herbalism. Today, pick a flower [I’ve changed it to fungi]. Now, write your own poem in which you muse on your selections’ names and meanings. 

I’ve chosen this because after the massiveness of the two weekend poems I would like something simple & defined. A five line poem sounds ideal. (I might do a couple, depends how it goes.)

The Factoid revisits a very popular topic from Sunday.

[Disclaimer: As with yesterday’s entry, this poem was written on the correct day (Monday) but was unable to get it online owing to painting again, repercussions of meetings still, & the arduousness of queuing up a near infinite amount of blogs.]

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fungilegium: Bird’s Nest
Cyathus

Whimsy abounds as alternate names 
spore out of the text books
like fungi from the damp dirt.
Elfin Cups, Fairy Goblets, 
Pixie’s Purses, & Splash Cups.

Delicate. Trumpet-shaped nest.
Spores resembling eggs. Hard 
to spot. Allegedly. Make a wish. 
Fairies are nearby. Before the sun 
sprouts the birds away. To kill cancers.

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Day 20 Factoid – This Really Did Happen (Possibly)

A Joke Revisited

A Scot, an Aussie, an Englishman,
& a mushroom walk into a bar

The bartender says, “Sorry sir, you need 
to leave. We’re capacitively maximised.”

Mushroom: “What are you saying?”
Bartender: “There isn’t mushroom!”

[C’mon you’re loving the dad jokes, admit it.]

Day 27 — soft denial + shrinking rivers

As I wrote yesterday, climate denial is growing more sophisticated as the science is becoming more & more accepted. Inactivists are changing their modus operandi from outright denial to more subtle tactics — downplaying — deflecting — dividing — delaying — & despair-mongering. The poem I was playing with yesterday has, as I predicted, fragmented into more manageable pieces. This poem is a result of that (& is the first in suite of poems about the above-mentioned topics).

The Poetic Factoid started with a fun pun (one of my favourites) but sadly went in a more sombre direction than I had intended following some research.

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the softening of denial

i.
even hard core : denial becomes unviable : when relentless evidence : piles up : of extreme weather events : daily impact them : via : headlines & news feeds : social media & tv screens : as well as real time : beyond the windows : in their : backyards & gardens : over the fence : down the road : next door : the next state : friends & family in other parts of the country : overseas : round the world : even the fates : of complete strangers : poorer : differently hued : cultured : begin : to impact 


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Day 27 — TIL about the shrinking Nile

more than an Egyptian river

60 feet 
60 feet every year 
so shrinks the delta shoreline  

50 percent
50 per cent over the current century
the standard deviation the flow likely to increase by

doubling the likelihood of flooding
doubling the likelihood of drought

increasing water scarcity
endangering food security

does that make it a zero-sum loss
or a double zero-sum gain

either way, won’t be long before we say
— De Nile was a river in Egypt