Coronapoetry

by philg

As a measure of how desperate things have become, I’ve taken to reading poetry to the kids (denied their precious and wholesome screen time due to a cruel policy of the local dictatorship).

Here’s “Happy Thought” by Robert Louis Stevenson:

The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Helpful adjustment for those whose lockdown is urban:

The world apartment is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

You’re welcome!

Separately, I have composed some original haiku:

Looked up from my phone
Who’re these people in the house?
Coronavirus

Students stare closely
Zoom lecture is spellbinding
Retriever in frame

You’re double-welcome!

10 thoughts on “Coronapoetry”

  3. Soon no money left
    Then the meat plants all closed up
    Can we eat the virus?

    Zooming work at home
    Russian sub cut the cable
    Smoke signal packets

    [Last line can substitute: Now s**t out of luck]

    Eighteen months along
    The vaccine never helped us
    Living in a cave

  4. Two, hastily composed and prolonged Limericks. Always preferred them to Haikus. But some Sonetts and Alexdrines/”distinct” Hexameters are nice too…

    There once was an engineer fram MIT
    He did not know anything of importance, mainly shit
    He argued this and that – mostly right about the times of COVID-19’s
    But since he in his core was an rightwing-extremist, already in his teens
    He supported his Master Trump
    Will eventually get the “dump”
    And he nowadays cannot figure out how to nicely use IT.

    In Massachussetts there was a man named Phil
    He was the result of a poorly used pill
    He had an IQ just above 75
    So he could barely grasp what Trump said live
    But that did not matter
    As his beloved President grew fatter
    Phil still hailed wrong facts, as long as it would make the right kill.

    Fun , innit? Do you want to correct the language? Or should I write it in two handfull other languages?

  6. The world is so full of a number of things,
    I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.
    Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

    • Wow, Karl!
      If you had had an Viking “kenning” there, it would have been a Nordic/Norse poem…
      I am not jokimg.

  7. Here the beginning of the first draft of Hotel COVID

    On a dark city roadway
    Cool wind in my hair
    Warm smell of bodies
    Rising up in the air
    Up ahead in the distance
    I saw an emergency sign
    My breathing grew heavy and my temperature high
    I had to stop for what I thought was going to be one night
    There the doctor stood in the doorway
    I heard the hospital bell
    And I was thinkin’ to myself
    This will be hell
    Then she turned on the ventilator
    And she showed me the bed
    There were sounds of voices down the corridor,
    I thought I heard them say
    Welcome to the Hotel COVID
    Such a busy place (such a busy place)
    Such a noisy place
    Running out of room at the Hotel COVID
    Especially this time of year

  8. To Althea, from Quarantine

    Four walls do not a prison make,
    Lockdown is not locked up.
    Minds introvert and quiet say
    It really doesn’t suck.
    If I have freedom in my room,
    And in my soul am free,
    Angels alone, that above do zoom,
    Enjoy such liberty.

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