Poetry and Football

Last July, Kris, Matt and I experimented with Haikai, a sort of tag-team method of writing poetry. You can check the July archives to see our results. That was so much fun that I thought that we would try poetry again, but with a different twist. Have you ever heard of clerihew? It is a four-line type of verse that was invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley at age 16. Those of you who want more background can Google, etc.


Clerihew doesn't have as many rules as Haikai. Here we go.

1) The poem should have four lines
2) The first two lines must rhyme and the last two lines must rhyme.
3) The first line must end with the name of a famous person or at least a person that would be familiar to the readers. It can consist of just the name alone.
4) The poem should be funny or whimsical, but not really satire. It definitely should not be mean or nasty.

That's it. If you search around the old internet, you can find examples of this form of verse. Below is one of my attempts. Add yours as a comment over the next week or so and let's see what we create.

Conan O'Brien
makes me laugh 'till I'm cryin'
I'm up late, but then,
I can sleep until ten.

As often happens, poetry naturally leads to discussions of football. Since I haven't been bragging about the good old Malvern Hornets lately, let me correct that. You may remember that last year's basketball team finished the season with a record of 20-0 and then won five tournament games before losing and just missing the Final Four in Columbus. Well, not to be outdone, the 2008 Fighting Green Hornet football team finished their season 10-0 and have won the first two playoff games. They beat Shadyside last night, by a score of 53-24. For perspective, Shadyside had allowed a total of 23 points in their last four games. The closest game all season for the Hornets was 42-21. Next week, Malvern plays Hannibal River. A win in that game means a trip to the State Semi-Finals. Good luck Hornets!