LIMERICK is a nonsense poem of five anapestic lines, now often bawdy, usually with the rhyme scheme aabba, the first, second, and fifth lines having three stresses, the third and fourth, two; the form was popularized by Edward Lear.

Example:

There was a lady named Harris
Whom nothing could ever embarrass
Till the bath salts one day
In the tub where she lay
Turned out to be plaster of Paris.

Anapest:
A metrical foot in Greek and Latin verse consisting of two short unaccented syllables followed by an accented one.

Example:

And the sheen of their spears
Was like stars on the sea.


CATHERINE LO'S LIMERICKS
CELEBRATING TOWNS OF THE ISLAND OF KAUA`I
AND EVERYDAY HAWAIIAN WORDS:


1.
Once there was a big man of Mana
Whom a large sweet ohana called Pa
And he worked day and nite
To provide every bite
'Till he suddenly said pau hana!

2.
Once there was a slam poet named Moppet
Who endeared the whole crowd with her bonnet
But the poetry slam
Soon became a bedlam
And Miss Moppet rode out to the sunset.

3.
Once there was a mean lady from Puhi
Who would stay at the beach acting crazy
She would walk to the reef
Giving others much grief
'Till one lad yanked her wild bikini!

4.
And there was a small man from the East
Who ate nothing but cracker and yeast
He would eat all day long
We would burp like a gong
The poor man so much like a wild beast!

5.
And Maha`ulepu is the place
That Kaua`ians are giving a face
Who would ever believe
That the work would receive
The support of a man known as Case?

6.
Old Waikomo continues to flow
If no junk makes the stream cause to slow
But the shrimps are now gone
And the fish there are none
What will happen to it we don't know.

(Thurs., May 20, 2004)

Mana: a small town in west Kaua`i
ohana: family
pau: finished, ended, completed
hana: work
Puhi: a town near Lihu`e, Kaua`i's county seat
Maha`ulepu: a coastal corridor of beauty on the South Shore of Kaua`i that conservationists want to preserve
Case: Steve Case of AOL fame who owns the company that owns Maha`ulepu
Waikomo: a stream in the Koloa District of Kaua`i which empties into the Pacific Ocean at Koloa Landing

	NO-THINGNESS
	Once there was a couple in love Whose pet was a naughty dove She would whistle and sing She would fly with a zing 'Till a cat jumped down from above. From a Poets Without Borders exercise. I drew the NO-THINGNESS card from a deck of Osho Zen Tarot. The limerick limped out from the third tier of the writing exercise. May 6, 2004

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