ANONYMOUS POETS and Humor

Welcome to Poetry Friday this week hosted by Jama Rattigan at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. Stop by. You are sure to find something delicious either baked or written in verse. Thank you, Jama, for hosting!

Several months ago I was in a used bookstore called the Bookery in Ithaca, N.Y. that was going out of business. In a cardboard box tucked away in a corner, I found the poetry anthology Knock on a Star: A Child’s introduction to Poetry, edited by X.J. Kennedy and his wife, Dorothy M. Kennedy, with whom he collaborated on textbooks and magazines.

Born in 1929 in New Jersey, X.J Kennedy is known for his humorous poems for all ages. He added the letter X to his name so people would stop confusing him with Joseph Kennedy, JFK’s father.

Among the poems in Knock at a Star were some by anonymous authors.

This is a quote from the book:

“Who is Anonymous, anyway? Anonymous means “no name.” In this book, we’ll give this by-line to any poet whose name nobody knows. Anonymous, after Shakespeare, may be the second best poet in our language. At least, he and she wrote more good poems then most poets who sign what they write.”

Yes, for sure, Anonymous has written many, many poems. Here are two silly anonymous poems from the collection:

ALGY

Algy met a bear.
The bear met Algy.
The bear was bulgy,
The bulge was Algy.

Anonymous 

DID YOU EEVER, IVER, OVER?

Did you eever, iver, over
In your leef, life, loaf
See the deevel, divel, dovel
Kiss his welf, wife, woaf?

No, I neever, niver, nover
In my leef, life, loaf
Saw the deevel, divel, dovel
Kiss his weef, wife, woaf. 

Anonymous

Also, according to the Kennedys, poems do five things: 1) Make you laugh 2) Tell stories 3) Send Messages 4) Share Feelings 5)Start you wondering.

The poems above are written simply to make us laugh. I’m drawn to humorous poems. I’ve always been interested, even as a child, in what it is that makes people laugh. It isn’t easy to write humor, whether a story, joke or poem.

An important part of humor is the comic premise, which is an idea that is skewed away from reality. For instance, in the poem Algy, above, the comic premise is this: the idea that a bear and a person meet, as friends do. This is not reality, but the gap between reality and the comic premise is where the humor bubbles up. And of course, the word play Algy/ bulgy is funny.

Another ingredient to humor is surprise. In the poem Algy, the bear eats the person he just met. That’s a surprise. It’s also important that is no one gets hurt. People getting hurt isn’t funny. But wait? What about Algy? Well, he doesn’t really get hurt, he just ends up as a bulge inside the bear. This is not a violent poem. We wouldn’t think it was funny if the scene was bloody.

Humor is trial and error. Only one out of ten ideas that a writer might think is funny will actually be funny to their audience. That seems about right to me. So a poet is taking a risk sharing work that they think will be funny. It takes courage. Having said that, here are two word-play poems I wrote that might have some humor in them, but who knows?

BIN AND IN

Would you rather be IN
or the BIN that it's in? 

© Janice Scully 2020

THE MUG BUG

I saw something floating
one day in my mug,
legs in the air--
a bug, very smug.

"Get out!" I yelled,"Now!
or drowned you could be!"
She said,"Thanks for the warning
and thanks for the tea!" 

© Janice Scully 2020

A sense of humor during this pandemic is important for mental health.

My prompt? I took two rhyming words, unrelated, like bug and mug, and tried to find a comic premise. We see bugs in our mugs sometimes. That’s reality. But a bug swimming for fun? That’s not reality. Maybe there is something funny there. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but that’s OK. Give it a try. You can always sign it Anonymous.

I hope some of this made sense.

Thank you, Jama for hosting Poetry Friday today! And thanks to all poets everywhere who make us laugh, tell stories, send a message, share feelings and start us wondering.