Clerihews for Kamala and Joe

It’s Poetry Friday, today, hosted by poet Matt Ersenwine HERE. Be sure to stop by and see what he has for us today. Thank you, Matt, for hosting.

A Clerihew is poetry for everyone. It’s a short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring to a famous person. The form was begun by Edmund Clerihew Bentley in 1875 as a schoolboy:

Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Said “I like my name immensely
But sometimes when I’ve had a few
I call myself Edmund Bentley Clerihew”

As you can tell, a clerihew is a short comic or nonsensical verse, typically in two rhyming couplets with lines of unequal length and referring to a famous person. I’ll add this as guidance:

A clerihew’s humorous,
examples? They’re numerous;
Chose a name, get started,
be clever, lighthearted. 

© Janice Scully 2021

I have written a Clerihews before about two First Ladies, Michelle Obama and Dolley Madison Here.

I’ve added two more this week to my small collection to thank the President and Vice President, on the night of his first State of the Union address and at the end their first 100 days I office.

I don’t think I have never felt such gratitude towards a president and Vice President, for their calming voices, how they include everyone, and the way they’ve helped us fight the pandemic. I can’t believe how pleasant and human they are! For that, they both deserve clerihews and even more, maybe a sonnet, sestina or a villenelle. But I’ll stick to the clerihew.


THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT

A slog through the mud, it’s seemed that way, Joe,

in your goulashes you walk careful and slow,

a tortoise in a perpetual race,

at a kind, measured, unstoppable pace.

© Janice Scully 2021

AMERICA’S FIRST

Kamala, women belong in high places,

alongside those whiskered and masculine faces.

You’re the Vice President, second in line,

courageous, brilliant, and doing just fine.

© Janice Scully 2021

Perhaps there is someone you would like to celebrate with a clerihew. If you do sometime, please share them. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying a little more freedom the vaccines are making possible. Last night we had our son over for dinner. Today I had coffee out with a friend, sat at tables, socially distanced, but we took our masks off. I hadn’t done this in a year!

17 thoughts on “Clerihews for Kamala and Joe”

  1. Janice, your clerihews are just delightful. I first was introduced to this type of poem at the NYS English conference by Kwame Alexander who was just starting his career as an exciting young poet. Yours are so much fun but I have to say the one you penned about Kamala is just right “alongside those whiskered and masculine faces”- a great place for her to be!

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  5. Janice these are wonderful! I love how light and fun they are while still containing truth. These make me want to give clerihews another try. I’ve written some but they don’t come easily to me!

  6. Your clerihews are so great, Janice. I especially love Kamala’s…”doing just fine”. I wrote a clerihew for Britney Spears earlier this month as one of my NPM daily challenges. It is a fun form. 🙂

  7. This is a new form for me, Janice, and I love it! They are fun to read, and I’m guessing fun to write as well. I’ll have to give them a try! From Matt’s Tricube to the Cento offered and now your Clerihews, I’ll be trying new writing forms for a while! Just what I ordered for myself! Thanks!

  8. I think I wrote one a long time ago, but have no idea for whom, Janice. These are simply wonderful, so clever & well, nice! I was excited to see the speech, too, & talked with my granddaughters about that historical evening, hope they will remember that they were watching!

  9. Fun–you make a hard form seem simple. And I agree–I couldn’t be more grateful that Joe and Kamala are righting the ship (and attempting to right so many long-term wrongs.)

  11. Well said! Your Clerihews are terrific, Janice! Even though we still have many problems to solve, the past four months have been a welcome change from the previous tumultuous years.

    1. Sweet Clerihew to Genevieve Jones! They are fun to write and to honor someone.

  14. I love your analogies to “a tortoise in a perpetual race,” it works so well. And Kamala “alongside those whiskered and masculine faces,” thats perfect—both are fun! I wrote a clerihew a while ago on Hillary Clinton, when she was running for President, it was a prompt from Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ blog, thanks Janice!

  15. I love these! And yours are perfect (should I admit now I cried tears of joy on inauguration day?)!
    You make me want to try clerihew!

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