Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Thank you for hosting! I hope everyone is well.
Poet Elizabeth Steinglass recently wrote a post on her blog about a wonderful craft book, Inside Out: Poems on Writing and Reading Poems by poet Marjorie Maddox. It can teach and guide young poets, inspire and inform all ages. In those pages this week I rediscovered a short poetic form called the Clerihew, which is “a four line biographical poem, usually in rhyming couplets.”
I had a famous person in mind for my Clerihew and this felt like the perfect form for a brief blog post. It came to me as I watched the Netflix special “Becoming” about Michelle Obama’s book tour. It’s a fabulous documentary and it plunged me into several hours of nostalgia and missing her. The book was remarkable and wonderful to read, but seeing video clips of her and the Obama family brought tears. I felt like thanking her.
First some photos:
THANK YOU
Michelle Obama there are few
first Ladies anything like you,
Your beauty, kindness, smarts, and grace
still makes this land a better place.
©Janice Scully 2020
Rummaging through my computer, I discovered several other clerihews I’d written in the past that mentioned first ladies that I had forgotten about. Here’s one.
THE MADISONS
John Madison was shy-
Small talk? Didn’t try.
So Dolley, his wife,
brought the White House to life.
©Janice Scully 2020
That’s it for today. Enjoy the summer and let’s hope for the best.
Janice these are so clever. I am not from America but am a big fan of the Obamas. I don’t know about Dolley – but your clerihew in her honour made me laugh. Thank you.
Janice, thanks for reminding me about the poetic format, clerihew. Poet Kwame Alexander first introduced me to the clerihew. Your poem on Michelle Obama zips along with a beautiful message.
What a lovely (and fun) way to pay tribute to these First Ladies – and anyone. I can see students really enjoying the composing of clerihews based on people who’ve impacted their lives. Thanks also for sharing the book!
I am swooning over your Michelle clerihew, Janice. Oh how I miss her, her husband, her daughters, their dogs, every person in their cabinet…(are you sensing a theme here?). Thank you for the reminder to watch her Netflix special – it just became available here in Switzerland. Weekend viewing! 🙂
Michelle Obama is going to continue to make history, I think. You should send your poem to her. I bet she will love it, Janice. The one about Dolley made me smile!
Wonderful clerihews! I enjoyed ‘Becoming,’ so much. I love how real Ms. Obama was in her memoir and in the documentary. We were lucky to have had her as a First Lady. I love posts like this. I’ve jotted down clerihew in my notebook…and we will see what comes from it in writing this week.
Thanks for this spot of sunshine Janice, I love “Becoming,” and your clerihew ditty is a joy! I’ll have to look for the documentary about the book–what an incredible woman Michelle Obama is in so many, many ways!
A worthy subject for your Clerihew, Janice! I miss her, too, and wish we still had sanity and humanity in the White House. Enjoyed your Dolley Madison Clerihew, too!
What a coincidence, Janice. I currently have Inside Out: Poems on Writing and Reading Poems checked out from my library. What a terrific poetry book!
Love your clerihews. I have to try my hand at one.