Memorized rhymes and poems

[Doreen Peri]

What poems have you memorized? What rhymes? Do you memorize your own work? Have you memorized any verse from childhood?

I was just saying in my head... this one.. which I LOVE so much... I've known this one by memory since I was ... oh... 10 years old? Something like that

and it's also a song!! gotta sing it to make it work right! I'll sing it for you if you're interested. LOL.... don't worry.. you can wear earplugs.. haha

...........

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a spider
that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
But I donno why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a bird!
How ABSURD to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
that wriggled and jiggled and ticked inside her,
she swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
but I donno why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a cat!
Just think of THAT! To swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
she swallowed the bird to catch the spider
that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
she swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
but I donno why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a dog.
What a HOG! To swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
she swallowed the bird to catch the spider
that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
she swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
but I donno why she swallowed the fly.
Perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a HORSE.
She died, of course.


....

LOL!!!!!

I have many more memorized .. how 'bout you? Share them here

[judih]

can't remember a thing, unless it's got a melody
i lost the will to memorize
(i think i could blame an old teacher if i really wanted an excuse, but i can't remember one good reason for tossing the blame on someone)

i think life should include karaoke options for almost any spoken word kind of thing.

[Doreen Peri]

oh yeah... let's karaoke!!!

never did that, judih, but I'm way ready!

I have a hard time memorizing my own material myself.. unless I've recorded it and have heard it over and over, it's hard for me but if I did it every day as some spoken word artists do, I'm sure it would come naturally...

But as a kid? I used to memorize Winnie the Pooh stuff and other rhymes... it just came naturally to me.

None of the stuff I memorized has any major popularity .. ha.. oh well... oh except song lyrics.. I know a LOT of song lyrics

My daughter and her friends can sing/recite more song lyrics than i thought I knew but then again, they're young and I have a memory problem. LOL!

Bring on the karaoke! Never tried it but I'm ready!

[hester_prynne]

Whan that Aprille with the surest sote'
the drought of mars hath pierced to the rote
and bathed evry vein in swich liquor
of which, vertu, engendered is the fleur.....

Had to memorize that in High School.
Was it Chaucer? Can't rememba!
H

[Doreen Peri]

Cool, hest! i love it!

[Lightning Rod]

'twas brillig in the slithy tove
snicker-snack
quoth the raven
boomlay boomlay boomlay boom
good fences make the best road untaken
April is the cruelest poem
and all the ladies come and go
I sing myself oh captain, my captain of my fate
master of my soul, or
my asshole crawled back to El Paso
with his flashing eyes and floating hair"

do you remember that one?

(thanks to lewis carroll, e.a. poe, vachel lindsay, robt. frost, t.s. eliot, walt whitman, whatever the guy's name is who wrote Invictus, Wallace Stevens, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)

[Doreen Peri]

I know this one...

George, who received a dangerous toy and suffered a catastrophe of considerable dimensions...by hillaire belloc


When George's grandmamma was told
that George would be as good as gold,
she promised in the afternoon
to buy him an immense balloon!
And so she did but when it came
it got into the candle flame
and being of a dangerous sort,
exploded with a loud report!

The lights went out, the windows broke
the room was filled with reeking smoke
and in the darkness, shrieks and yells
were mingled with electric bells
and falling masonry and groans
and crunching as of broken bones!
And dreadful shrieks when worst of all
the house itself began to fall!
It tottered, shuddering to and fro
then crashed into the street below
which happened to be Saville Row.

When help arrived,
among the dead were
cousin Mary, little Fred,
the footmen (both of them),
the groom, the man who cleaned
the billiard room, the chapman
and the stillroom maid and
i am dreadfully afraid that
Monsieur Champignon, the chef,
will now be permanently deaf
(and both his aides are much the same)
while George, who was in part to blame
received, you will regret to hear,
a nasty lump behind his ear.

The Moral is that Little Boys
should NOT be given Dangerous Toys.

LOL...

thank you for letting me recite my repetroire (even tho i can't spell that)
heh

[WIREMAN]

this is serious matter for the performing poet....to know your work well
enough to perform it from the mind with your eyes on the audience is
like floating on a cloud.....

[Lightning Rod]

yeah mark, you are right
my problem is that I can't even remember my own phone number
plus, I make pretty good use of the paper

[izeveryboyin]

D! Of course!! So many little poems and diddies. The terrible thing is that if you asked me to quote a work of my own, I might find it hard.... Here are a few I remember by other great

"The night is young and full of rest
I can't describe the way she dress'd
She'll pander to some strange request.
Anything you suggest.
Anything to please her guest."
--by the ever-iconic James Douglas Morrison

"This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me
That simple news that nature told with tender majesty
My eyes have been committed for hands I cannot see
For love of her sweet countryman, judge tenderly of me."
--Emily dickenson... though I may have fudged that third line a bit.

I can remember some rather star-studded lins from a few of my poems "Poisoned, scared by chicken wire"
"Fuck peace give restitution"
"I want my lover to lay me down, and while inside me, make not a sound. I am unwound."

Wish I could remember more but I suppose I am simply not that memorable. *sigh*

--k

[the mingo]

The only one I put to memory that I can still quote to this day is something called "Wingless Angels", by a man name of Oliver Makin, written in 1902 - I'm not sure it qualifies as a poem but I never forgot it...

Wingless Angels

The earth is a depot
where wingless angels pass the time
waiting for the long ride home.
Seeing a small boy,smiling, in the corner,
I said to him, "You must be anxious to go home"
"I am home", he repiled, "I just come here to play the games."

[Arcadia]

what a beautiful thread!!!!!!

I have zero memory without music! (then and now! )

from childhood I remember the first lines of some Maria Elena Walsh songs (I still have the small discos!). Later, when I wanted to sang them to my little students some years ago I realized that they were lonnnger!!! so I needed paper-help!

Here what I remember :

El brujito de Gulubú

Había una vez un bru
un brujito en Gulubú
a toda la población
embrujaba sin ton ni son

Pero entonces llegó el doctorrrrr
manejando un cuatrimotorrr
¿Y saben lo que pasó?

¿Nooooo?

Todas las brujerías
del brujito de Gulubú
se curaron con la vacú
con la vacunaluna lunalú

El reino del revés

Me dijeron que en el reino del revés
nada un pájaro y vuela un pez
que los gatos no hacen miau
y dicen yes
porque estudian mucho inglés

Vamos a ver cómo es
el reino del revés

Twist del Mono Liso

¿Saben saben lo que hizo
el famoso Mono Liso?
a la orilla de una zanja
cazó viva una naranja

qué coraje, qué valor
aunque se olvidó el cuchillo
en el dulce de membrillo
la cazó con tenedor

La naranja se pasea
de la sala al comedor
no me tires con cuchillo
tirame con tenedor

Había una vez una vaca

Había una vez una vaca
en la quebrada de Humahuaca
como era muy vieja muy vieja
estaba sorda de una oreja

y a pesar de que ya era abuela
un día quiso ir a la escuela
se puso unos zapatos rojos
guantes de tul y un par de anteojos

la vio la maestra asustada
y dijo: estás equivocada
y la vaca le respondió:
por qué no puedo estudiar yo

la vaca vestida de blanco
se acomodó en el primer banco
los chicos le tiraban tizas
y se morían de la risa

Manuelita

Manuelita vivía en Peguajó
pero un día se marchó
nadio supo bien por qué
a París ella se fue
un poquito caminando
y otro poquitito a pie

[emel.scott]

this, from the back of the toothpase tube:

Crest has been shown
to be an effective
decay preventive dentifrice
when used in a conscientiously
applied program of oral hygiene
and regular professional care

[Lightning Rod]

this, from the back of the toothpase tube:

Crest has been shown
to be an effective
decay preventive dentifrice
when used in a conscientiously
applied program of oral hygiene
and regular professional care

damn, I love this poem
especially the decay preventative dentifrice line (killer)
I have it committed to memory too
along with 'wonder where the yellow went'
advertising poetry is some of the best
jingles are high art

[emel.scott]

and this one by Jim Morrison is all I can come up with

Horse Latitudes

When the still sea conspires an armor
And her sullen and aborted
Currents breed tiny monsters
True sailing is dead
Awkward instant
And the first animal is jettisoned
Legs furiously pumping
Their stiff green gallop
And heads bob up
Poise
Delicate
Pause
Consent
In mute nostril agony
Carefully refined
And sealed over