An Ogden Nash poem for spring

photo by sister Carolyn Hoggard

 

THE HAT'S GOT MY TONGUE

 

A girl, oh a girl is a wonderful thing,

And so I am happy to say is spring,

And a girl in spring is the absolute works

But for one conspicuous item that irks:

That hat.

 

A girl in spring is a skylark's hymn,

An evenson in a cloister dim,

A moon in June and a dove in love,

 But why the discordant detail above:

That hat?

 

The crocuses put their best feet foremost,

The softest, tenderest raindrops pour most,

Nature walks forth in a robe of dawn,

And you, my love, what do you put on?

That hat.

 

Purple the lilac and green the oaks,

Is spring the time for a milliner's hoax?

Your taste, methought, simply hibernated;

But what did I get when for spring I waited?

That hat.

 

A girl, of a girl is a wonderful thing,

And so I am happy to say is spring,

And you are what I adore the sight of;

That hat is what I adore you in spite of--

Take it off and let's jump on it!

from Good Intentions, p.39                                                                                       (Google Image)



POEMS (of others) FOR THE SEASON

MEMO TO AMERICANS

Perhaps we could bargain
with the years . . .
could proffer
substantial payment

that the home place,
land we cleared
and planted,
the springs and wells
we have drawn water from,
the home we planned and built,
the furnishings we purchased
in both lean and fat years,

that these personal properties
be put in trust
for benefit
of years to come . . .
   because
   the equity
   is high . . .

Clovita Rice, Crystal and Creatures: A Collection of Poems, published by Grandmother Earth, 2004,
used without permission of author.
~~

SUMMER SONG

     Wanderer moon,
Smiling
A faintly ironical smile
At this brilliant,
Dew-moistened
Summer morning--
A detached,
Sleepily indifferent
Smile,
A wanderer's smile--
If I should
 Buy a shirt
Your color, and
Put on a necktie
Sky-blue,
Where would they carry me?
Over the hills and
Far away?
Where would they carry me?

William Carlos Williams, from Early Poems, Dover Publications, Inc. 1997.
~~

JULY 4, 1941  -- JULY 4, 1942

How many last year were careless boys,
And fire and thunder were their toys,
And over beach and farm and park
Their hissing rockets split the dark.
Their stars flew up like flaming birds
Of Liberty, too swift for words,
And cannon crackers wrote in smoke
The free proud thoughts they never spoke.
Today their firework's eloquent glow
Is understood in Tokyo.

Ogden Nash, from Good Intentions, Grosset & Dunlap, last copyright, 1942.

~~
~~
[These books are from my collection -- PL.]