Welcome to Poetry Friday. I am really excited (and also slightly nervous) because, for the first time ever, I am hosting the Poetry Friday round up here on my blog.  What does that mean? It means that other poetry enthusiasts from around the blogosphere will drop in here over the course of today and leave their links  at the end of this post. You can then click through on each link and see ALL the poetry goodness on offer.

I mentioned being nervous about hosting (because I do like to do things right, and this is, as I said, my first time). I was also pretty nervous earlier this week, because I had to go to the dentist and get started on a root canal, something I had not been looking forward to, but which was necessary to get me out of the pain I was in.

The dentist was lovely, and tried hard to keep me calm and as comfortable as was possible while he was needling and drilling and prodding and whatever else he was doing. Me? I decided I would keep my mind busy with thoughts of anything other than what was happening in my mouth.

Maybe I could count backwards from a hundred?  Nope. I kept losing count.

Maybe I could recite a poem in my head?  Nope. My mind was blank.

Maybe I could make up a poem? Noooope. Actually, yes!    But it would have to be a short one.

Haiku? Limerick? Ooooh. I had it! Terse Verse. Seemed to match both my mood (definitely terse) and the length of my concentration. My mind got very busy very quickly and, before I knew it I had  ideas filling my mind (oooh, there’s a dental play on words), and had (almost) forgotten what the dentist was doing to me.

Almost, because unbeknownst to him, he was inspiring the verses. Afterwards, I couldn’t wait to get home and jot down what I’d come up with. So, here you have it, a series of Terse Verse in honour of my dentist:

To the Dentist Asking Me Questions While He Probes My Mouth

Mmmmfff grmmmmmf

 

To the Dentist Telling Me this is Going to Sting

No Joke, Poke

 

To the Dentist Making My Skull Vibrate With the Drill

Drilling’s Killing!

 

To the Dentist Telling Me I’m Doing Reaaaally Well

Why Cry?

 

To the Dentist Telling Me He’ll See Me Next Week for Another Round of Treatment

Great, mate!

(Insert sarcasm in the first word of that one!)

 

Goes to show you can write poetry about anything, anywhere.  There is a form for every occasion, too.

If you are new to Terse Verse, my efforts might give you the idea – but if not, it’s simple. A Terse Verse has a generally quite long title (sometimes posed as a question), and then uses as few as two rhyming words  to sum up the sentiment, or answer the question. Does it have to be as negative as mine? No And, just to prove that here’s a happier one

To the  Snail I Met on My Morning Walk:

Swell shell!

Have you ever tried to write terse verse? Would love to see what you come up with. In the meantime, if you have a poetry post please share it in the Mr Linky below, and, whether you do or not, click through to see what my Poetry Friday friends are up to.

To My Friends on Poetry Friday

Rhyme time!

 

(All verses copyright Sally Murphy, 2018)