Poets and Cephalopods - Oh Octopi

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10/30/2024

Image by Mark Toney using DALL-E (2024-10-25)

Poetry forms:

Rhyme (first stanza) — Eight arms, three hearts, blue blood, nine brains, and special ink. If that doesn’t describe a poet I don’t know what does! ;-)

Monorhyme (Oh Octopi) — Octopuses have eight limbs, of which six are used as “arms,” so I’ve written the Oh Octopi portion with six-line stanzas of eight-syllable lines. Method to my madness? You betcha!

Notes:

Linguistically speaking, I acknowledge that the preferred plural of octopus when speaking and writing in English is octopuses. I chose to use octopi since it works better with my monorhyme. Octopi ocassionally appears in published works, but it's seldom used. Mirriam-Webster says, "The -i ending comes from the belief that words of Latin origin should have Latin endings in English (while octopus may ultimately come from Greek it had a stay in New Latin before arriving here) ..."

You may consider it extremely odd
I’m so easily influenced by a cephalopod
Eight arms, three hearts, blue blood, nine brains
All unique, yet something else remains
The most important fact on which to think?
Cephalopods, like poets, possess special ink


Oh Octopi

Oh Octopi up in the sky
I wonder why you are so high
Don’t mean to pry but please reply
I have to try to reason why
Why are you shy? Why can you fly?
Please tell me why and do not lie

     We're Octopi. On us you spy?
      Imply we're shy? Imply we lie?
       Don't wonder why we’re in the sky
        Do not defy and do not pry
         Do not decry — That’s our reply
           Quickly comply! We do not lie

Oh my, oh my, I'll never pry
I'll not decry nor you defy
I will comply, on me rely
Oh, Octopi up in the sky
You do not lie! So high you fly!
To you I bid adieu — Bye-bye!

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