Best Ferdinand Poems
Ferdinand the frog was as mute as a swan
as his friends hopped to school one by one
he would sit on the rocks and silently cry
as the rest of the frogs sang a sweet lullaby
His sister and brother both had a fine voice
While Ferdinand just watched; he had no choice
they would choose the best spot and harmonise
serenading the group brought tears to his eyes
He puckered his mouth and pursed his lips
alas nothing came out except silence in drips
he stood on his back legs and tried to scream
but it was all in vain as he fell in the stream
It made him quite sad and his skin went pale
he broke out in warts, his health started to fail
his friends all gathered and laughed and joked
as Ferdinand slumped… then he finally croaked.
© 10/2/2014
Categories:
ferdinand, children, , Lullaby,
Form:
Rhyme
Look at the 1st quarter moon of the 7th
Day of the 7th month in the naked sky.
There! The two stars Vega and Altair
Blinded by love like Yaksha & his beloved
In the Bard Kalidas’s epic poem Meghdootam.
Vega neglecting her weaving and
Altair allowed the cows to stray.
So did lovelorn Yaksha in his duties to Kubera.
Dereliction in each case infuriated the kings.
Vega and Altair separated by the Milky Way
And Yaksha from Alkapuri in the Himalayas to Ramgiri.
Yaksha expurgated by separation for a year.
Vega succeeded in arousing the sympathy
Was allowed to meet Altair once in a year
Provided no rain on the eve of seventh
To unite in the milky way-Scorpion region
On the bank of Amanogawa river.
Prospero proved wiser expiating Ferdinand
By his log bearing as ‘trials of thy love’.
Reducing Miranda as ‘rich gift’ or ‘acquisition’
Forever as compensation to Ferdinand’s pains?
=============================
Sixth Placement
For contest : your best poem
==============================
Explanations of foreign words in the poem:
Japanese “Tana” means a shelf in English and “bata” is a transformation of “hata” which
means a loom
"weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)",
One popular Tanabata custom is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper, and hang that
piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes become true.
According to a Chinese legend, the two stars Altair and Vega,
Yakshas : name of the Kubera’s servant
Meghdootam: Megh (rainy clouds and Dootam means messenger)An epic poem written in
Sanskrit in the year 400 A.D. by the great Indian Bard Kalidas – meaning cloud messenger
Ramgiri ; a hill near Nagpur in Central India
Alka: the name of the city in Himalayan region also known as Alkapuri
Kubera: the God of Wealth in the Hindu mythology
the Amanogawa (River of Heaven),
Prospero, Ferdinand and Miranda- the character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Categories:
ferdinand, stars,
Form:
Verse
Born Joseph Ferdinand Gould, in Norwood Massachusetts, 1889.
A 1911 graduate of Harvard, and a
Greenwich village Bohemian from 1916 until 1957,
and the time of his death at age 68.
Joe was a filthy and disgusting man, who constantly smelled
like homeless shelter disinfectant.
Dirty fingers, greasy clothes but also an intellectual.
He was a writer, a poet, a lier and a bum, A thief and
A drunk, and other poets hated him and he hated them.
He once told them that "Not only is your poetry bad, but
also stolen from other bad poets."
One night he convinced them that he had written the
most wonderful poem, and that they should allow him
to stand and recite it, and they did.
Joe stood up that night back in 1942, in the Raven poetry club
in New york city`s Lower East side, and read his poem.
" In winter I`m a Buddhist,
and in summer I`m a nudist."
With that I raise my glass to you Joe Gould. I wish I had known ya!
Categories:
ferdinand, art, people, places, poets,
Form:
Ode
Eureka - a love song Tanka series
~ art by Edward Burne-Jones ~
It's a fair question:
as you smile that smile, you ask
how much I love you…
"You are constant as the sun
...and I am Copernicus"
As you close your eyes,
you ask how far I'd travel
to show I love you:
"Love, you are the seven seas
...I'm Ferdinand Magellan"
"Why do you tell me
I'm the apple of your eye?"
you wonder out loud.
I say, "You are gravity
…and I am Isaac Newton"
You furrow your brow
asking why I pursue you.
"It's simple", I say,
"you're 24 karat gold
…and I am Howard Carter"
You crinkle your nose,
"Why do you never give up?"
you ask me coyly.
I say, "You are a light bulb
… and I'm Thomas Edison"
You get somber and
ask if loving you is such
a good idea
to which I say "Eureka!"
… for I am Archimedes
written 29 Jan 2022
Categories:
ferdinand, love,
Form:
Tanka
King Henry VIII and His Wives
By Elton Camp
When Henry’s brother was too young to care
He was made to wed a princess from over there
But you must do just what we say little fella,
Catherine's the child of Ferdinand and Isabella
Catherine had not been Queen for very long
When things with her mate went badly wrong
Medicine was weak. To save him, doctors tried
But despite all they did her young prince died
With Spain, England had a pact
The agreement must stay intact
Henry was then a child of eleven
Hardly a betrothal made in heaven
Henry married at age eighteen
And Catherine became his queen.
Though it is quite sad to have to tell
The queen’s babies didn’t fare well
To bring her husband true joy
She must give birth to a boy
She bore him just a single son
Who died before a year had run
Though married for twenty-four years,
Henry gave voice to his greatest fears
“I have married the wife of my brother
When I should have waited for another.”
But he said this with a sly grin
While he kissed Anne Boyeln
She refused to go to his bed
Until the two were set to wed
Anne produced a baby right away
But ‘twas a girl to Henry’s dismay.
He thought she had done a crime
When both babies died next time
“I’ve been down this road before.
It’s clear you are just a whore.”
No more shall you see my bed.
Rather, you will lose your head.
Jane Seymour was next on the list
So that Anne was scarcely missed
From Jane, virtuous and fair,
There came at last a male heir
Infection was the reason why
The queen proceeded to die
Henry at her death was distraught
But the new child filled his thought
Anne of Cleves was next to arrive
Had a problem, managed to survive.
Henry found he didn’t like her well
“This German woman is ugly as hell.”
The next queen to unfurl
Was just a teenage girl
Catherine Howard was her name
But she was not free from blame
Culpepper was her boyfriend
She had confessed at the end
And unlike the wives before
This one truly was a whore
Catherine Parr became wife six
She did not try to use any tricks
To her, duty came above
Even the man she did love
Of this bad background cannot be any doubt
It is how the Church of England came about.
Who of the people could expect to be a winner
By adhering to a religion formed by a sinner?
Categories:
ferdinand, historychild, wife, child, england,
Form:
Rhyme
The last sigh of the Moor, King Boabdil,
As he flees the triumphant Ferdinand,
Echoes round slopes of a mist-shrouded hill.
He looks back for the last time at the land
That he once ruled. `Weep as a woman will,’
His mother jeers behind her jewelled hand,
`For what you would not defend as a man!’
He stares northwards as long as he can,
Marvelling at the distant snow-capped hills
Gently cradling the Alhambra’s walls,
Its towers, placid ponds, and sparkling rills,
Treasuring them. Later, when he recalls
This scene, he deems its loss the worst of ills
That ever befell him, and, saddened, falls
To yearning for water from those mountains
And the Generalife’s dancing fountains.
A tale as romantic as any told -
This Moorish palace of earthly pleasure,
Its red stone, now mellowed to pink and gold,
Is a wonder of the world to treasure.
Like Boabdil, I want to hoard and hold
Its magical light, and, for good measure,
The sound of Granada’s gurgling streams
In my mind to recall in pleasant dreams.
Categories:
ferdinand, history, how i feel,
Form:
Ottava rima
My name is Franz Ferdinand
I’m a Dachshund not a band!
I come in coats 1,2 and 3
2 sizes - standard and mini
My coats are smooth or wire or long
Short on legs, my back’s not strong
but take me to a badger hill,
I’ll dig and dig and won’t stop till
I do the job that must be done
And get those badgers on the run.
Categories:
ferdinand, pets
Form:
They say that wars are started by religion
but what religion started what war
The Romans started many wars
fighting to take over country's
Yet they had thousands of Gods
can you say that their religion
was behind their wars or was it greed
once beaten country's had to pay a tribute
the first world war was started
by the assassination of
the Archduke Franz Ferdinand
and his wife
The second world war was created
by Hitlers desire to make a better world
Fighting in Russia, the death of the Czar
was created by the theories of communism
Wanting to make a better world
Hundreds of reasons have been behind
the creation of wars
religion at times is one of them
but you also need to look a which religion
every body blames christians for the crusades
yet the European Crusades started
in retaliation for the Muslim crusades
Thousands of Pilgrims visiting Jerusalem
were killed by the Muslim Invasion
the word travelled back through Europe
inciting the the Christians to start their crusades
Never look a gift horse in the mouth
the battle of troy
was created by the love of woman
Helen of troy
to create such a broad statement
as religion is behind all the wars
is a statement of racism
creating anti religious propaganda
Granted religion has a lot to be ashamed of
yet read the bible and you hear
thou shalt not Kill
People have killed saying
That is in the name of God
but in truth murder and wars
are created by people
people wanting power
People following the desire for money
people seeking revenge
wars are not created by religion
wars are created by people
Categories:
ferdinand, betrayal, bible, conflict, corruption,
Form:
Narrative
Ood
Is this sound
From not too far afield
Like mist
Between late dusk and early moonrise
Past quarter of six.
You might not know
It is something unforeseen:
Even as I collect the bad habits
I bear not to keep
Through my sobs, it is that screams.
Strange this is,
Of what I cannot name in the things I hear:
Noise of metals against metals, oft-rhymed sighs
And battle cries, each false note of guns and gongs I overheard: these be not
It.
Is it your footsteps
Of where seek?
Or the reek of its absence
Onto this shore of a bloodbath,
That, set my pulse to skip
Abeat?
Could it be my sweatdrops
Like hoofbeats
Pattering this tin shield
Time of the same?
Or, is it just my heart
Thumps against my ribcage
Which is almost,
But not quite, sharp enough to hurt
Whose beats howl
Nothing but your name?
Author's Note:
*gong - a large bronze disk, of Asian origin, having an upturned rim, that produces a
vibrant, hollow tone when struck, usually with a stick or hammer that has a padded head.
P.S The poem is inspired by the Battle of Maktan in 1521
between the Spanish conqueror: Ferdinand Magellan and the fierce Datu of Maktan:
Lapu Lapu.
Categories:
ferdinand, love
Form:
Free verse
Cro mag non man was a birth of a nation
Crete led the way for civilized creation
The Etruscans became the first Mediterranean power
Indo Europeans Settled Europe as others cower
The Aryans in India established a civilization
The Nile valley would be dominated by Egyptians
Chorus
We've once again taken history’s place
To show again we are the face
Our past is forbidden , the truth is hidden
We've once again taken history’s place
300 Spartans showed what there courage could do
Alexander The Greats strength was unmatched by few
Rome led 1000 years of prosperity before the decline
The Visigoths chased the Huns back over the European line
7 crusades led by a Christians to stem Islam
Ferdinand and Isabella condemned the Moorish harm
chorus
Everyone feared the fury of the pagan vikings of the north
Napoleon Bonaparte would bring military genius forth
The British empire would colonize every land
William Wallace bravely fought for the freedom of Scotland
The Teutonic knights helped spread across Europe Christianity
The 30 years of Christian wars brought nothing but insanity
Chorus
Expansion of discovery could never be touched
The United states would rise and the British would be crushed
The south would rebel for liberty and freedom
The British would slice the throat of the Ottoman kingdom
The first brothers war was thought to be the final stand
The Afrikaners fought relentless for the right of there land
chorus
The Bolshevik revolution brought a new plague into the world
The Germans brought a new hope as the banners were unfurled
All of Europe would unite under the waffen for it's European identity
The Marxist hippie movement brought moral hygiene to it's knees
Now it's the today and we have to keeping fighting for a new tomorrow
We must secure our destiny and keep having our history grow
chorus(2)
Categories:
ferdinand, history,
Form:
Lyric
Ooh DRC, DRC where are you?
You’re the most beautiful country in the world
You have all the resources
Your minerals abound
Your country is full of life’s necessities
Europe exists because of you
Asia, America lives because of you
You have a beautiful heart
Yet your actions are reckless
You are foolish
You are careless
You are mad
You make people rich, but only a few
You make people look beautiful, but most are scared
You make the world a comfortable place to live
Yet hell for those born on your soil
Where are you? Do you not see?
Your children are crying
Your children are dying
Your children are running from you
They have been ripped from their mother’s arms
Your husband is foolish
He is blinded by greed
You are lost
Just listen to the cries of your children
They will lead you home
By Ferdinand Nyembo.
Categories:
ferdinand, beauty, community, conflict, corruption,
Form:
Personification
The first world war started because of poverty
The first world war started because of greed
The first world war started because of an assassination
The first world war started because of Ideas
The first world war started because people wanted revenge
Each Statement appears to claim, all of the truth
Each statement, appears to conflict with the others
Yet each statement is a different side of the truth
To see all of the truth you need to look at the life of people
To see all of the truth you need to look at all sides of a problem
The first world war started because of poverty
Gavrilo Princip start his life in poverty his family suffered
with six of his sibling dying in infancy poverty became
the breeding ground for his feelings of discontent
education brought him into a world of ideas
The first world war started because of greed
people in power, used the assassination as an excuse,
going to war they thought, would bring them profit,
they didn't picture themselves losing but instead,
pictured the profit of taking wealth from other countries
The first world war started because of an assassination
Gavrilo Princip joined a group called the Young Bosnia
Believing in ideals of unification inspired by ideas from
Romanticism, anarchism, and revolutionary socialism
Serbian military puppets encouraged to commit the assassination
The first word war started because of ideas,
Ideas are all around us, flooding our lives every day,
people say, get rid of the immigrants, they take our jobs,
Immigrant's say, we are better than you, we have less criminals
communism was an idea that inspired Gavrilo Princip
The first world war, started because people wanted revenge,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife where assassinated
People wanted revenge people wanted retaliation
supporting government decisions people became ready for war
with the support of the country people go to war.
Nobody started the first world war because of religion,
it started because of many, conflicting reasons
these are but a few, I sure their are many more,
but if we want to learn from the past, to make a better future,
Think hard, of how to make a better world, without war.
Categories:
ferdinand, war, wisdom, world war
Form:
Narrative
Platonic Relationships
Look at the 1st quarter moon of the 7th
Day of the 7th month in the naked sky.
Japan celebrating Tanabata festival
There! The two stars Vega and Altair
Vega neglecting her weaving and
Altair allowed the cows to stray.
Dereliction in the case infuriated their King
Vega and Altair separated by the Milky Way
Vega succeeded in arousing the sympathy
Was allowed to meet Altair once in a year
Provided no rain on the eve of seventh
To unite in the milky way-Scorpion region
On the bank of Amanogawa river.
Blinded by love like the stars Vega and Altair
In the Bard Kalidas’s epic poem Meghdootam.
So did lovelorn Yaksha in his duties to Kubera.
Dereliction in each case infuriated the kings.
Vega and Altair separated by the Milky Way
Yaksha expurgated by separation for a year.
From Alkapuri in the Himalayas to Ramgiri.
Prospero proved wiser expiating Ferdinand
By his log bearing as ‘trials of thy love’.
Reducing Miranda as ‘rich gift’ or ‘acquisition’
Forever as compensation to Ferdinand’s pains?
=============================
Date 3-1-14
Dr. Ram Mehta
First Place Win in
Contest: Appreciate Platonic Relationship by Poet Undertaker
Explanations of foreign words in the poem:
Japanese “Tana” means a shelf in English and “bata” is a transformation of “hata” which
means a loom
"weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)",
One popular Tanabata custom is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper, and hang that
piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes become true.
According to a Chinese legend, the two stars Altair and Vega,
Yakshas : name of the Kubera’s servant
Meghdootam: Megh (rainy clouds and Dootam means messenger)An epic poem written in
Sanskrit in the year 400 A.D. by the great Indian Bard Kalidas – meaning cloud messenger
Ramgiri ; a hill near Nagpur in Central India
Alka: the name of the city in Himalayan region also known as Alkapuri
Kubera: the God of Wealth in the Hindu mythology
the Amanogawa (River of Heaven),
Categories:
ferdinand, love, relationship,
Form:
Free verse
Isabella- such rare beauty of Spain,
accept this fragrant rose from my hand;
I'm a noble by birth, but a humble man:
Ferdinand can give you love without end!
Isabella, even the obssessed Alfonso, King of Portugal,
would ask you in marriage disguising himself as a jester
and on that wooden throne he would marry you in Fall;
stay faithful to me, we accidently met at the Patum Fair!
Kings constantly seek power and a strong wife that is charming
and who can give them children, honor and fidelity;
has such a king ever approached you: bowing down, begging
to marry him and be part of his life and destiny?
No, Isabella- riches don't always promise happiness,
look for someone who has love that will gratify...
and before you make that vow with absoluteness:
look at me and admit there's nothing to justify!
Written on 9/9/2017
Categories:
ferdinand, beauty, destiny, longing, money,
Form:
Rispetto
One hundred years since the end
No veterans left to befriend
A war that saw many losses
We now remember with poppy crosses
They fought in trenches side by side
Even fought as their comrades died
Over the top when the whistle blew
Hoping today, God was with you!
Through wire and craters and exploding shell
No man's land must have been hell
Keep marching on showing true grit
Hoping that you were not hit
A British Tommy with a gun
Fighting for freedom against the hun
Some were only in their teens
Seeing things that shouldn't be seen
Death and the use of mustard gas
How long did this war last
4 years 3 months and 14 days
Many soldiers learnt to pray
Over 8 million soldiers met their end
21 million injured or round the bend
250000 were too young too serve
This is not what children deserve
Fight for freedom they did delve
The youngest being a mere twelve
28 june nineteen fourteen
Catalyst for a war to begin
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Creating unrest on this fair land
28 July war was declared
Between other countries but Britain cared
The Great War or World War One
This war in Europe would be long
From tannenberg to cambrai
Lots more battles I cannot lie
Many other battles during these years
Lots of fatalities and thousands of tears
I doth my hat to those that fell
For the younger generation this I tell
They gave their lives so you could live
For the poppy appeal spare change please give
The money goes to those who've served in need
No matter what colour, Religion or creed
Many wars have happened in the last 100 years
Millions and millions of people's tears
The poppy fund was created for this cause
To help every serviceman/women returning from wars
So in November on the eleventh day
At 11 A M bow your head and say
One simple word it's easy to do
That simple word is "THANKYOU"
Categories:
ferdinand, remember, remembrance day, veterans
Form:
Free verse