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: Hi, : Just found your page and thought I would send you two 'skeltonics'. I enjoy Skelton's poetry, especially the rapid rhythms and the vibrant rhyme. : So here are my versions: : SKELTON’S VERSE : Skelton’s verse, : vivid and terse— : sometimes perverse : always diverse— : sought to immerse : sequentially traverse : oft intersperse : rhythms obverse : structures inverse : sometimes a curse : always a nurse : for society’s purse— : to his critics’ asperse : a cut-throat reverse— : lyric converse : to wisdom disburse— : vivid and terse : was John Skelton’s verse. : : : JUDI’S OTTER : Skeltonics : It’s luck, they say, : in Monterrey, : to spend the day : along the pier : when you are here, : eat fish in beer : with jaunty cheer, : and tune your ear : until you hear : the rhythmic heat : of waves that beat : beneath your feet, : surge, retreat, : and surge to meet : the bittersweet : of salt. : It’s luck : to watch a duck : bob up and down, : acquatic clown, : pretend to drown : rise feather-gowned : and barely damp— : bread crust clamped : secure; or look : in a hidden nook : of weedy rock : by water pocked : and watch a crab : (with porta-cab) : try to nab : a wisp of fish : for as tasty a dish : as it could wish : then with a swish : scuttle back : into its : (its hermit s) : hunch-a-back : and with a clack : patiently wait : a luncheon date : with some further bait : outside its gate. : But luckier yet : (if luck you get) : is to have met, : though from afar, : the pier’s main star— : dark as a spar : daubed with tar, : smooth as silk : and cloth of that ilk, : king of the water : a sleek brown otter. : We were walking, : ly talking, : sometimes gawking : at seals and gulls, : at rusty hulls, : at leaky sculls, : and barnacles, : when…“Look!” I cried : as I espied : it floating aside : on the freshing tide. : It bobbed and rolled : as if to scold : two voyeurs bold : who stopped to share : its pleasures there. : With a silky flair : in the ocean’s glare, : devil-may-care, : it tried to outstare : us and declare : without restraint : or sad complaint : or subtle feint : that it would enjoy : (like a little boy) : the ocean’s toys. : It rolled and dove, : surfaced and hove : within the cove; : it paddled and played : as if we had made : our long crusade : just for its parade. : For ten minutes long : we two were a throng : who tried to prolong : the otter’s display. : We wanted to stay : on that pier all day, : watching and laughing, : mind-photographing, : sharing and quaffing : its antic wet-show. : And then—somber — : it decided to go; : it lengthened to flow : and dived deep below. : It didn’t return. : Our eyes came to burn : as we stared at the sea : where we thought it might be; : but alas, it was gone : and the water seemed wan : and the sunlight thereon : seemed as pale as a swan. : But we smiled at each other : (which was surely no bother) : leaned over, and kissed. : What we would have missed, : what an unforeseen triste : had we not had the thought : (quite a long-shot) : and decided to stay : in old Monterrey : on that wonderful day. : : :

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[The Crow's Nest] [Classical Poet's Poetry Ports] JOHN SKELTON 1460-1529, The Wife of Ushers Well ,C, JOHN SKELTON 1460-1529, The Wife of Ushers Well ,Anonymous Elizabethan and Jacobean Poems, To His Love, Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale, To Mistress Margaret Hussey, Phyllyp Sparowe, Early Modern Ballads, The Douglas Tragedy , Lord Randal , Edward , The Three Ravens , Sir Patrick Spens , The Unquiet Grave, The Wife of Ushers Well , Bonny Barbara Allan , Mary Hamilton, Version A, Mary Hamilton, Version B, Get Up and Bar the Door , The Bitter Withy, The Knight and the Shepherds Daughter Child, Version , C, Anonymous Elizabethan and Jacobean Poems, Love Me Little, Love Me Long , A Lament for Our Ladys Shrine at Walsingham, Fine Knacks for Ladies , Weep You No More, Sad Fountains , There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind , The Silver Swan , Yet If His Majesty, Our Sovereign Lord , To His Love, Tom o Bedlams Song, A Song Bewailing the Time of Christmas, So Much , Decayed in England, Mary Hamilton, Version B, To Mistress Margaret Hussey, , , Mary Hamilton, Version B, To Mistress Margaret Hussey, Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale, To Mistress Margaret Hussey, Phyllyp Sparowe, Early Modern Ballads, The Douglas Tragedy , Lord Randal , Edward , The Three Ravens , Sir Patrick Spens , The Unquiet Grave, The Wife of Ushers Well , Bonny Barbara Allan , Mary Hamilton, Version A, Mary Hamilton, Version B, Get Up and Bar the Door , The Bitter Withy, The Knight and the Shepherds Daughter Child, Version , C, Anonymous Elizabethan and Jacobean Poems, Love Me Little, Love Me Long , A Lament for Our Ladys Shrine at Walsingham, Fine Knacks for Ladies , Weep You No More, Sad Fountains , There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind , The Silver Swan , Yet If His Majesty, Our Sovereign Lord , To His Love, Tom o Bedlams Song, A Song Bewailing the Time of Christmas, So Much , Decayed in England