Short poems
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 06:55AM 
As things so very often are
intelligence won’t get you far.
So be glad you’ve got more sense
than you’ve got intelligence.Experts have
their expert fun
ex cathedra
telling one
just how nothing
can be done.
I'll be damned if I can find it again, but a recent blog post included a "grook" (short poem) by Piet Hein - on the order of the ones above. Until having read the now misplaced post, I had nearly forgotten about this wonderful poet. (A short homage is here, much more interesting than the Wikipedia article linked above.)
Hein's little grooks made me think about how our educational system too often values quanity above quality. The 500 word essay. The ten page term paper. All the even problems at the end of chapter seven. Read a book of at least 200 pages. Percent of students passng a test. GPAs and ACT scores.
Counting is probably the simplest and least meaningful type of evaluation of anything.
In the spirit of quality over quantity, I'll end now. But here are a couple other short poems (not Piet Hein's). Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments. Please no limericks beginning, "There once was a hermit named Dave..."
The Rebel
When I
die
I’m sure
I will have a
Big Funeral
Curiosity
seekers
coming to see
if I
am really
Dead
Or just
trying to make
Trouble - Mari Evans
Hide not your talents,
they for use were made.
What’s a Sun-dial
in the Shade? - Benjamin Franklin
Shake and shake
The catsup bottle,
None will come,
And then a lot’ll. - Richard Armour
Reader Comments (2)
Back in the sixties, my brother-in-law had his aunt for his English teacher. She gave the class an assignement, to write a poem. I don't know the details of the assignment, but here's the poem. Hope you enjoy it.
A woodpecker pecked
on the outhouse door.
He pecked and pecked
'til his pecker was sore.
BTW, he failed the assignment.
Naughty. I like it! Thanks for sharing it.
Doug