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Another Batch of Beat
Posted: 11 October 2017
Word Count: 110
Summary: Please bear with me while I explore this style (“It will pass away soon enough” to quote Mr Bennet!)
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Puddings and Pumpkins
What is the point of
Christmas Puddings
with a sell-by date of
the third of November
Are the marketing men
so politically correct
that they don’t want to
offend pumpkins
in September?
Standing Out from the Crowd
I’m like a banana
on a canary farm –
conspicuous by my
silence
Crossed Wires at the Barbers
“Anything for the weekend Sir?”
the smiling barber said
“Yes, a five litre can of creosote
to waterproof the shed”
Coming and Going
There goes
a TOYOTA
and here is
ATOYOT a
in reverse!
Short Story
I’ve just written a novel
but you probably missed it
amongst the other
thirteen words
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Comments by other Members
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 James Graham at 15:48 on 11 October 2017
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You'r turning these out at an impressive rate, Mike! Try not to replace these for a day or two, though - let us savour them!
James.
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 Mickey at 16:04 on 11 October 2017
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James
This is a revelation (and a release) for me. I usually have an idea and then try to wrap it up in an extended and over-complicated rhyming poem. Re-visiting McGough has reminded me that you can just … well, stop in mid line if you want to and still create an interesting and amusing piece – and they’re so easy to write!! I’m well made up!!
Mike
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James Graham at 21:33 on 12 October 2017
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They’re all good, but the one that leaps off the page (for me) is your banana in the canary cage. The idea is just so way-out! You just think, Never in a million years would I have thought of that. Maybe in somewhat less than a million years I would have come up with the customer’s reply to the barber, or even the reversing Toyota, but not this. There’s a whole lot of cleverness in four short lines – the canary is of course conspicuous by its absence, while the banana is conspicuous by its…canary-yellow presence? Well yes, but its silence too. You’ve also done a real bit of free verse technique, the line-break:
conspicuous by my
silence
The theory is that a line-break in the middle of a phrase creates an unexpected momentary pause. The reader mentally completes the phrase then discovers it’s something different. Conspicuous by my… (absence? No, not absence, something a lot more interesting…silence!)
This is the closest I can find to an emoticon for laugh out loud 
James.
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Mickey at 10:39 on 13 October 2017
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Thank you, James. I’ve obviously not been as clever as I had hoped. The idea is that the banana is attempting to hide amongst a whole load of canaries. He doesn’t stand out because he is yellow like the rest, but is let down because he can’t sing! I’ve now reverted to my original version. Personally, I was happier with ‘Short Story’ where the reader is expecting a book rather than just the two words.
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James Graham at 20:05 on 13 October 2017
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Well, the canary farm is a comical notion too, Mike. The canaries would be in glasshouses, I imagine, and there amidst the racket would be that one banana trying to hide. I still like the picture of a banana in a cage, one end of it resting on the perch and the other against the bars. It was put there by a reluctant canary owner who had been given the bird as a birthday present and had finally had enough, strangled it, given it to his cat Sylvester, and replaced it with a banana. And bananas don't s**t on the cage floor.
Yes, I agree about 'Short Story'. First time I read it I never thought to count the words! Clever - and much more sophisticated than that dumb banana.
James.
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 Thomas Norman at 20:58 on 14 October 2017
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Mike these are great I too love the canary one and the barber's.
But I do wish you wouldn't change them so quickly! I would have missed these if I hadn't seen James's note on the latest group! My time is very limited 
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Comments by other Members
Cliff Hanger
Is there such a thing as stand-up poetry? If there were you'd be quids in.
