Buckingham Palace Limerick

Photograph of the changing of the guard
A randy guard of Buckingham Palace
stood at attention, but so, too, his phallus.
He did his very best -
stock still like all the rest,
but was exposed by tent and hand callus.

Radio Fan Limerick

A radio fan from Vienna
got no reception with his antenna --
except when wired
to the church spire.
Piety left him on the horns of dilemma.

Windsurfer Limerick

Photograph of windsurfers near San Pedro, Belize.
Some hardcore fanatic windsurfers
found sunny days couldn't match their fervor.
They got it on the brain
to ride a hurricane,
and rode the wind from Jamaica to Port Arthur.

Safari Guide Limerick

Photograph of a female lion taken in Chobe National Park in Botswana.
There was a cocky safari guide
who - of lions - was often quite snide.
He frequently stated
they were overrated,
but his view was different from inside.

Moose Limerick

A tour bus sticker of mating moose
led a tourist to say, "What the deuce?"
"I just cannot deal
with a tour bestial,
and the memories that it might induce."

Frankfurt Limerick

Photograph of Old St. Nicholas Church in Frankfurt am Main's town square at dusk.
A streetwalker from Old Town Frankfurt
had a proclivity for getting hurt.
'Twasn't violent clientele.
She tripped and she fell
where heel met cobble met tight skirt.

Drunkard’s Cask [Limerick]

A drunkard put a cask atop his car
so he wouldn't always have to find a bar.
Under that kind of weight --
The car's range: km - 8,
But his own range per liter wasn't that far.

BOOK: “New Comic Limericks” ed. by Ivanette Dennis

New Comic LimericksNew Comic Limericks by Ivanette Dennis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This anthology consists of 63 pages of whimsical limericks with amusing cartoon illustrations by Louis Marak. There aren’t laugh-out-loud yucks to be had here, but the wordplay of these poems is clever and the limericks are more well-crafted than most. It should be pointed out that there is nothing risqué in the collection either. The most best-known limerick writers included are Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, and Charles Barsotti. [Incidentally, the most famous writers included are Rudyard Kipling, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Robert Louis Stevenson.]

The pieces take a wide variety playful approaches to the limerick from eye rhymes, slant rhymes and the shape poetry of Charles Barsotti.

If you’re interested in limericks and wordplay, there is a lot to learn from the examples presented in this anthology.

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CZECH REPUBLIC LIMERICK

A parachutist from Czech Republic
never ever did have too much luck.
He dodged a tall spire,
bounced off a high wire,
hit a wall and knocked loose some pub bricks.

SOUTH KOREA LIMERICK

There was a young man from South Korea
who was prone to verbal diarrhea.
“But better that kind
than from the behind,”

Said that fast-talking lad from Korea.