"Don't make me wear your shoes."
-- George Carlin
Know I no one less narrow than I
who'd ply Parker,* papyrus 'n' ink
and, eluding all risk to be label'd a nisk,**
tilt towards tolerance, never to sink.
I admit I’m no 10. No one is.
Who amongst us sits shiva sans sin…?
Not no beatniks, nor peaceniks, nor no-kinda-niks –
despite gender, creed, chroma of skin.
Do you “yessir!” with ‘da,’ ‘ya’ or ‘si’…?
Curls your pupek far out or way
in…?
Are you Ms., Mrs., Miss...? (I discount dolls dubb'd ‘Knis.’***)
Be to Mayflower Pilgrims you kin…?
Is your uncle a knight who says “Ni!”…?
Be you one of them blue-bloody “in”s…?
Are you highbrow or hick…? If you’re Dutch
do you snik…?****
Still...we’re fam’ly, no matter your
kins.
* Manufacturer of luxury fountain pens
** Someone or something godly
*** Discounted because meaningless
**** To sob in Sneek
* * * * *
How to Compose a Bananagraffe: a Tutorial
For those unfamiliar with the novel nonsense
verse form
Bananagraffe, here are instructions on how to fashion one
version of
that form for yourself.
Begin by selecting a word, preferably a short one,
one
from which a range of other possibly smaller words can be
extracted -- and
most importantly, one with anagrams.
The key feature of the Bananagraffe is
that from the letters
of the poem’s key word – in this case, ‘INKS’ – can be
extracted all words which will end the lines of the poem.
E.g., select ‘INKS.’
Prepare an array of all possible
arrangements of its letters.
E.g.:
INKS INSK ISNK
ISKN IKSN IKNS
NKIS NKSI NIKS
NISK NSKI NSIK
KSNI KSIN KNIS
KNSI KINS KISN
SINK SIKN SKIN
SKNI SNIK SNKI
Convert to boldface those letter sets which spell readily
recognized words, i.e., which are anagrams of ‘INKS.’
(With this and other word selections you make further
on in the
process, always select more rather than fewer.
You may well end up not using
every word you select.)
E.g.:
INKS INSK ISNK ISKN
IKSN IKNS
NKIS NKSI NIKS
NISK NSKI NSIK
KSNI KSIN KNIS
KNSI KINS KISN
SINK SIKN SKIN SKNI SNIK
SNKI
Determine which derived commonly
recognized words
have rhymes which can themselves be derived from the
key word. (How you match them is up to you.)
E.g.:
SINK / INK SKIN /
SIN KIN / IN
KINS / INS
Convert to italics those letter combinations
which form
unusual or pseudo words -- or even acronyms, keeping
in mind how those are generally pronounced. (Those
selected may be judgement calls and you may
end up
highlighting more than you need for your verses.)
E.g.:
INKS INSK
ISNK ISKN IKSN
IKNS
NKIS NKSI NIKS
NISK NSKI NSIK
KSNI KSIN KNIS
KNSI KINS KISN
SINK SIKN
SKIN SKNI SNIK SNKI
Select a range of additional words
that can be derived
from the key word.
E.g.:
I
IS SI “NI!”
(‘SI’ is Spanish ‘yes.’ “NI!” –
amplified with quotes and
interrobang – is an utterance of popular Monty Python
knights.)
Words from all those you’ve selected
will become words
positioned at the ends of the lines in your poem. From
those
you’ve selected, now select several to form the
end-word pattern your poem will
feature. The order in
which they are positioned is up to you.
E.g.:
I
ink
nisk sink
is sin niks
skin
si
in knis kin
"Ni!" ins snik kins
In addition to lots of assonance
because of the solitary
vowel ‘I,’ the rhyme scheme determined is:
A B C B
D E F E
G E H E
G I J I
The poem’s lines may thus be arrayed something
like this:
_______________ I
_________________ ink
_______________ nisk
____________________ sink.
_____________ is
____________________ sin
________________ niks
______________ skin.
________________ si
________________ in
____________________ knis
__________________kin.
_________________ “Ni!!”
_________________ ins
______________ snik
___________________ kins.
Now select a metrical pattern. In the
example here, election
to incorporate a phrase containing “knights who say “Ni!”
suggests several possible patterns while eliminating several
others.
E.g.:
, , _ , , _ , , _ (, , _)
The first, third and fourth lines are
alike; the third line adds
the foot shown here in parentheses.
It simply remains -- imaginatively with
regard to content and
with an ear to the sounds of vowels and consonants in the
words selected – to fill out the pattern with clauses and phrases,
always
remembering that the result should qualify as nonsense
verse.
