Bananagraffe on I N K S

     "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.