Poetry Proclivities

I'm not a big poetry fan in general, but notable exceptions are Poe's The Raven (especially the Simpson's version), Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.

However, I have to admit a certain fondness for the lowly limerick. I've done some composing, but the subject matter is often not something I'd want to post on my blog ("Hi, Mom!"), so when I ran into the rare clean one, I had to share:

A Limerick packs laughs anatomical
In a space that is quite economical
But the good ones we've seen
Very seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical

I've seen geek poetry, geek activities as song parodies, programs as songs (genius!), but I've never seen a geek limerick. Got any?

Chris Sells wants to know if I've learned the trick
Of writing a geek-oriented limerick
After learning C#
Who am I to carp
If your limerick has too many syllables and doesn't rhyme?

The one I ever seen was derived from the Computer Blessing.

The Limerick.
Blessings on this fine machine,
May its data all be clean.
May it never catch a virus,
And all its software stay desirous.
Keep Murphy far from this machine.


The Original Poem as I have it from an email back in 1998. No Idea who the original author was.

Computer Blessing
-------- --------
 
Blessings on this fine machine,
May its data all be clean.
Let the files stay where they're put,
Away from disk drives keep all soot.
From its screen shall come no whines,
Let in no spikes on power lines.
As oaks were sacred to the Druids,
Let not the keyboard suffer fluids.
Disk full shall be no more than rarity,
The memory shall not miss its parity.
From the modem shall come wonders,
Without line noise making blunders.
May it never catch a virus,
And all its software stay desirous.
Oh let the printer never jam,
And turn my output into spam.
I ask of Eris, noble queen,
Keep Murphy far from this machine

Lame, but I spent half an hour on it, so I have to hit "Post"...

Geek limerick needed by Chris,
Surely a program can solve this!
Ruby is too slow;
F#, I don't know.
That leaves C# or common LISP...

Jacob, pretty good!

Jesse, that killed me! Awesome!

Edutainment at its finest (which is not very good at all):

for my int i equals zero
now into the loop we go
increment i by one
examine the sum
while i less than count, continue

Well, Jacob, it doesn't rhyme, but I like the spirit! : )

There once was a Sells from Beaverton
Who often wrote lengthy books for fun
While not considered lewd
He's known for posing nude
Now look at the trend he has begun

Try Charles Bukowski.

Try Charles Bukowski... not for geek poetry, but for poetry that you might actually like. I've been hooked for decades.

Adam! Dude! That rocks!

Hey Chris.. have you checked out http://limerickdb.com - it's from the Randall Munroe, creator of the XKCD comics (http://www.xkcd.net).
My favorites:

There once was a [person] from [place]
Whose [body part] was [special case].
When [event] would occur,
It would cause [him or her]
To violate [law of time/space].

or...

A UNIX saleslady, Lenore,
Enjoys work, but she likes the beach more.
She found a good way
To combine work and play:
She sells C shells by the seashore.

or... (a limerick tongue-twister??!)

If you catch a Chinchilla in Chile
And cut off its beard, willy-nilly
You can honestly say
That you have just made
A Chilean Chinchilla's chin chilly

Cheers,
Daniel.