I was in Warsaw when the first bomb fell;

But she was a flirt and around her skirtVainly she made him dangle.Oh he wanted to wed and he had no dreadOf domestic woes and wrangles;For he thought that his fate was to procreateCute little Squares and Triangles.Now it happened one day on that geometric wayThere swaggered a big bold Cube.With a haughty stare and…

And here in our sun-happy Spain,Though man exploit his fellow man,To high constraint we humbly yield,And turn from politics to toil,Content to till a kindly fieldAnd bring forth bounty from the soil.They tell us wars will never cease;They sy the world is out of joint.How well we Know! But peace is peaceEven imposed at pistol…

Said Mother, thinking as she sniffed,Of clerical disgrace.Said Sonny Boy: ‘Alas, I know.My conscience doth accuse me;The lady stood upon my toe,Yet did not say–‘Excuse me!’‘She hurt–and in that crowd confinedI scarcely could endure it;So when I pinched her fat behindShe thought–it was the Curate.’

And as I watched her kneel and pray,Her reverence was good to see.For whether there may be or no’A merciful and mighty God,The love for Him is like a glowThat glorifies the meanest clod.And then a starched and snotty dameWho sat the other side of meSaid: ‘Monsieur, is it not a shameSuch things should be…

In fellow men;For I have sprouted from the sod,Like Bobbie Burns, my earthly god,–From plough to pen.So I refuse my brain to vexWith problems prosy and complex,Beyond my scope;To me simplicity is peace,So I persue it without cease,And growing hope.‘The world is too much with us,’ wroteWise Wordsworth, whom I love to quote,When rhymes are…

But now it’s timeTo write a rhymeOf ‘Casey’s Billy-goat.’Pat Casey had a billy-goat he gave the name of Shamus,Because it was (the neighbours said) a national disgrace.And sure enough that animal was eminently famousFor masticating every rag of laundry round the place.For shirts to skirts prodigiously it proved its powers of chewing;The question of digestion…