What rhymes with strong, stable majority?
U.S. author Elinor Lipman set herself a challenge earlier this year -- to write one political poem on Twitter every day leading up to the 2012 presidential election. Today's instalment, for instance is this one:
Struck down today: Don't ask-don't tell/Good riddance, stupid ban!/ 1 bad upshot was troops less hot/less neat, less fun, less tan
This weekend, as it happens, Lipman will be performing some of her poems at the Burlington Book Festival.
Good timing -- It strikes me that our prosaic federal politics might lend itself to some poetry too: Sheila Copps rhymes with Brian Topp, right? (surely that should get some of you amateur bards started.)
So, if the muse strikes you, and with a nod to Lipman's project, I invite you to send in your Canadian-politics-themed rhyming couplets here. Sonnets and epics are welcome, but bonus if I can distribute them on Twitter -- that means under 140 characters, ideally well under, so we can put a #cdnpoli hashtag on them.
This little Iggy went to Harvard
This little Iggy came home
This little Iggy wanted everyone's love
But this little Iggy got none
Posted by: Bill Taylor | September 20, 2011 at 08:44 AM
This should fit :)
Roubini saw a crash coming/ and sure as hell it came/ Brace yourself CAN-ECONOMY/ he’s smelling things again. #cdnpoli
Posted by: Mina Bani | September 20, 2011 at 09:35 AM
Stephen, in his lust for power,
Planned and plotted by the hour
Laureen said, her tone quite crusty,
"Simpler, Steve, if you were trusty."
Posted by: Bill Taylor | September 20, 2011 at 09:41 AM
Little Rae of sunshine
Little Rae of hope
Life and soul of the party
Does he care which party?
Nope
Posted by: Bill Taylor | September 20, 2011 at 09:49 AM
Tony was a minister, Tony was a dork
Tony used the G8 to get a lot of pork
We asked Tony, Tony wasn't in
Johnny answered questions with an evil grin
Tony was a minister, Tony was a thief
Tony called us crickets because we had a beef
We went to Tony's house, Tony was away
We hoped he would be there on another day
Tony was a minister, Tony was a cheat
Tony fixed a steamboat and built a toilet with a seat
Tony runs the treasury, Steve hopes he will not fail
We're going to Tony's place to throw the bum in jail
Posted by: anon | September 20, 2011 at 10:36 AM
A haiku:
Baird leaps to his feet
Libya? Gazebos too?
Take that, CD Howe
Posted by: Joe B | September 20, 2011 at 10:43 AM
Dechert was a family man, But Dechert was a flirt, He thought that he could date a spy, And no one would be hurt. Stephen looked the other way, As Stephen likes to do, Cause Stephen feels that sin ain't sin, for those who dress in blue.
Posted by: Gordon Whitehead | September 20, 2011 at 12:14 PM
In Finance, we'd much rather take
Than Minister Jim, a good fake.
Don't collapse with unbounded hilarity --
Imitation's the best sort of Flaherty.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | September 20, 2011 at 04:00 PM
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.
Posted by: Jim Macdonald | September 20, 2011 at 06:27 PM