A Splash of Nash

Mug Shot. Ink & dyes on illustration board

When my grandfather retired and my grandparents moved back to West Virginia, my grandmother designed the house they built. Instead of wainscoting, the living room was lined with bookshelves. In the basement there was one room that consisted of four walls of bookshelves, floor to ceiling. 

Among other things, Grandma was an avid reader. One of the books in her living room was a fat, maroon hardcover volume of poems by Ogden Nash. Nash (1902–1971) was an American poet and humorist renowned for his witty, light verse. Born in Rye, New York, he gained fame through his playful, often whimsical poetry that combined clever wordplay, puns, and unexpected rhymes. 

His poems humorously explored everyday life, human quirks, and societal absurdities. In addition to writing for The New Yorker I've since learned that he also wrote lyrics for Broadway shows.

You'd think that writing humorous pithy prose would be easy, but I'd suggest it's not as simple as you'd think. Nash makes it look easy, though. He published 20 books of poetry for children of all ages. 

Here's an example, and why I often pulled his large volume off he shelf to peruse now and then when visiting my grandparents.

Family Court

One would be in less danger

From the wiles of a stranger

If one's own kin and kith

Were more fun to be with.

😎 

Here are a few of my own short pieces. 

One True Measure 

We measure our lives

by one True Measure:

Our proximity--Far or Near,

Day by Day, Year by Year--

to our Heart's Treasure.

e.

Eclipse

In the days of the Solar Eclipse

when the sun for a time hid its face

the creatures of night all emerged to explore

the strange world of non-light at mid-day. 
e.

Childhood's Beauty

It knows not the darkness,

or rather, lacking words

to define what is only sensed,

the child escapes

in innocence.

e.

To Be

Authentic inclinations 

-- to thine own self be true --

without inhibitions, 

get in touch with your roots.

e.