This is a bit of a different post.  Actually this was an unfinished tale of beasts and men, bold and fools alike.

I’d started drafting this ‘tween classes, in study hall, while the teachers were settling down the problem classmates, and during the doldrums in high school when my imagination was bursting.

What stands out are these things:

  1. I was strongly influenced by Lewis Carroll (and nothing else!)
  2. I fit this into 19 lines of wide-ruled paper.  So roughly 8 hand-written lines per 1 line of 3-hole punch paper.  I’ve linked to a scanned copy for those who want to see this in action.
  3. There was no erasing or re-writing the lines (save for one line).  So I had to really think about what it was I wanted to put on paper before I wrote.
  4. This is to be read only out loud, and in one’s best Shakespearean Voice (Not BBC – or Received Pronunciation).  If you haven’t yet developed a Shakespearean Voice, I’ve linked to a good resource on how to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-rejaoP7U
  5. The rhythm needs to be cleaned up a bit as the lyrical bounce doesn’t always flow well.  But, given that this was drafted in fits and starts of 3 – 20 mins of work, spread out sporadically over weeks, I’m not overly critical.
  6. I added separator lines between “stanzas” but these are my modern, best-guess efforts to delineate my younger self’s lines of thought.  I’ll probably go back and re-arrange these over time.
  7. This needs to be finished.  Maybe I’ll put very sharpened pencil to paper and finish what I started three decades ago.  But I’d better hurry because my eyesight is fading quickly…!

ode-to-imagination-past-cropped-3



In the orange-covered forest
by the purple-hazed frog
the green golly goober
ate the jolly dolly dog.

And the knight of all the Daze
drank up all the milky ways
while the catastrophic egg
saw the way, saw the way

If the flypper flopped the folly
and the giant weren't so jolly
while the president was calling
all the men, all the men
would the ants of Christmas folly
jump the manager named Polly
and the older brother Wally
while they feasted on the floor?

"I say not!" said Campton Hampton,
the general of the allied force
as the disembodied spirit
of Napoleon changed his course.

Nelly Kelly, jelly belly
ate a stubborn horse named Telly
'cause he thought it was quite selly
to see the Frenchman fly around.

So he belched up all the pieces
then ate up a flock of golden geeses
that flew 'round the aged moor.

To protest, the ugly duckling
tossed a hand grenade at Nel.

"An egg" he would have sworn
but quickly found his innards torn
by the prickly, prickly thorn
born of war, born of war.

Antikillers marched around
showing God the blessed crown
but to us in London Town
we're fifteen yards until first down

Twas the rain that caused the Master
to speed closer to Disaster
so the oil made of caster
would release its deadly waste.

"Cannot see!" said Ivan V.,
the game show host from Tennessee
so we ran to see the sight
that had given him such fright.

Beside a man in black and gold
doing not was it was told
was a doggie who had sold
his doggie soul for rock & roll.

We turned back and could not look
for the munchkin-eating cook
gazed at us with such distaste
that we found ourselves to blame.

And the airplane in the breeze
did not hear the birdie sneeze
and gasp and choke and cough and wheeze
and finally ask, "if you please,
give me something good to drink."

So the Frog, who did hear hymn,
followed every thought and whim -
found a man named Gorgeous Gym
who was sleek, and strong, and slim -
took this man and his friend Tim...

took them both away

It was no shock to see the spock
of captain kirkan fame
materialise from inner space
to say we all were tame
compared to men from alpha cent
who came and gone, who gone and went.

"Illogical", you'd hear him say
about the way we live today.

But the purple-hazed frog
returning from the boogie bog
grabbed a folly-flopping flipper
and slaughtered all the Christmas ants,
Happy's Ghost and Nelly Kelly,
floated inside the vision telly,
scaring antikillers all round
the freakin' blessed bloody crown.

"STOP!" cried the spock, his pointed ears
raised up all our hidden fears.

So we stopped and listened all day
to hear what this dude had to say.

He shot the cook to start the meeting,
offered us a hearty greeting
sat us down and started to eat
the jolly dolly dog.

He stuffed his mouth and stuffed his ears,
and quickly downed fifteen beers.

"Folks," he said when he was done
"it's been real and it's been fun
but we're really getting nothing done
for a shilling and a pound.

I suggest we do our best
to capture all the inner worlds."

"But that's dirty!" cried the birdie
who found himself amazed
for the spock pulled out his phaser
and had the birdie phased.

He turned about, "Join him, anyone?"
To no one's surprise, there were none.

"Well, then, men, we're on our way!"

and they left that very day
to attack the inner planets
of Globbis, Sworthk, and Bel-antis.

The journey took a million years -
actually a million beers.
The drunken crew of man and beast
started on this planet-feast.

They hyperspaced to Globbis first - 
the Globbis-people faced the worst
from a crew of drunken men.

The president and hazed-frog,
Ivan V. and rockin dog,
Golly Goober and dazed knight
gave the people freakin' fright.

Campton Hampton led the fray
but no one knew that he was gay.

The Elven people of the land
fought the stinkin', drunken band
for they knew their lives depended
on the slaughter of the beasts.

Fighting bravely, teeth and claws,
broken limbs and broken jaws
showed the toll both sides would take
as they battled through the night.

The jolly jelly giant
took a breadknife through the knee.
If the giant weren't so giant
he would have been a she.

In the thirteenth hour of war
when both sides began to tire
the Elvin King began a fire
he said, "Gloddit bagnog ballin bid"
which means, "Bring me magic liquid"

(he was talking 'bout the Horsh)

The Horsh is magic liquid
led by Elvin Kings
to destroy enemy Raiders
and change the Scheme of Things.

The Elves brought the stuff
but brought more than enough.

All over the floor
they spilled the Horsh!

It was all over the floor
[unfinished ode sits, unfinished yet]