Poetry Editor Philip Harvey writes:
Walter de la Mare invented a form he called the double limerick. The basic expectations of a limerick are: naughtiness, concision, maybe a touch of taboo, being in on the joke, and the joke resulting in a blast of laughter, a chuckle, or at least a smile.
Many entrants took on serious current affairs issues, with poems that end up moralising. With the limerick, the message goes with a lightness of touch. The drought was a popular theme with the poets and it is observable how the funny ones got the message across much better. Perhaps the limerick just is the most frivolous and brittle of English forms, the joker in the pack. Whatever, the judges' expectations were met more often when wit or playfulness capped off the effects.
Congratulations to our winner, Ursula Stephens, who will receive a case of wine from Sevenhill Cellars.
On a Human Rights Note
In a cage in Guantanamo bay
David Hicks sees his life slip away.
Here’s my chance (in a poem)
To plead "Bring him home",
Cry Howard and Ruddock, “No way!”
Ursula Stephens, NSW
The bane of the bush called El Nino
Is the talk over hot cappucino
Will it rain? Farmers bet
It's a rural roulette
Now city folk join 'em in the casino.
Paul Osborne, QLD
A keen whale-watcher called Margaret
Scored two blues as soon as she started
She saw minkes galore
Killer whales by the score
But her sperm count was way below target.
Gavan Breen, NT
Abandoned
In drought the farmers prayed for rain
Instead got a pollie in a plane
He promised aid
And more again
They’re expert with that old refrain.
Tony Smith, NSW
Our energy future
The carbon cycle can no longer be relied on
'cause it's warming up the planet we reside on.
To be saved by nuclear fission
is our noble leader's mission.
But rogue reactors are the places we'll be fried on!
Mike Foale, QLD
In the great, old town of Sydney
There was a young girl named Mindy
Who walked the streets singing
And with her wide hips swinging
She knocked out a kid in Kindy.
Baini, NSW
What if Christ was one of us?
A nature-bashing, human-hating, plain old evil anarchist,
He would travel the world plundering and pillaging,
Wishing and hoping that God is forgiving ...
Because after all, there's a little Christ in all