THREE WORD WEDNESDAY
I have been a deviant,
Deviating from the norm!
Now that makes me sound interesting,
In some odd shape or form.
A deviant is seen as someone
Rather strange and weird,
Someone who eats garden snails,
Or a lady with a beard.
My deviation was trivial,
Minuscule, you might say,
And yet its failure haunts me,
Right to this very day.
As a teacher, I cut out 'Spelling'
Phonetics ruled the roost.
I cut out all the spelling rules
To which we all are used.
By the end of kindergarten
'My' children could write pages
Of interesting material
Which would have taken ages
Of blood and sweat and tears and pain
Using accepted rules;
The hours of learning spelling,
Which dominate our schools.
Of course, I then introduced T.O.
Traditional Orthography,
And 'my' children were taught spelling
Quite traditionally.
But it seemed to me utterly stupid
That 'spelling tests' were their fate,
When even at the age of six,
They could communicate!
I ended up disappointed;
My idea was thrown out,
And everyone I mention it to
Views it with scorn or doubt.
I was 'a voice in the wilderness',
I was a deviation,
But 'texting' is now leading the way
To a change in the situation.
Way, way in the future
Children in school will say
"We 've heard of a thing called spelling,
But it's not for us. Hooray!"
*
Here is the same poem written as I would wish.
I hav ben a deveant
Deveating from the norm.
Now that maks me sownd intresting,
In sum od shap or form.
A deveant iz sen az sumwun
Rarther stranj and weyerd;
Sumwun hoo ets gardn snayals
Or a lade with a beyerd. ............
(Now that was easy enough, wasn't it?)
*
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EXPEDIENCY
The world is full of elections,
Far more than one or two.
And, once again we're pondering
On the false and on the true.
Both sides accuse the other
Of lies, deception and such,
And we, the poor old voters,
Are not assisted much.
I keep hoping for a candidate
Who praises 'the other side',
And doesn't keep parroting the cry
"They lied! They lied! They lied!"
Why not give credit where it's due,
Or copy a policy?
A blanket smear (if there is such a thing!)
Seems devious to me.
Not all politicians are villains;
They start out meaning well,
And then that wretched expediency
Sets them on the road to hell!
They're merely muddling-along, my friends,
Exactly as we are;
If I found one who admitted it,
I'd hitch myself to his star!
*
