Today is “Poem in Your Pocket” Day, part of National Poetry Month, and in anticipation of this auspicious day (which I had never heard of before…) I spent the first part of the week performing a poem for elementary school kids.

through the looking glassJabberwocky.

I memorized “Jabberwocky” from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (sequel to Alice in Wonderland) probably when I was in high school simply because it was ridiculous sounding.

Personally, I think Jabberwocky is a geeky poem, But perhaps it isn’t for everyone.

I did get back into looking at poems though, and found others that I believe are geeky.

This is my new favorite geeky poem:

The Purist

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist,
Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!”
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”

– By Ogden Nash

The obsession and precision of a scientist might be a tad overstated… but that’s the fun part!

Deinonychus_skeletonThe Big Claw

If you and I, in ancient days,
Had met grim Deionychus,
We would have seen his awful claws,
And hoped that he might like us!

Those claws of his could open you
As swiftly as a zipper,
And that’s why some have called the beast
An early Jack the Ripper.
-From Dinosaurs Forever, by William Wise