The Frog

September 12, 2011

The other day, my nephew bet me that I couldn’t write a poem about Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I love my nephew, and I love a poetic challenge as much as the next person. In addition, Prague has always been a place I’d love to visit. So before he went home that evening, I scribbled down the following verse:

THE FROG

Once in Prague there lived a frog
And I’m not kidding you one speck
That frog would never croak or ribbet
That fine amphibian spoke Czech

He spoke Czech like no one else could
In accusative and dative
Those who heard his exhortations
Thought he spoke just like a native

All the people were aghast
Such linguistical equations
"That’s unheard of in a frog…
Blessed are we above all nations."

A nation with a frog who spoke
Floppy flippers, eyes so goggly
There never was a frog so froggy
Or a Praguian so Praguey!

   Amy Jo V. 2011

If you’re still reading this blog, my guess is that you’re either interested in writing poetry or possibly some other genre, and/or maybe you’d like to visit Prague as well. If your interest is books and writing, I’d like to recommend the following variety of titles that are sitting on my bookshelf at home:

1. Pocket Muse by Wood
2. Poemcrazy by Wooldridge
3. The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Kooser
4. Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life by Conrad & Schulz
5. Writing Brave and Free by Kooser & Cox

You might also want to check out MCPL's excellent research database Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry. There are some helpful poetry websites as well, such as Poets.org and PoetryFoundation.org .

If you’d like to find out more about beautiful Prague, on the other hand, the following non-fiction items might prove helpful:

1. The Magic Circle of Rudolf II by Marshall
2. Prague Saints and Heroes of the Charles Bridge by Martin
3. Prague: the essential guide to viewing art in Prague by MacDonald

For those who would like to try their hand at the Czech language, I would suggest MCPL's fun research database Mango Languages. Happy reading and/or writing…

Na shledanou! / Goodbye!

Amy Jo : )
Blue Springs South Branch