Funny Poems

Those of us who have studied poetry know that rhyming is only one style of writing a poem. The real criterion that defines a poem is whether I am writing something that could not be conveyed in prose. The strict grammatical rules that define prose have no place for a real poem's sentiment. At the same time a poem doesn't need to convey a profound message in order to qualify. A poem that is cute may very easily fit the this criterion as well.

Sometimes children with their fresh eyes looking at the world may be able to see that which an adults eyes pass over. There are many sayings to express this sentiment. One is, "out of the mouths of babes…", another coined by a television show is, "kids say the darndest things". We recognize that as adults we have become jaded. We may miss hilarious ironies about the world that our children have to point out to us. If I had to take a guess, I would say that children are in the world for just this purpose.

To those of that take life seriously, we may see humor as an obstacle in our paths. The truth is that jokes are funny because they contain a grain of truth about life that would not be able to be shown through any other medium. A funny joke or poem has the power to point out subtle ironies of life that I might get shot in the head for if I were to say them straight out. Humor has the capacity to point absurdities about the way we live our lives in a non-threatening way.

Humorous poems have been written for thousands of years. Many of us do not know that the nursery rhymes that we sang as kids were made up to convey information of a delicate political nature encoded in what sounds like a silly children's song. Living in the western world, we are lucky enough to be able (in some cases) to freely speak our minds. However, we cannot take for granted the medium of humor as a way to convey information that may be politically dangerous.

There may be two people who have been dealt the same cards in life. Two individuals with all the same life circumstances. One is miserable, stressed out, and looks twenty years older than he is. The other is the happiest guy you could ever meet and looks twenty years younger than he is. How can this be? The answer is that it not our life circumstances that make life difficult rather it is the attitude that we view our lives with. Those of us that are capable of seeing the humor in life and are able to take life lightly will able to do the best with the circumstances that they has been given.

There is a line from a country song that goes, "sometimes life's greatest gifts are answered prayers". It describes a man who sees his high school sweetheart at a high school reunion. He realizes how wrong they would have been for each other and how blessed he is to have the partner that he has. Many of us have similar stories. Many times we are lucky enough to end up not with the person that we thought was our soul mate but the person who is really meant for us.

Poems that rhyme relay a message through the music of the spoken word. Their power is in their ability to get us caught up in the music so that we will let down our defenses and consider the message that the poem has to offer. Sometimes poets use rhyme as a tool to show the humor in the message they are trying to convey. Traditional poems are written in rhyme to help to add a musical element to a reading. A rhyming poem brings out the joy that can be had in appreciating the music in words.

The short poem is more challenging to write than a longer poem. It seeks to make every word count and mean exactly what is intended. A short poem has the added benefit of getting the message of poem through to the reader in a succinct way. There are many traditional styles of humorous short poems. The challenge is in getting your words into the proper number of syllables in each stanza. These poems have a technical element to them that contrast with the free flowing poems that are more common today.