Recently my mom sent me this link to a collection of “higgledy piggledy” (or “double dactyl”) poems. These poems are a bit like limericks, in that they are short, catchy, and usually silly. Since several of the poems were science-y, I thought I’d write some zoologically themed ones of my own. (I didn’t follow the form perfectly, but I did my best.)
Also: fear not, this does not mark the beginning of this becoming Katie’s Nature Poetry Blog. Tough Little Birds’ regular scientific programming will resume shortly.
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Chrysopelea
High-soaring leglessness
floating through canopy:
fast transportation with
no way to brake.
Aerodynamically
he’s a mere glider but
anyway we say he’s
“flying,” this snake.
————————————–
Parental nest defense
Junco hyemalis
ground-nesting sparrow bird
hopes its mammalian
predators rest;
else it must bank that ‘gainst
chipmunk monstrosity
pink-billed ferocity
proves to be best.
————————————–
Sideways life
Upside-down clambering
vertical denizens
White-breasted Nuthatch and
sure-footed squirrel:
how many animals
spatioperceptually
see not up/down but di-
rectional whirl?
————————————–
One species or five
Junco oreganus
if you like splitting, and
caniceps, aikeni—
what’s in a name?
Though it’s debatable
phylogenetically,
species or sub-, to the
birds, is the same.
————————————–
Crow
Cognitive dominant
New Caledonian
avian Einstein—all’s
held in her head.
Pondering myst’ries of
time-space continuum,
self-deprecatingly
begs for some bread.
Tough Little Birds 
I love these! Especially impressed you were able to find so many double dactylic words–the hardest part, for me. “Self-depricatingly, New Caledonian, aerodynamically,” etc: who knew there were so many options? Traditionally the one-word line is the penultimate, but that’s really hard to do; so congrats on the Crow. Here’s another favorite, I think by John Hollander:
Higgledy-Piggledy/ Archangel Gabriel / speaking of Satan’s /rebellion from God: / “Chap was decidedly /tergiversational /given to lewdness and / rodomontade.”
The double dactyls turn out to be pretty common; finding a word that’s a choriamb (“rodomontade”) for the verse-ending lines is impressive though!
The main rules I broke were that the first line is supposed to be nonsense and the second line should be the name of the poem’s subject. If you believe Wikipedia, the one-word line is allowed to be line five, six, or seven, so I’m good on that score (except in “Parental nest defense,” where I don’t have any one-word line).
Does anybody in the world have “tergiversational” and “rodomontade” in their working vocabulary? Shouting “What rodomontade!” at someone would probably get the general idea across, but “Quit your tergiversation!” would be impenetrable.
Now I’ve found out about this verse form, very impressed, especially the snake.
Thanks! It’s quite hard to stop doing once you start…
I hope you don’t mind but i have posted a link to your blog on my own, inspired by this post. What have you started – posting a meme like this? :-)
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I have just noticed there are additional rules I have not followed …
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