News From Barcelona

In Barcelona for a week
So new experiences I do seek

Liking Spain and learning a lot
So far, this is what I’ve got:

Gaudi is the hero
Of straight lines, he likes zero

His Park Guell
Is downright swell

And the Sagrada Familia?
Ma Ma Mamilia!

Eating lots of Tapas
At several charming placas

Placas are the city squares
And Tapas is the city’s fare

Sardines first thing in the morning
Might become habit-forming

Today I saw Port Vell
Then on to El Ravel

But the Barri Gotic
Is for me the most chic

Salute to William Gilbert

The Pirates of Penzance I did go to see
Gilbert and Sullivan is a definite guarantee
For nonsense to reign and let logic get set free
Just the thing to bring me happiness and glee

Gilbert, the master, could always find a rhyme
For any word or situation, he did it every time
Out of every muddle, mishap, and hill the hero had to climb
Because a sad ending would really be a crime

The stories are ridiculous, the characters are trite
But Mr. Gilbert was never ever any too uptight
To describe every silly saga as a perilous plight
Much to my sheer and thoroughly entertained delight

The silliest stanzas get repeated and repeated
Never, ever, ever would they ever be deleted
Since we the audience would then feel rather cheated
For the show for which we were staying seated

In comparison my own poems are almost somewhat serious
Although I try to make each one extremely cheerious
I could write until my eyes were bloodshot and blearious
And never come up with something quite so downright delirious

A Premiere Performance

Abelard and Heloise: The Musical
The concept is rather quizzical
I mean, what in tarnation?
Their love affair ended in castration

Now that I have your attention
Perhaps I ought to mention
I teach history at a community college
And of medieval things have some knowledge

In the Twelfth Century Abelard taught Latin lit
And Heloise, his star student, would sit
And listen to his brilliance hour upon hour
Until he got her pregnant and things suddenly went sour

Here’s where the castration thing comes into play
Her Uncle Fulbert said Abelard should rue the day
When he seduced Heloise so young and innocent
And into monasteries the ill-fated lovers went

The Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris now holds their remains
And me, a medieval historian and a tad bit insane
Visited them on Christmas day a long time ago
And last night I went to see their musical show

Abelard’s calamities are not for the faint of heart
But setting them to lyre music provides a good start
Odd-shaped bongos, tambourines, and an instrument I know not
For a donation at the door, I sure got a lot.