Will you forgive me if I just give a link to a poem I wrote about a clown ten years ago? HERE is the link.
For MVB-Clown
The Clown, For MVB, Feb 17, 2024
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Tag Archives: poem about a clown
Stream of Consciousness Saturday Prompt: Clown
Here is the lithograph I based my poem on:
Pablo Picasso
And here is my poem:
On Picasso’s Imaginary Self-Portrait
Is it conceit or self-knowledge
that makes you paint yourself
in the ruffed collar
of Shakespeare
or a clown?
Satyr, young at heart,
your merry countenance
masks darker moods and behaviors,
the bright pigments
hiding a more somber undercoat.
Picasso,
your children
and your mistresses
might paint you as master:
stern, egotistical,
but always with the backlit inspiration
of genius.
Yet, old goat,
you paint yourself a clown.
For Linda’s SoCS prompt “clown”.
Clown of Renown
Clown of Renown
With his roisterous manner and carbuncle nose,
he attracts children wherever he goes.
Talented clown that he’s been from his birth,
his floppy big feet and his startling girth
along with a certain elegant ease
makes him the perfect comic and tease.
Whether melodramatic or over the top,
playing Buster Keaton or a Keystone cop,
he captures the fancy of everyone there:
the perennial favorite of every town fair.
Word prompts today are melodramatic, elegant, carbuncle, roister and talented. Image by Ehimetalor Akhere on Unsplash.
Clown Face
Clown Face
The majority of children, in fact every kid in town
would drop everything they’re doing to get painted by a clown.
In his coat of many colors and his distinctive rubber nose,
his ruffled baggy pants and his other funny clothes,
he’s bound to probe your funny bone and catch you in a smile.
He’ll paint your face like his if you’ll stand quiet for awhile,
and then the whole best part of it is up and down the street,
every door you knock on will provide you with a treat!!!!
Prompts for today are coat, probe, majority, distinct and drop.
On Picasso’s Imaginary Self-Portrait
On Picasso’s Imaginary Self-Portrait
Is it conceit or self-knowledge
that makes you paint yourself
in the ruffed collar
of Shakespeare
or a clown?
Satyr, young at heart,
your merry countenance
masks darker moods and behaviors,
the bright pigments
hiding a more somber undercoat.
Picasso,
your children
and your mistresses
might paint you as master:
stern, egotistical,
but always with the backlit inspiration
of genius.
Yet, old goat,
you paint yourself a clown.
Reblog For dVerse Poets: Clown
Fitting In
Image by Pierrick Van Troost on Unsplash. Used by permission
Fitting In
He held his campaign kick-off in a colossal yurt,
clad in plaid Bermuda shorts and a rubber shirt.
His children were unruly, but his wife was slim and perky.
She dispensed campaign buttons that were colorful and quirky.
On them he wore colossal shoes, big pants and a red nose,
but she explained the reason for his eccentric clothes.
Why he wore the clownish clothes and the painted face
was to even out the odds for the senate race.
He wanted to fit in, he said, with others in the Senate
and look like all the other clowns who were sadly in it.
He won out by a landslide—an open and shut case—
proving once again that any fool can win a race.
Prompt words for today are shut, rubber, campaign, quirk and shirt.
Jester: dVerse Poets Pub, Nov 15, 2017
Jester
These tipped-up lips of wide renown
of the world’s most famous clown
are but pigment and not the man.
We know him not, for no one can.
No one assumes the painful task
of seeing what’s behind the mask.
The cloth that wipes it off each night
brings his true nature into sight,
for painted smiles are thrown away
as truth of night displaces day.
Underneath his painted mask,
he hides the truth we dare not ask.
One more day of tricks and laughter
cannot make up for what comes after.
His face, stripped down to flesh and bone,
reveals that he is all alone.
A painted face, a made-up smile
cannot mend a lover’s guile.
For the dVerse pub prompt.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 