I like Ogden Nash’s poetry. I like it primarily because it’s funny and silly too. So, last week, which was National Library Week, I read some to the fifth-grade students at the East Street School in Hicksville NY. Joyce Kilmer, another poet, once wrote a poem that began: ”I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree. . .” In order to avoid having to look it up, I’ll spare you the entire poem. Inspired by Kilmer, Ogden Nash wrote:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed unless the billboards fall
I’ll never see a tree at all
Inspired both by Kilmer and Nash, I wrote a poem many years ago that I’ll reproduce here for your enjoyment. You didn’t think I was sensitive enough to be a poet, did you? The name of my poem is, ”Thoughts On Driving On The New Jersey Turnpike With Apologies To Ogden Nash And Joyce Kilmer”.
I think that I shall never see
A service area lovely as a tree
Even if it’s named after me