Practical Poems, part one

Michael Augustin, the German poet quoted in the April 2 post, has asked another pertinent question.

How many poems per month
does an average
family of four need
to make ends meet?

That depends. To misquote Tolstoy, average families are not all alike; every family has its own literary needs.

But the prudent household keeps a folder of useful poems in a drawer.

This well-known memory aid is helpful when writing out the date on a check.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
February eight-and-twenty all alone
And all the rest have thirty-one,
Unless that Leap Year doth combine
And give to February twenty-nine.

~ Anon.

This ditty helps one decide what clothes to wear that day.

Spring is showery, flowery, bowery;
Summer: hoppy, croppy, poppy;
Autumn: slippy, drippy, nippy;
Winter: breezy, sneezy, freezy.

~ Anon.

And this verse is for those generous (and foolish) folks who lend out their books. Inscribed on the flyleaf, it would strike just the right balance between a gentle nudge and a stern reminder.

This book is mine by right divine;
And if it go astray,
I’ll call you kind
My desk to find
And put it safe away.

~ Anon.