“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.” ~ Dr. Seuss, American writer and cartoonist best known for his collection of children’s books. 1904-1991
It is important for people to invite nonsense into their lives. The seriousness of day-to-day activities of adults extinguish that wondrous child deep inside each of us. Who says we can’t entertain a little nonsense, now and then. It stimulates laughter, fun and creativity in a very healthy way. Imagination allows people to truly connect with their inner self and in doing so, they can discover their inner joy. Why not think the impossible and entertain nonsensical ideas. That is how we make discoveries.
Today, March 2nd, marks the 108th anniversary of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s (aka Dr. Seuss) birth. (March 2, 1904).
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!
Below is an excerpt from http://www.seussville.com/#/author
American Poet Laureate of Nonsense
No matter what readers learn from Seuss’s books, they will most likely learn it in rhyme. Of the forty-four books written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss, only four are in prose. If we add books illustrated by others, or written under another name, or co-authored, or published posthumously, then the total number of books is sixty-six, with only five in prose.
Why did Seuss prefer poetry? Grandpa Seuss was a baker, and Ted’s mother, Henrietta Seuss, worked in her father’s bakery before becoming Mrs. Geisel in 1901. As the Morgans note, Ted and his older sister, Marnie, often went to sleep to the sound of their mother chanting to them “softly, in the way she had learned as she sold pies, ‘Apple, mince, lemon . . . peach, apricot, pineapple . . . blueberry, coconut, custard, and SQUASH!’” He later said that his mother was most responsible “for the rhythms in which I write and the urgency with which I do it.”
Along with Robert Frost and Billy Collins, Dr. Seuss is one of America’s most popular poets. One reason that he rarely receives the respect that they do is that Seuss writes for children. Some critics look down their noses at “kiddie lit,” refusing to understand that, though written for people with less height or less vocabulary, children’s literature is not a lesser genre. It is literature, and good children’s literature is as worthy of praise as good literature for grown-ups.
The other reason Seuss’s poetic talents receive less notice is that he usually writes in the meter of the limerick, a form that gets little respect. Horton’s “I meant what I said and I said what I meant” has but one anapest more than “There was an Old Man with a beard.” An anapest is two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable — da-da-duh. Seuss sometimes introduces an initial anapest with an iamb, which is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable — da-duh. See, for example, “A person’s a person, no matter how small” or “I’m Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me! / For I am the ruler of all that I see!”
Seuss, however, is a powerful poet. He’s one of the few to change the language. Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussycat” introduced runcible spoon. Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” coined both galumphing (a combination of galloping and triumphant) and chortle (chuckle plus snort). The word nerd first appears in Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo
As his nonsense-poet predecessors did, Seuss invented a variety of animals and plants. Carroll gave us the Jabberwock, and Shel Silverstein, the Flying Festoon. Lear created the Jumblies, the Quangle Wangle, the Dong with a luminous Nose, and a wide range of fantastical flora. Seuss’s prodigious imagination created more, I think, than even Lear’s. In Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) alone, Peter T. Hooper meets the Ruffle-Necked Sala-ma-goox, the Tizzle-Topped Grouse, the Shade-Roosting Quail, the Lass-a-lack, the Spritz, the Flannel-Wing Jay, the Twiddler Owl, the Kweet, the Stroodel, the Kwigger, the Long-Legger Kwong, the Grice, the Pelf, the Single-File Zummzian Zuks, the Mt. Strookoo Cuckoo, the three-eyelashed Tizzy, the Grickily Gractus, the Ziff, the Zuff, the Moth-Watching Sneth, the Dawf, the Bombastic Aghast, the Mop-Noodled Finch, the Beagle-Beaked-Bald-Headed-Grinch (apparently unrelated to the Christmas-stealing Grinch), Wogs (“the world’s sweetest frogs”), the Ham-ikka-Schnim-ikka-Schnam-ikka Schnopp, and a Jill-ikka-Jast. And that’s only one of Seuss’s bestiary books. He wrote nine more, each of which includes between a dozen to several dozen imaginary animals.
In tribute to Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), I wrote this fun and nonsensical poem.
Nook Of A Brook
by Dr. Angi
Gobbledygook!
At the nook of a brook.
An eye stared my way.
Wet, I waddled.
Like a daffydaudle
Without a care today.
Free to be me,
Like a birdeebee,
My eyes stared right back
Well, what do you know!
It is my dear friend, Janey-joe!
Looking for fun-filled widdleywack.
Together we played,
Until the end of the day.
And found for whence we came,
Widdleywack, not talking back.
We enjoyed it all the same.
In closing, it should be noted that in 1991, a few weeks before his death, Dr. Seuss was asked if there were anything he might have left unsaid. Seuss replied, “Any message or slogan? Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‘You can do better than this.’ The best slogan I can think of to leave with the kids of the U.S.A. would be ‘We can . . . and we’ve got to . . . do better than this.’” Entertain nonsense and invite creativity into your life.
“Think left and think right
and think low and think high
Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!”
Dr. Seuss
Like this:
Like Loading...
A Kiss Of Bliss 