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With his 'spirit machine' in position,
He said "It's the human condition:
From this faint pinkish glow,
An observer will know
That the soul makes a photon emission".

VEILED – VERSIFICATION

A C Bowden #232520 07/11/2023 7:22 AM
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A dissident's versification
Included some veiled information
On how to depose
His Soviet foes
Oppressing the great Russian nation.

AQUATIC – ARIA

A C Bowden #232526 07/15/2023 2:02 AM
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The Tempest, whose theme is aquatic,
Is potentially quite operatic.
Its turbulent maria,
Framed in an aria,
Often prove very dramatic.

GESTURE – GILDED

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King Louis said "L'état, c'est moi"
With a gesture befitting le roi.
In his great gilded hall,
The monarch, though small,
Had a dominant je ne sais quoi.

LOVELY – LUDICROUS

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The chapel is lovely, they say,
And the villagers want it to stay.
They oppose to a man
The ludicrous plan
To 'build a church fit for today'.

TEENAGE – TEMPO

A C Bowden #232543 07/23/2023 2:12 AM
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When the teenage phenomenon started,
Pop music was rather half-hearted.
Then the tempo increased
As the rock-and-roll beast
Escaped, and decorum departed.

OBESITY – OBSERVABLE

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Obesity, often severe,
Is plainly observable here.
Among Class D/E,
Most bodies you'll see
Are bloated with pizza and beer.

TRITE – TROT

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If a candidate isn't too bright,
They'll trot out some comment that's trite.
But some are so dense
They can't even make sense.
It's truly a pitiful sight.

CONFIDENCE – CONIFER

A C Bowden #232564 08/04/2023 1:04 AM
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Some conifer forests today
Are looking in quite a bad way.
Has drilling for oil
Affected the soil?
I cannot with confidence say.

MIGHTY – MIMING

A C Bowden #232574 08/10/2023 2:59 AM
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A mighty performance, it seemed –
The audience wouldn't have dreamed
That the singer was miming,
Until his bad timing
Betrayed him. "You phoney!", I screamed.

FLIPPANT – FLORAL

A C Bowden #232582 08/13/2023 6:24 AM
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The judge of the contest gave praise
To the ladies' quaint floral displays,
But injured their pride
With a flippant aside:
"We're all a bit withered these days!"

RIGOROUS – RIPARIAN

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An ugly riparian weed
Kept spreading, and scattering seed.
But a rigorous drill
Of 'trample and kill'
Proved very successful indeed.

DEVICE – DEXTERITY

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My friend has a nifty device
For making spaghetti from rice.
She can, by dexterity,
Cook with celerity
Loads of the stuff – it tastes nice.

SIDEREAL – SIGHTLINE

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Our cities have glare in profusion,
And sightlines are prone to occlusion.
But on calm desert nights
The sidereal lights
Show up without haze's obtrusion.

TRANSMISSION – TRAVERSE

A C Bowden #232637 09/23/2023 1:32 AM
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When it came to the solemn transmission
Of the corpse to its resting position,
We had to traverse
Rough fields with the hearse,
Which arrived in a battered condition.

CAPITAL – CARAMEL

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In Austria's capital city,
The woods and the lanes are so pretty.
You can feast on cream cakes
And caramel bakes,
But they cost quite a lot, more's the pity.

DULLARD – DUNDEE

A C Bowden #232881 04/25/2024 12:42 AM
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A dullard who lived in Dundee
Watched quizzes and games on TV.
He found it too boring
To follow the scoring –
He just liked the clapping, you see.

CITIES – CLASSED

A C Bowden #232886 04/28/2024 1:43 AM
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When we bombed German cities by air,
The moralists didn't much care,
But if dwellers were shot
By troops on the spot,
It was classed as a war-crime affair.

FICTITIOUS – FIGHTER

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Von Richthofen, flying his fighter
(Whom some thought fictitious), was brighter
Than all the poor Brits
Who suffered his hits.
They cried "It's that Red Baron blighter!"

MEZZO – MICROPHONE

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Sopranos' high improvisation
Has no need of amplification,
But a microphone aids
A mezzo's fine shades
Or a baritone's rich declamation.

GALLOWS – GAMBLE

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The judge had a turgid preamble
Which started off: "Crime is a gamble..."
And talked of the gallows,
Hellfire and All Hallows –
The barristers yawned through his ramble.

TECHNICAL – TEDDY

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When living conditions were rough,
A plain teddy bear was enough
To comfort a child.
Now play has gone wild,
And they want all the technical stuff.

PARTING – PASCHAL

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We sell many cards in this store,
For birthdays and weddings galore,
For partings, bereavements,
Retirements, achievements,
'Get well's, Paschal greetings, and more.

TOGETHER – TOMBSTONE

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The couple lie mutely together,
Interred beneath daisies and heather.
Their tombstone records
That they often crossed swords
And quarrelled like hell in bad weather.

ANTIQUE – APATHY

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The apathy shown in this town
Gets local antique dealers down.
To attract passers-by,
They frequently cry:
"Brass bedsteads for just half a crown!"

LIMITATION – LINKING

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When making a grand peroration,
Good speakers find no limitation
In linking ideas
Of hopes, dreams and fears
In a way that receives an ovation.

QUACKERY – QUART

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When I've finished two-thirds of a quart
My satirical efforts fall short
Of absolute quackery
(No Makepeace Thackeray
I) but I do it for sport.

DILATORY - DISCHARGE

wofahulicodoc #233081 10/06/2024 2:40 AM
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A soldier will not achieve glory
If his actions are too dilatory.
When the foe is at large,
If he's slow to discharge
A weapon, his end may be gory.

SOLID – SONGSMITH

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...when I read your verse, my brain - and ears - instantly go to Penzance:

If he’s telling a terrible story
He shall die by a death that is gory,
Yes, one of the cruellest slaughters
That ever were known in these waters;
It is easy, in elegant diction,
To call it an innocent fiction;
But it comes in the same category
As telling a regular terrible story....

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Very philosophical... smirk


SOLID – SONGSMITH

What songsmiths require nowadays
Is one solid, repeatable phrase.
Then they might as well stop
If they write modern pop,
For mantra-like songs are the craze.

PERSIST – PERVERSE

A C Bowden #233100 10/11/2024 2:43 AM
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Bereavement may feel like a curse,
But I think it is somewhat perverse
For a guy to persist
In shaking his fist
To drive Satan out of the hearse.

COUNTER – COVETOUS

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Some folk have a covetous feeling
Which drives them to anger or stealing.
On the counter, some stores
Have a note which implores:
"We value respect and fair dealing".

WIDESPREAD – WINDING

A C Bowden #233117 10/21/2024 2:48 AM
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When priests and archbishops held sway
And ordered our life's winding way,
The belief was widespread
That when we were dead
The Devil might make us his prey.

EMERGE – EMPEROR

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The Emperor Bonaparte said:
"The age of the monarchs is dead!
Away with their scourge –
Let freedom emerge!
Now, please put the crown on my head".

LODGE – LONGER

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Sweet memories lodge in the brain
Far longer than those that cause pain,
Or so I would hope.
Some people take dope,
For the latter kind drive you insane.

PENDULUM – PERCEPTION

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A C Bowden #233150 11/09/2024 2:34 AM
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Our perception of temporal flow
Is such that time seems to run slow
When we anxiously wait
For events running late,
As tests with a pendulum show.

GROCERY – GROUND

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In our grocery store I buy spice,
Plain flour, semolina, ground rice,
Some honey and bran,
Then I take a large pan
And mix the whole lot – it tastes nice.

RABBIT – RACY

A C Bowden #233162 11/14/2024 3:26 AM
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The plot of this novel is pacy;
The heroine's language is racy.
She wears a long habit
And breeds like a rabbit.
Donate 50p for a précis.

PLEASURE – PLENARY

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Time to ressurrect this one, just for fun:

Limericku
Anonymous, via Paul Bickart on Facebook, 2020


There was an old man
From Peru, whose lim’ricks all
Looked like haiku. He

Said with a laugh, “I
Cut them in half; the pay is
Much better for two.”

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I like it, wofa, time indeed.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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