Dogged Doggerel

Since blogs are mostly ego trips anyway, I have the temerity to publish a bit of doggerel that occurred to me some time ago. A tidbit of genius by John Updike, at whose feet I grovel, appeared in The New Yorker quite a few years ago, has remained with me,  and, along with the late great Ogden Nash, inspired me. Here's the Updike. I love the way his mind worked when he saw the little music performance notice:

Recital

Headline in the Times:

ROGER BOBO GIVES RECITAL ON TUBA

Eskimos in Manitoba

   Barracuda off Aruba

Cock an ear when Roger Bobo

   Starts to solo on the tuba.

Men of every station—Pooh-Bah,

   Nabob, bozo, toff and hobo—

Cry in unison, "Indubi-

   Tably, there is simply nobo-

Dy who oompahs on the tubo

   Solo, quite like Roger Bubo!"

                          John Updike

My more feeble attempt came to me after I had recently attended a number of modern dance performances and was daydreaming in the dentist's chair. It was also the result of having had to proofread and edit numerous reviews of and articles about dance performances:

Alfred, Henryk, and Arvo

(With apologies to all concerned)

Schnittke, Górecki, and Pärt

Are keeping us on the alërt:

The Russian, the Pole, the Estonian

Are so in demand we are moanian.

Two Ts in A. Schnittke, an umlaut for P., 

And Ó's not the syllable stressed in H.G.

Even dear Philip Glass is just left in the dust; 

Neither accents nor umlauts—so him we don't trust.

If you're making a dance and must genius assërt,

You've got to use Schnittke, Górecki, or Pärt!                     

                            Döris