Poem for St. Patrick

Odd isn't, we celebrate St. Patrick on the day of his death: March 17, 461.

To be fair, nobody knows his birthday. Back then you couldn't Google "Maewyn Succat" and get all his public records, including a scan of his driver's license, medical forms and voter registration.

The limerick below? I know, a day late. Well, I couldn't really concentrate yesterday because the asshole upstairs was honoring St. Patrick's Day by having a bunch of bellicose bellowers over, and scraping furniture all day long (what, a carpet rule, never mind THAT). It's always NICE when somebody else's rudness must be tolerated, and things YOU want to do have to be abandoned. Like, writing.

So today it's back to writing...and letting the mind wander and write stuff on its own.

The Limerick is credited to the town in Ireland, the father of the limerick is Edward Lear (of the U.K.) and the patron saint of funny verse is Spike Milligan.

ST. PATRICK, MAKER OF MIRACLES

We all must admire Saint Patrick
(It’s true even if you’re not cat’lic)
He said “On your knees,
Look what comes in threes!”
THREE miracles, wow what a hat trick!

As long as you're here, how about the parrot? It was drawn by...EDWARD LEAR in 1830, some 16 years before he published his book of limericks. Lear was quite a fascinating fellow. He was the last of 21 children, and ended up being raised by an older sister, old enough to be his mother. He first found acclaim with a book that illustrated varieties of parrots. Unlike most artists of the time, he did not work from dead parrots. Or dead animals in general. He was fortunate enough to have access to an aviary.

Unlike the Minister of Silly Walks, Edward's physical problems were real, and not funny. He was tormented by epilepsy. Fortunately, he seemed to be able to sense when a seizure was coming on, and find some privacy. Despite this, and other health woes, Lear was a world traveler. A lifelong bachelor, this owl never did find his pussycat, and aside from proposing to one woman twice, only to get a pair of Oh No's, his main interest was a male who simply was not interested.

The limericks Lear published were illustrated in a comic style far different from the lifelike one he used for his nature studies. While it's the limericks that brought him enduring fame, he thought of himself as a painter, and hoped that his watercolors and oil paintings would be critically acclaimed (which they were), and placed in museums (some are), and put his name in prominent art books (well...)