Islamic owls
Modern Humorist, a very funny site, ran a feature called Holy Tango of Poetry subtitled “If Poets Wrote Poems Whose Titles Were Anagrams of Their Names”.
One of the poets featured is William Carlos Williams, a founder of the Imagist movement, who is best known (by far) for his poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”. If you have anything even remotely resembling a poetry anthology this is sure to be included because
1. It is very good
2. It is historically important
3. It only takes up about three column inches
It is also notable because
4. It leads a large number of college freshmen (who do not know the historical context) to decide that the chickens mentioned in the poem could successfully write modern poetry
Here is the poem (I’m sure a number of readers would be able to recite this by heart):
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Here is Modern Humorist’s Holy Tango poem for William Carlos Williams:
I Will Alarm Islamic Owls
I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn
and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises
Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah
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