The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
Limericks about Berlin and Germany
If you know me the way that people who really know me know me, then you know that I’m a man on a mission. And you know that I’m a firm believer in the notion that anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Or in the immoderate words of Oscar Wilde, “Nothing succeeds like excess.” In fact, amateur physicians have diagnosed me with having a high-functioning case of Excessive Compulsive Disorder.
The two things I’m most passionate about are limericks and bamboo. In 2006 I opened Bambu Batu, the first store in California dedicated to all things bamboo. And it was only six months later that I pledged to write a series of 100 limericks. As you can tell from this website, 15 years later, that series never ended.
Bamboo and Limericks: The time has come
So why has it taken so long for me to write a series of limericks about bamboo? That’s a pretty good question.
The only thing I can blame it on is monomania, or good old-fashioned single-mindedness. When I explore, promote, and write about bamboo, I’m too fixated to think about limericks. And when I’m writing limericks, I can’t afford to get distracted by thinking about bamboo.
On the surface, it seems almost reasonable. But it’s actually a pretty feeble explanation. In the past decade or so I’ve also developed obsessions with German Idealism, Biblical history, and the Golden Age of Russian Literature. And that hasn’t stopped me from writing a profusion of limericks about those topics.
Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve taken my obsession with bamboo to the next level. I have so surrounded myself with bamboo, that I’ve come to think of it like the air I breathe. And so it never occurred to me to write a limerick about it.
That doesn’t sound right either. So let’s just get straight to the limericks.
Limericks and Bamboo
There’s a grass with some vast versatility
And none can surpass its ability
Her growth rate’s astonishing
Meanwhile admonishing
Fossil fuels into futility
When judging the tree by its fruits
The bamboo proponent imputes
That this grass’s great powers
Lie not with its flowers
But deep in its rhizomes and roots
Climate Change, like an explosion
Brings floods and destructive corrosion
So plant some bamboo
It can trap CO2
While also preventing erosion
There’s a grass that grows better outdoors
And makes products for very fine stores
So stop using plastic
This plant is fantastic
For energy, clothing and floors
Bamboo, like a cup, or the Tao
Is quite hollow, and if you’ll allow
It seems as if nothing
Is greater than something
It never made sense until now
With the atmosphere starting to fester
It’s right off the charts when we test her
The temperature’s rising
Our planet’s just writhing
So carbon we’ll have to sequester
Further Reading
If you enjoyed these eco-friendly, energy-saving, carbon-sequestering limericks, please consider purchasing one of my books or subscribing to the blog. You might also want to visit the Bambu Batu website, or check out some of these popular articles:
