A Chicken, A Kaleidescope, and the Pottery Barn

There was a hen with a tube of mosaics
That made watchers cry, "Goodness sakes!"
So it caused some alarm
At the Pottery Barn
When a salesmen showed how well chicken bakes.

Where should I begin? The limerick above was a case of rising to a challenge to compose, with $10 on the line. I probably won't collect the prize; somehow, getting a chicken and a kaleidescope to converge at The Pottery Barn is its own reward.

The dare came forth on a message board thread about Edward Lear that was a spinoff from a thread about tears that was a spinoff from something else. Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" was quoted, as well as several poems that I'd never encountered. He felt pretty free to improvise when trying to get couplets to rhyme. Our crowd can do some improvisation of its own, since there were several other things going on that had nothing to do with Edward Lear before we got to The Pottery Barn. I still haven't figured out how the chicken and the kaleidescope made it into the conversation.

Today, a friend who makes his living by his right-brained wits and I discussed the role that commissions by patrons played in both classical composition and art. In that day, royals and other wealthy folk rather than publishing companies and record labels came up with the cash to fund these projects. They probably offered opinions on how they wanted the final result to sound as they signed the cheques. The creative juices would have to find a way to flow down the given sluice.

There are still instances where composition is called upon to take a certain shape. A regular feature on The Mac Davis Show involved the star sitting in front of the audience with his guitar, attempting to instantly put together a verse from odd suggestions called out to him. One instance in particular must have really made an impression on me, because I still remember the lyric.

The topic was bleu cheese.

What happened was as follows:

My cheese fell in love with my banana
As sometimes cheeses do.
This morning, I ate my banana.
Then, my cheese was blue.

Let's hear it for the flow of the juices down the sluices!