March 21st, 2018

Ask A Cartoonist: World Poetry Day

by Tea

It’s World Poetry Day! Today is a great day to share a poem with your friends and family, or read a poem you’ve never read before.

I asked our cartoonists to share their own thoughts about poetry that inspires them today.

Bill Griffith, Zippy The Pinhead:

I was never quite a Beatnik and I was never quite a poet—but that didn’t stop me from being a big fan of Beatnik poetry as a teenager. I gobbled up Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso without really understanding many of their references.

As is still true, I just dug that the words could be ripped from their normal context and rearranged as if part of a verbal jazz composition. Years later, I met Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his San Francisco bookshop. He told me he dug Zippy. Like, gone, man!

Ron Ferdinand, Dennis the Menace:

Not only was Hank a great artist but he was a great writer and poet too. This one from ‘94 was TOTALLY Hank!

 

Mike Peters, Mother Goose & Grimm:

I love good poetry, but my favorite has always been “jabberwocky” from Alice in Wonderland.
I started by reciting it in school because I stuttered and for some reason never did when I had something memorized. Then when I had kids I taught them to recite it also, now they are teaching their own kids.“ If you don’t know it, it goes like this:

Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble on the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

It goes on to the triumphant return having slain the thing and the most famous line,
Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy!

It so important in our family that we recited it as we walked our three daughters down the various aisles to keep from crying!

 

Isabella Bannerman, Six Chix:

I don’t read a lot of poetry, but my husband introduced me to the work of Elizabeth Bishop, and I like just about all of it!
Here is one about a gas station, that has some humor in it.

Bill Holbrook, Kevin & Kell, On The Fastrack, and Safe Havens:

Whenever the topic of poetry comes up I immediately go to Bambi, the singer/songwriter of “Safe Havens.” While on the voyage to Mars, her verse focuses not on the environment of space but on the condition of ship’s commander, Samantha.

John Hambrock, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee:

I love to write poetry for Edison. This is one of my favorites.

John Rose, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith:

Jughaid is flattered when he learns that Mary Beth has written a poem for him, but after he hears it, he quickly realizes that there is no need to be!