Assignment #4

This assignment was supposed to include imperfection, limerick, and enjambment.

I struggled with this one. I’ve been struggling a lot today, with my own imperfections and insecurities, and that certainly didn’t make writing any easier. But I guess some days you just spit out what you can and move on, getting some practice anyway and hoping something better comes tomorrow.

Grad School, Week 5

Some times I feel hard and frozen

I know that this is what I’ve chosen

But days like today

I don’t see a way

I’ll survive all of the corrosion

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I know it is a game we signed

Up to play, mind versus mind

Maybe I’m not strong enough

(Though I like to think that I am tough)

I feel so awfully behind

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Everyone else who has their work

I see them with that secret smirk

Judging those of us who lack

A pre-made project, some sure track

I wonder if their own doubts lurk

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In secret shadows as my own

I cannot truly be alone

In feeling overwhelmed and blue

Surely there is someone who

Could recognize my tone

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When I answer, “Oh, I’m fine.”

And know that that is just a line

We speak to calm ourselves

Putting feelings up on shelves

Oh please world, give me a sign

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(It was weird to write a more serious limerick. I still have those 30 periodic table  mystery element limericks I wrote nine years ago for fun– and used to give my high school students for extra credit, so those are my silly associations with the form.) [Warning: See below only if you are a giant chemistry nerd like me!]

#80

Oh it’s that liquid metal of fame

(Quicksilver is another name)

Used in thermometers

Also barometers

Yet turns you “mad as a hatter”—a shame!

#8

If you want to make something combust

Then this common gas is a must

Its liquid form’s blue

With the atoms in twos

It reacts with Fe to make rust

EDIT: For those of you requesting other element limericks, I’m attaching a worksheet I used to use in my class. I added many of the other limericks as well, so you can mix and match ones you think your students might know at different points in the year, or peruse them for your own entertainment.  Fair warning, some of them are terribly clunky. It was just a fun diversion for me one semester as an undergrad. If you do reproduce/distribute them in your class, please give me credit. Thank you! You should be able to access them here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1URuMik4vJLqjgB1jJ58RrYRsfTJrQ5HhXyTrtWDvpCM/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know if you have any trouble!