Mike Keith

Anagrammy Awards > Literary Archives > Mike Keith

Original text in yellow, anagram in pink.

A palindromic poem by Mike Maguire, anagrammed into another palindromic poem.

Elapsed,
 a frail aria's timid tone damned rage.

So ran I,
 to order a note we both sang.

I laid low,
 on miserable, bald locations.

Sent I was,
 all it is, I was.

I wondered,
 Is no cost set as I deliver debts I made?
 Will a foe rise?
 Dare I pass or can I leer?

In eve's yawn,
 it left some gain.

On,
On I age,
 most felt in ways even I reel in.

Across a pier,
 a desire of all I wed,
 a mist bed.

Reviled,
 is a test so considered.

Now I saw.

Is it ill as a witness?
No,
 it a cold label bares.

I'm now old,
 I align ash to be wet on a red root.

In a rose garden made not dim,
 its air, a liar,
 fades pale.

Name: "Sol".
 I won!
 O, lie by a maiden!
 If tone I lost on set, add a bad, a lone fill.

I ate, drawn.
 A crisis is a bone. Rise, diets!

A tract I'd named 'We See Snow' (e.g., a mill)
 it saw, or ran at a deep sign.

"I, sir? Sign or...?", wonders self.

O wall!
 I ate desires.
 I revolt, so hot.

I: evil
 A debt: rapid
 A care: solemn
 Me: loser? a cad?

I part bed, alive -
 I, to host love.
 Rise, rise: detail Law of Less Red.

No wrong is rising;
 I speed at a narrow, a still image won.

See, sew, demand it:
 Car taste I desire.
 No basis? I, sir?

Can war detail life? No, lad.
 A bad date's not so.
 Lie not, fined.

I, a "maybe"? I?
 Lo - now I lose, man.

Return to Mike Keith Index

A letter from the young Robert Louis Stevenson to his father, anagrammed into a
response in the form of a sonnet with an average of 2 vowels per syllable throughout.

   Letter,
   SULYARDE TERRACE, TORQUAY
   THURSDAY, APRIL.

RESPECTED PATERNAL RELATIVE,

I write to make a request of the most moderate nature. Every year I have cost you an enormous - nay, elephantine - sum of money for drugs and physician's fees, and the most expensive time of the twelve months was March.

But this year the biting Oriental blasts, the howling tempests, and the general ailments of the human race have been successfully braved by yours truly.

Does not this deserve remuneration?

I appeal to your charity, I appeal to your generosity, I appeal to your justice, I appeal to your accounts, I appeal, in fine, to your purse.

My sense of generosity forbids the receipt of more - my sense of justice forbids the receipt of less - than half-a-crown. Greeting from, Sir,

   YOUR MOST AFFECTIONATE AND NEEDY SON.

You yearn, miffed scamp, uncautiously carefree:
You mourn, droop, plunge, obtain, and strangely strive;
Your "fool-proof", staunch, contentious prayers I see.
Sure - faint, strapped, plaintive playboys yearn to thrive!

Tongues twitched, yearned with outrageous, fractious themes;
Breathed prayers, therefore, gripped schoolmates' threadbare frames.
Blithe youths preened, brusque, by coastline vineyard streams,
As lifestyles fierce conjoined svelte colleagues' shames.

Faint flame, arise! Postpone time's twelve-monthed year;
Flaunt fine, smooth style, thence viewpoints strange yet trite.
Maintain, maintain: taut, smooth, part-transformed sneer;
Learn blame, therefore; come, note the prayer-flame white.

O hackneyed, anxious, youth, I see your ploy;
Straight I perceive: your cash equates to joy.

Return to Mike Keith Index

The original text is Canto V, Part XXVI of the long poem Lucile by Owen Meredith. It contains only 133 vowels, but has been used to create a 140-syllable sonnet (patterned after a well-known one by Christina Rossetti).

The day had been sullen; but, towards his decline,
The sun sent a stream of wild light up the pine.
Darkly denting the red light reveal'd at its back,
The old ruin'd abbey rose roofless and black.
The spring that yet oozed through the moss-paven floor
Had suggested, no doubt, to the monks there, of yore,
The sight of that refuge where back to its God
How many a heart, now at rest 'neath the sod,
Had borne from the world all the same wild unrest
That now prey'd on his own!

He mustn't so forget me when I part,
  To go along to that detested land;
  His God'll ever hold us by the hand,
As in far shadows rest we, kept apart.
  Recall me? Oh he mightn't, but deny
  The zest that added to this era so;
O anger, we recant! He didn't go
To help a hero suffer Hell so dry.
  But ah! If he go cut my honor so,
  Or worry? Oh, he mustn't sob in shock;
His wit'll bid sad innuendo walk,
To ever deify the present, glad.
Better by far he didn't sulk, but glow,
  Than then he reawaken to be sad.

Return to Mike Keith Index

Shakespeare's fifteenth sonnet.

When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment.
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment.
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky:
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory.
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay,
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful time debateth with decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night,
   And all in war with Time for love of you,
   As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

The other evening I had this funny dream.

The venue: Yankee Stadium, August Fifteenth of that rare, eventful summer. The hot sun radiates on the stuffy center-field bleachers. The finches tweet, soft and gay. Then the tune "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen comes over the PA. The world's my oyster, yet my soul's on fire.

Now I am the batter, watching the pitch come out to me. Contact! The tenth-inning crowd sees the ball go up, cheering heavily. Then Phil roars, "Watch out! Holy cow - it's outta here!"

As I do the circle-the-bases routine that few know, a voice inside me says:

"I wonder if this merits a Long NOM, anyway?"

Thus I awoke.

Return to Mike Keith Index

Return to Poem Page


Updated: May 10, 2016


Home

 | The Anagrammy Awards | Enter the Forum | Facebook | The Team

Information

 | Awards Rules | Forum FAQ | Anagrams FAQ | History | Articles

Resources

 | Anagram Artist Software | Generators | On-line | Books | Websites

Archives

 | Winners | Nominations | Hall of Fame | Anagrammasia | Literary | Specials

Competition

 | Vote | Current Nominations | Leader Board | Latest Results | Old Results | Rankings

Miscellaneous

 | Tribute Page | Records | Sitemap | Search | Anagram Checker | Email Us | Donate

Anagrammy Awards

  © 1998-2024