I was invited to participate in the August 2025 Poetry Month Challenge by phil saunders, a fellow Friendly Street Poet. I was given a list of 26 words. My challenge was to write a poem that included all 26 words, in the order given. I was instructed to italicise the given words. This nonsense poem was the result

Couplets of iambic pentameters and iambic tetrameters, arranged into stanzas of four lines each. Within each stanza, the pentameters rhyme and the tetrameters rhyme

Branford, Alan. “The Slurry High School Annual Concert”, Wise Beggars In Tatty Robe Bridge Slurry, edited by phil saunders, William Robert Grace, Belair, South Australia, September 2025, p. 6.

ISBN 978-0-6459460-3-1

(October 2025)

The Slurry High School Annual Concert

The Slurry High School Annual Concert starts,

With alto, Enid, in full voice.

She maims the national anthem, then departs.

That aria not the best first choice.

A lad with ginger hair gets up to sing

A lengthy ballad of the school.

The head boy starts a chant of “faggot king”,

But Ginger winks at him, the fool.

The school had wished a solemn, dark chorale,

Which Bombast promised to compose.

He is a rich alumnus from locale,

But from whom little talent flows.

The piece is more a ditty than a hymn,

With instruments to ease the pain.

The tone it sets is most distinctly grim,

I never wish to hear again.

The orchestra now plays a lullaby,

Its melody allows some sleep,

The music is just like a gentle sigh,

The orchestration soft, not deep.

An a capella group in four parts sings

Some lovely tunes you could not knock.

A pianist takes to stage and opens wings,

To improvise ragtime and rock.

Young Agatha shows her piano skill,

By playing solo complex works.

Sonatas by the masters she can kill.

This show is good despite the quirks!

Big Bertha the soprano hurts the ears.

The orchestra plays symphony

In fast paced tempo, so the whole world hears –

Big Bertha’s trills accompany.

The School has jazz trios: sax, bass and drums,

And two of these perform their sets.

The syncopation has the audience thrum,

And all forget their past upsets.

Sweet Alan had researched an ancient art,

The troubadour from southern France.

His virtuoso singing of the part

Leaves the audience lost in trance.

And so, the concert, from a shaky start,

Showcased a school with talent vast.

The parents’ lavish praise came from the heart,

And teachers basked in Slurry’s cast.