There Once Was a Poet Named Kloess

Martin Kloess’s new book of limericks, “Well That Was That” is now for sale on Smashwords and Kindle.  I read the Smashwords edition, and it delighted me.  Kloess constructs limericks with great skill.   His limericks are friendly and funny as well.

The First Couplet

Limericks have a three-part structure.  The first couplet introduces the subject; the second couplet delays the punchline; and the last line is the punchline.  Kloess’s limericks have titles, which he chooses with care.  These titles reduce the work the first couplet has to do.  For example, he writes the title “Is This Guy Cooking or What”  for a limerick that begins with this couplet:  

Her lips spoke to him of desire

Her passion would soon spark a fire.

For the most part, the initial couplets Kloess writes tease or misdirect the reader.   

The Second Couplet

Kloess uses the second couplet to delay the punchline with real skill.  He always gets the chuckle that leads to the laugh at the end.  When guys eat beans,

Their hot air a joke

Till one lit a smoke.  

The limerick ends with a bang.

The Punchline

I won’t spoil any limericks by giving away the last lines.  I will point out that the last lines makes us laugh and reveal who we are by identifying what we think is funny.  That’s right, a limerick pulls down our pants, but in a friendly way.

A Few are Risqué

Some critics, G. B. Shaw for example, think that if a limerick isn’t obscene, then it’s not a limerick.  Shaw wouldn’t like Kloess’s collection of limericks.  As a rule they’re not dirty.   Perhaps a few are risque and have a thumbprint or two on them, but most are whistle clean.

As a Southerner, I can’t imagine how Kloess could live in San Francisco and write clean limericks.  He’s a remarkable man.  Personally, I wish Kloess would send his muse to Nantucket for vacation.  I’d like to read the result.

An Immaculately Formatted eBook

Working with user-generated content websites like Triond very quickly teaches writers how hard it is to edit your own work.  Katy Stancil edited the book and, I assume, gave the text its readable and spacious look.  Kudos to Katy.

“Well That Was That”: A Humorous Take on Relationships.   The Poetry of Martin Kloess, Volume 2.  Wyld Pegasus, LLC (June 7, 2012).

Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/160146

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Volume-Limericks-Martin-Kloess-ebook/dp/B008A07TUG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1341579687&sr=1-1

Visit Martin Kloess’s Triond Profile

http://www.triond.com/users/Martin+Kloess

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I planned to write Martin Kloess a tribute limerick in thanks, but I don’t know how to pronounce his name.  Umlauted German-Americans have changed the pronunciation of their names to accommodate English so many different ways that it’s hard to decide how to say Kloess.

Does it rhyme with jocose?

There once was a poet named Kloess
Whose limericks were far from verbose.
A man with a tin
Could twenty fit in,
And that’s just enough for a dose.

Or with bless?

There once was a poet named Kloess.
How say it I never could guess,
For fear I would sprain
My tongue or my brain,
And would not that be a mess?

Or with curse?

There once was a poet named Kloess
Whose limericks were tiny and terse.
It would be absurd
To add a small word;
If he did they would only get verse.

His name could also rhyme with hose, but that limerick is adult content.

Martin Kloess, thanks for writing the book.