I dream I'll write a famous work
Best selling novel or sweet song
If I stick to the facts and truth
Add quotes and rhymes, it can't take long.
My pile of printed books is growing
At Toastmaster someone asked me
'Are you really an author, what ...'
Are your books called? Where can I see ...?
Most days nobody makes comments
I dress in bright clothes to impress
At last I've met somebody who
Make me feel my life's a success
I have fulfilled my life long dream
To see my name on a big book
Which sits unnoticed on the shelf
But's there if someone wants to look
I have kudos, I have a skill
I've copies to leave in my will
And if one day, sadly, I die
My books answer all those questions: 'Why ...?'
Why were her poems all so long?
What did she do right? Sometimes wrong?
(Change to wrongly. Edit strongly.)
Was she a man? Was there a plan?
What was she like? What did she think?
What did she eat? What did she drink?
Where did she live, and holiday?
How did she spend her nights each day?
I wish I'd met her, heard her jokes
Where can I see the words she spoke
If not on YouTube you can see
Each answer in my poetry.
-ends-
Poem completed, adding to a single verse, another last six verses added on October 3rd 2026.
Make me feel my life is a success, was nine syllables. So I changed it to 'my life's a' to make the length of the line match the other..
I changed how did she spend her night each day, which is a jarring contradiction, to the even more glaring nonsense, and therefore more humorous, absurdity, how did she spend her nights each day.
I looked at the apostrophe in the title. I thought about changing the apostrophe to imply the dream of this one writer. But the plural makes it more universal, my dream, or goal in writing, shared by all writers.
Copyright Angela Lansbury.
Inspired by the moment in the Humorous speech contest at HOD Speakers' annual Humorous Speech contest, followed by the impromptu speech contest called Table Topics. While the ballots were being counted, the contest chair interviewed all the candidates, just two of us. If you'd like to come along to HOD Speakers, the group meets in South Harrow Baptist Church, which is a two minute walk from South Harrow train station, and the bus stop for the H14, red double decker bus, which stops at Hatch End, Pinner and Rayners Lane.
