I am proud to be The Poet of the Week, for this week’s W3 Poetry Prompt #67. Thank you, Melissa Lemay, for bestowing this honour upon me. I pondered long and hard, and decided it was time for some fun and nonsense.
My prompt guidelines Write a nonsense poem with at least one invented word of your own. For inspiration, click to read 10 of the Best Nonsense Poems in English Literature.
I hope you enjoy my first ever nonsense poem, DOOLALLY TAP.
Doolally Tap
Doolally Tap I think I’m going doolally tap With a flip-flop flappity flap I’m shuffling a hip-hop tap on a buffalo’s lap With Cincinnatious attitude I want real food so toe heel into a custardtartarian shop and Cincinnati around the city With doolally simplicity in a skippity-stropitty strop I sleep wide awake whatever my mood I slurp pints o’milkshake Burp really rude and go Pop I get copped by a cop who thinks I am mad (a raving loon) I am smiling and happy but he is sad (and forlorn) I ask him to tap dance To which he agrees He takes off my handcuffs An antelope huffs And I sneeze In the warm month of June I dance on the moon With a Cop We waltz round dead trees By the light of a silvery spoon In a moonlighted breeze till the music doth stop and it endeth too soon. The cop goes down on one knee Marry me, says he, Let’s get wed Don’t be silly, I said, Don’t be daft Then we laughed! Laughed out loud With a quick ball change And a puff of white cloud A cramp roll and a buck and a large truck of luck We perform an hostelry rap over a tap of warm beer In oak barrelled casks where fat ducks swim for a lark in a flippity flap and a purple white shark basks with a leer My now friendly cop with a skippity hop says, this is jolly good fun let’s go for a run on the Sun I’m in a trance I can’t believe he wants to dance on the… He taps me on the shoulder to draw my attention (I’m feeling older) Can I ask you a question? I get indigestion and blow my nose with soft sneezex tissues In a cool New York tone, he says, Les,(because that’s my name abbr.) Where can I get me a pair of tap shoes? Lesley Scoble, August 2023
NOTES
Doolally Tap is an informal Brit term for the word Mad.
Here is a dictionary definition: early 20th cent. Doolally, originally doolally tap, Indian army slang, from Deolali (the name of a town with a military sanatorium and a transit camp) + Urdu tap ‘fever’
American Tap
I studied American (Jazz) Tap and was at my happiest when dancing in my tap shoes. I played a tap dancing Genie of the Ring in the pantomime Aladdin. At every joyful performance, I looked forward to the tap routines. It is impossible to feel miserable when you tap along with the lively rhythm of a good old musical number.
You may notice that my nonsense poem has tap dance terms scattered throughout.
TAP DANCE TERMS
The Lindy Hop Tap (in the poem I changed it to Hip Hop) is an energetic routine danced by a couple. In the poem’s case the partner is the buffalo.
The Buffalo is a step that crosses in front with a brush, step and a shuffle.
The Shuffle is a shuffle (walk as though you’re wearing loose slippers).
The Cincinnati is a rhythm that comprises a shuffle, hop, and a step.
The Flap is brush followed by a step on the same foot.
Cramp roll is a series of four sounds. For example, toe, toe, heel, heel.
The Buck is a forward moving heel drop with weight on the same foot.
Ball Change is when you make two quick changes of weight from the ball of the foot to the other.
THE COP
I’m dancing on the moon with an American cop. At the moment we’re binge watching the TV series Blue Bloods, so it has to be a New York cop up there with me on the moon!
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT
I dance on the moon with a cop | Digital painting©️Lesley Scoble
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My gratitude to David, The Skeptics Kaddish, and to Melissa Lemay for making me PoW, thus encouraging me to think up my Nonsense poetry prompt. Without either of you, my first ever nonsense poem should not exist. Please take a bow and take the blame.
My thanks to every poet who wrote to my prompt. Your poems are making me laugh—I hope you had as much fun writing them as they are for me to read. Thank you all for your nonsense.
On Your Way Riley
A screenshot of myself tap dancing in Music Hall, in the opening credits from the TV drama On Your Way Riley, starring George Murphy and Maureen Lipman. (I dance alongside my twin sister who choreographed the routine.)
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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