This post is in honor of Jen at Jen’s Jingle.  She occasionally hosts a limerick contest that is quite delightful.  The winner of her contest gets a coveted spot on her sidebar as “the greatest limerick writer of all time.”  Perhaps you did not know that I wrote poetry.  (wrote= past tense)  Once I had a poem published in the Friend magazine.  I know, have you seen the high calibre of children’s poetry that they publish there?  I also won some kind of state-wide-ish poetry competition in elementary school.  I have no recollections of poetry in high school, and that actually brings me great relief, but I resumed writing poems in college.  I actually had poetry published in a literary journal.  Twice.  But it was in Spanish.  Don’t get too impressed, 95% of Spanish words rhyme with each other.  I’m actually a much better poet in Spanish than I am in English.  I think the language lends itself to more detailed expression.  But, I digress.  So Jen’s most recent limerick contest was about swimsuit shopping.  (I saw you cringe.) And I won! Prepare yourself for a deep, literary experience:

Swimsuit season is coming in sight.
But shopping for suits? What a fright!
My butt’s a sedan.
Maybe I should go tan;
or is cottage cheese meant to be white?

Whoever won the Nobel Prize for Poetry this year is so stabbing his eyeballs with sporks totally jealous right now.  You do know that if I had any pride at all, I would not be sharing this with you, right?

Anyway, Jen got a little jealous (who wouldn’t?), and wants a chance to write a great limerick to rival mine.  So I am hosting my very own limerick contest right here.  Since my blog is all about Diapers and Divinity, the contest will embrace a related theme.

Your humorous limerick should be about Motherhood and one of these three topics:

1. Family Scripture Study, or
2. Sitting in church with children, or
3. Family Home Evening

(If you don’t have children of your own yet… ahem, Kristina… I’m sure you can make fun of mothers and kids you’ve seen sitting in church.)  Here is a quick refresher course on how to write a limerick:  It is a five-line poem.  Wikipedia explains it like this:  “The standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines, with the first, second and fifth having nine syllables and rhyming with one another, and the third and fourth having five or six and rhyming separately.”  (Please don’t count mine too exactly or I may get the grand prize recalled.)  Example:

So is anyone listening to me?                 9 syllables, rhyme A
We are reading the Bible, you three!    9 syllables, rhyme A
Sit down!  And stop hitting,                   6 syllables, rhyme B
a migraine I’m getting!                           6 syllables, rhyme B
It’s like preaching to three chimpanzees.     9 syllables, rhyme A

Deadline:  Let’s say March 31st. 

Judging:  I’ll post up my favorites on April 1st.  (Remember that’s the day I stop showing up on your RSS feeds, so you’ll have to come find me the old fashioned way… actually typing out www.diapersanddivinity.com into your browser (or clicking on the link) and then re-subscribe/reset your RSS feed.)  Then if I’m feeling super tech-savvy, I’ll put up a POLL and you can vote for the winner.

Grand Prize:  Well, for one thing, your limerick will win a position of honor on my sidebar for at least a month.  Plus, I think I’ll send you some chocolate, because let’s be honest, it’s the best thing almost-no-money can buy.

So get writing ladies (and gents in the minority); hit me with your best shot of good rhymes and funny times!  Enter as many as you’d like.  Fill the comment box with stuff that makes me smile.

Oh, and oh! Have you seen the giveaway this month at Mormon Mommy Blogs?  Get yourself on over there.  (If I knew how to put that in really, really tiny unreadable print I would.   Because I want to win. But I’m not that blog smart.)

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