by Lynn Munsinger
It must be true. I posted Odgen Nash’s poem ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ a few months ago because I love it! My dad read it to me at least a billion times when I was a kid. Then I read it a billion more times! And, ever since I posted it here it has been the most searched for thing. It would be nice if one of my more profound essays was at the top of the list, but I don’t mind having this at the top. And, when I say the entire world I mean it. The wordpress thingy tracks where people are checking in from – Indonesia, Australia, Greece, the United States of America, the UK and the Phillipines, to name a few. Now maybe they’re all looking for dragon custard recipes, it’s a possibility. However, I’m pretty sure it’s because everyone in the entire world loves ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’. I mean, Ogden Nash’s poetry is pretty hard to resist. It is fun, funny and clever, like this one:
The Panther
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn’t been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don’t anther.
I am so glad to find people coming to my little blog in search of this poem. It is one I remember most strongly from my childhood. It is one that I love and that instilled in me a love of poetry. Anything I can do to bring poetry to more people is definitely something I’m going to keep doing! So, I hope people keep coming here to find ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ and maybe they’ll discover all the other awesome poetry I post here, too!
Cheers,
Laura
