The renowned actor Patrick Stewart is providing a daily distraction from isolation and social distancing and other COVID-19 burdens. Each day, he’s been reading a Shakespearean sonnet on social media. Inspired by the idea — okay, I stole it — okay, I stole and then cheapened it — I decided to read a limerick each day on social media. Limericks are especially timely because, in the U.S., April is both National Poetry Month and National Humor Month.
For convenience and to ensure that I’m not violating copyright, many of the limericks I’ve read come from The Lost Limericks of Edgar Allan Poe, one of the volumes here at Brom Bones Books. But I’ve also been monkeying around on other branches of the limerick tree. For instance, I devoted three days to a talk titled “A Short History of the Limerick.” I’ve now gummed those three videos together and offer them on the BBB YouTube channel.
If you think you might get a chuckle from my earlier limerick readings — and those yet to come — you can find them and me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
— Tim
