I recently joined a small poetry group, The Nevermores, at Inked Voices. We take turns providing a prompt, then post sometime during the week. This past week, Patricia was inspired by a very poetic name she heard, so she challenged us to create a poem using a person’s name. My immediate thought went to Shel Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out.” I remember how much my kids and the kids I taught loved it. You can hear Shel Silverstein recite it here.
I used a list a poetic names, picked the first few that jumped out at me, and came up with Annabel Angelou Catherine Blake. So here is my poem, inspired by the late, great Shel Silverstein:
Annabel Angelou Catherine Blake
by Rose Cappelli
Annabel Angelou Catherine Blake
Harbored a love of chocolate cake.
A simple vanilla would just never do,
And lemon or angel food made her feel blue.
When invited to tea there was so much at stake.
She would ask in advance, will there be chocolate cake?
If the answer was no, she would simply not go.
Instead she’d eat five chocolate cakes in a row!
One day after eating her tenth chocolate cake,
She lay down in bed with a big belly ache.
Her tummy was covered in bumpy red spots,
It felt like her insides were tied up in knots.
The doctor was called to see what could be done
Because surely the dear girl was not having fun!
“No more chocolate for you!” the doctor affirmed.
An allergic reaction was promptly confirmed.
Now since Annabel Angelou Catherine Blake
Can no longer eat her beloved chocolate cake,
She’s developed a deep love of strawberry pie—
She’ll bake you a few if you care to drop by.
Draft, 2022 Rose Cappelli
Tricia has the round up this week at The Miss Rumphium Effect. There you find lots of poetry fun including a look at an Exquisite Corpse poem.
Imagine the Possibilities 
What a great poem! Perfect for me to read today – it would have been my mother’s 100th birthday and she loved chocolate cake and strawberry pie. What fun! Thank you!
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So glad you enjoyed it!
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Oh a pure delight!! This needs to be out in the world. Delightful rhymes that work so well! And I do love Shel’s poem and books. So many kids hooked on poetry because of him and Jack Prelutsky and then Lee Bennett Hopkins and now SO many amazing books of poetry. Wish my career could start over!!!
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Thanks for your encouraging comments. I may try to work this poem into a picture book at some point. Just worried that it might be too close to Silverstein’s! And it’s never too late to start a new career!
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Rose this is delightful! It just begs to be read aloud. Thanks for sharing this today – it put a smile on my face :-).
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Thanks for reading!
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I’m in love with Annabel Angelou Catherine Blake and would like to read more of her hilarious adventures! So glad you shared her with the #PoetryFriday world! See you soon!
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Brilliant, Rose! I loved the ending berry much. Shel would be proud! 🙂
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I love this, as you know! So much fun and brings back fond memories of all the Shel recitations I did at age 8.
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What a clever verse! She’s a girl after my own heart.
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