Wordsworth Gabe Atkinson

The challenge this week was to write a short poem in praise of one of the seven deadly sins. Mick Ferns of Invercargill writes: Gluttony cheers up lots of folk,/And stops McDonald’s going broke. Auckland’s Rex McGregor: For those whose hearts are barren, greed/Is good. And goods are guaranteed.

From Christchurch’s Paula Boot: I am what’s called a glutton/I feast on scones and mutton/And chocolate and cheese/ And big afternoon teas./I’m greedy and fat and I like it like that. Barry Claridge of Auckland: The organist’s bust/Filled the vicar with lust./“Praise the Lord,” he exclaimed,/”I can hardly be blamed,/ But my cassock I’d better adjust.”

Carolyn Sutherland of Auckland: Sloths tend to lie around all day/ Consuming endless beers./A tortoise doesn’t do a lot/And lives two hundred years! From David Woolner of St Heliers: I’m green and I’m greedy/

And randy and fat/And lazy and cross on the side./It may not be pretty/But that’s where I’m at,/So I flaunt all my sins with great pride. Joan Johnston of Paraparaumu: Oh lovely sloth! Thou really doth/inspire in me such pleasure,/ inertia and idleness,/such lengths of lovely leisure./I wallow in the lazy trough/of time without a measure.

But the winner is John Mills of Gebbies Valley, who cleverly references the full set of sins: My gluttony’s almost a must,/My hubris is often discussed/I’m proud of my wrath,/ Greed, envy and sloth,/But my favourite is certainly lust.

For the next contest, write a brief poem beginning with this line from The White Cliffs, by Alice Duer Miller: Strange to look back to the days. Entries, for the prize below, close at noon on Thursday, November 3.