SIN-o-NYMS ... soon available

As I just posted on Facebook, I have uploaded to Kindle Direct my latest collection of silly verse, SIN-o-NYMS, lines based on our many synonyms for each of the Seven Deadly Sins. Also included, some ordinary doggerel on a variety of subjects--plus some lines I call "wolferel," a word I made up to describe lines that are a bit more serious than doggerel.

Anyway, it will be available later today on Amazon (for $2.99, the lowest price they allow!), and you can download it to any smart device--the Kindle App is free.

Below is the Preface from the volume + some front matter ...

SIN-o-NYMS

And Other Doggerel and Wolferel

(February 12–May 14, 2020)

by

Daniel Dyer

Dedication

For Joyce Dyer

“‘For in my arms I hold

The Flower of the Ages, and

The first love of the world.’”

—W. H. Auden, “As I Walked Out One Evening,” 1937

Preface

I’m not at all sure why I decided to write a doggerel series based on the seven deadly sins—it’s not the most uplifting of topics, is it? Perhaps I was feeling especially guilty that day? And needed some kind of expiation?

Probably, I was just tickled by the title I was thinking about: SIN-o-NYMS. It fits perfectly. Every day, I decided, I would write a doggerel, each one devoted to a single synonym for the sin whose turn it was in the sequence. (In the table of contents you can see exactly what that sequence is.)

So—without much further thought (as usual)—off I went.

Of course, I quickly discovered something quite daunting about such a journey—the realization that I am more or less guilty of all of them. (You are, too, so don’t go all superior on me!) At times in my life I have been envious, gluttonous, greedy, lustful, proud, slothful, angry. Hell, I was every one of those things in ninth grade! Pick any day. Pick any lunch period!

So, this realization added a new piquancy to the effort of writing the lines—though piquancy is a little generous—a little too positive, even frail. Maybe a little bite would be a better way to put it. I have to admit that every day as I was writing some nonsense lines about a sin-o-nym, I remembered something from my boyhood-youth-adulthood that made me simultaneously smile and cringe—and sometimes cringe, not smile.

And I am not going to tell you about a single damn one of them. (I can’t afford blackmail payments.)

Here’s another thought: Until I started working on this project, I had no idea that English supplies so many synonyms for our sins. But that, of course, just reveals how much we think about them—how much we talk and write about them in various ways. Each synonym provides a sort of variation on the sin—a softening, a hardening, a fresh perspective.

So … it’s been quite a journey for me. I hope you’ve felt the same. (I’m sure we share considerable relief that it’s over!)

Now, the other sections of this volume. Under the heading “Desultory Doggerel” are some general lines I wrote principally to post on Facebook to delight (!?!?) my Friends. These generally deal with quotidian matters—like, oh, accidentally dropping my wedding ring down the drain of the kitchen sink (I got it back!).

Within  “Desultory Doggerel” are also three sections I call “Jingles That Jangle.” These are other daily nonsense I wrote, and all of it began when I thought of a title—“A Rooster in a Roadster.” I enjoyed writing that one so much that soon I was consulting online lists of animals and creating silly lines about them.

And I have to confess that I’ll be sad when I run out of animals to write about. A series on plants just doesn’t seem as exciting.

Finally, what about this “wolferel” stuff at the end? Some years ago I coined that term to refer to lines that are not really doggerel, lines that aspire to be a little more, lines that achieve a little more—but not a lot more. In other words, they are not canine but lupine lines—not quite leonine—i.e., poetry. No, they’re something in between, something a few rungs down the evolutionary ladder of language.

So … as you launch your vessel and sail among these odd islands I have imagined, I hope you are surprised by some of what you see—amused by some. I don’t think you will run out to nominate me for a Pulitzer—Ha!—but I do hope that, now and then, some smiles will form on your face. And you’ll descend to your cabin, where you’ll pull the cork on yet another bottle of champagne. And try, simultaneously, to enjoy and forget …

—   Daniel Dyer

     May 14, 2020