Sunday afternoons are often relaxing times of having fun together as a family. Sometimes we just sit around and talk (and play with the babies 🙂 ). Other times we play games. Yesterday we enjoyed a few rounds of what we call “the poem game.” Each player writes a question on a piece of paper, folds it over, and throws their paper in a pile with all the other papers. The sheets are scrambled and then redistributed. This time each player writes a word on the sheet without looking at the question. Again the papers are shuffled and passed back out. Now each has to write a poem answering the question, using the word. Sometimes this isn’t too hard, but occasionally the word really doesn’t fit with the question, or the question is simply a very difficult one to answer! The resulting poems are very varied and often humorous. Here are a few samples:

Question: What is a question?
Word: haybale

A question is something that makes you to think:
Like “What will you eat?” or “What will you drink?”
It asks for an answer from me or from you,
But the answer may change based on what or on who.
One may eat haybales whilst others eat meat;
One may drink water whilst others drink feet.
You see that a question does no real good
Unless there’s an answer that makes sense, and it should.

Question: What time of day did it happen?
Word: snowstorm

Did it happen in the morning?
Or did it happen after noon?
Did it happen in a snowstorm?
Or in the midnight gloom?

It matters not,
When it came to pass.
But t’is very important
To each lad and lass.

The King of Heaven
And Lord of the earth,
Was born in a stable –
A humble birth

He died on a cross,
To bear our sin,
And rose again –
Hallelujah! Amen!

Question: Why is Teddy upside down?
Word: pacifier

Why is Teddy upside-down?
It makes me sad; that’s why I frown.
Now the baby’s crying, too.
The pacifier will not do.
Please turn him right-side-up again.
Don’t ask me why, don’t ask me when.
He’s upside-down because of you.
That’s better, thank you: now SHOO!

Question: How many buttons does she have?
Word: Teddy

Asleep upon the pet toy shelf
A snoring teddy laid his head.
He woke his happy, cheerful self,
To measured steps, an even tread.

Each day he wondered who t’would be
Who’d buy him off the pet toy shelves.
A boy a girl – a he or she?
How many buttons would they have?

A little girl came in the store
With collar white and buttons blue.
She skipped and hopped across the floor
And saw our bear, and liked him too.

Our teddy looked her up and down
And slowly counted buttons ten.
Upon her blue and silken gown
He looked and counted up again.

“I’d like to be her bear,” he thought,
And gladly left the pet toy shelf.
And once she’d done – our teddy bought –
He left, his cheerful, happy self.

Question: Where was Paul shipwrecked?
Word: tiddlywinks

The panic stricken sailors
And stressed Italian soldiers –
They paced the deck;
They cursed the night;
And looked for light of day.

But one below was peaceful
Though all around was stressful
He found his joy
In Christ alone
God’s hand was all his stay.

When off a foreign island
The ship stuck fast in quicksand,
Abandoned all
The splintered ship
And made it safe to shore.

Paul knew this all along –
That none would come to harm;
He trusted God
And proved Him true.
He did it o’er and o’er!

So could those frightened sailors
And fearful, worried soldiers
Have braved the storm
Without a fear
Of drowning in the waves?

Instead of looking seaward
They could have played a game board –
Monopoly
Some tiddlywinks –
And trusted God Who saves.

And here is one that was extra tricky! (And rather difficult to understand!)

Question: How wide is a day?
Word: haemagglutination

Viral haemagglutination
Quantifies viral dilutions.
The girth of non-nocturnal juncture
Homologates diurnal course.

Another game we all enjoy is Balderdash, though we simply use a dictionary, not the actual game. One player finds an unusual word, abbreviation, acronym, etc in the dictionary and says it aloud to the other players. The one with the dictionary writes out the correct definition while everyone else invents something plausible. The papers all collected, the presiding player reads all the “definitions” aloud and everyone takes a guess at which is the right one. Points are gained by: writing the correct definition on your paper, guessing the correct definition, or having another player guess your definition.

So… here’s a challenge: WITHOUT CHECKING A DICTIONARY can you guess which is the correct definition for the the word “ullage”?

• a synonym of silage in rural Australia, used on cattle farms
• a musical instrument invented in the 500’s by Daniel Johann Ull
• the third part of Catholic Mass, right after the prayer to Mary is uttered for the first of seven times and directly before the chanting of the Lord’s Prayer and the collection of the offering for relatives in Purgatory.
• language. From the Latin “ul” pertaining to the tongue.
• a decorative headpiece worn by Malay chiefs
• the empty space in a partially filled container
• a delicious dessert which tastes somewhat like fudge, originating in the province of UI, Latvia
• acclamation granted to the inventor of any tool used in farming
• a tool used in sharpening sawblades
• the leather that comes from the back left leg of a 1-year-old calf

I’ll post the answer later!

“How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1