{"id":465,"date":"2015-07-30T10:14:24","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T17:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomswritings.lewczyk.net\/?p=465"},"modified":"2025-07-10T11:11:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:11:01","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-brown-the-clown-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/?p=465","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of Brown The Clown [Classic] (49 line poem)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally, Brown makes an entrance. This poem grew from the challenge of two constraints: finding rhymes of vowel-n (-ane, -een, -ine, -own, etc.) and mapping verses to three-hour blocks of time to fill the day. I went as far as to illustrate this whole poem using basic shapes in MS Paint for Windows, then injecting noise to pixilate the result. Having problems finding a copy…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hey! I found a copy! Look here<\/a>. Hard to believe that was 10 years ago.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

My name is Brown.
I am a clown.
I do my antics upside-down.<\/p>\n

And every time I do a show,
I want the people all to know \u2013
My name is Brown;
I am a clown.<\/p>\n

I wake at dawn
To mow the lawn
And feed my brother\u2019s favorite fawn.<\/p>\n

I cut the grass down in a row;
Then churn it with a garden hoe.
I wake at dawn
To mow the lawn.<\/p>\n

From nine to noon,
I sing a tune —
A silly song about the moon.<\/p>\n

At times I\u2019m aided by a crow
Who comes along at ten or so.
From nine to noon,
I sing a tune.<\/p>\n

By three I\u2019m seen
Out with the Queen,
Who keeps her scepter very clean.<\/p>\n

She fills my head with thoughts of woe
By telling me I\u2019m not her beau.
By three I\u2019m seen
Out with the Queen.<\/p>\n

Till six I deign
To fly a plane
About the edge of my domain.<\/p>\n

I bring the plane down nice and low
Before I yell \u201cGeronimo!\u201d
Till six I deign
To fly a plane.<\/p>\n

From six to nine,
It\u2019s time to dine
On figs and capers soaked in brine.<\/p>\n

I pay the waiter what I owe,
Then ride home on my buffalo.
From six to nine,
It\u2019s time to dine.<\/p>\n

Night finds me prone
And all alone
Upon my comfy bed of stone.<\/p>\n

The dreams that through my head do flow
Are of the days that come and go.
Night finds me prone \u2013
And all alone.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n

Originally, the evening block was this<\/em>:
‘From six to nine, I’m feeling fine \u2013 with several empty jugs of wine.
I ask for more, and answer ‘no’ \u2013 but pour another one to go.’
I’ve changed this to make the poem more generally acceptable.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The related change is that I made the waiter look like my dad. He died a couple of years ago, so it\u2019s both memorable and sad to see my representation of him. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 NOTE: I\u2019ve been hesitant to move this poem forward (toward publishing) because of the line about Geronimo, and the fear that it is somehow demeaning and\/or isn\u2019t politically correct. Searching online now indicates that the US military shouts this when jumping from airplanes as an <\/em>homage<\/u> to Geronimo\u2019s brave reputation. This makes me feel OK about using it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 NOTE: My eldest printed out this story as a book \u2014 and everyone who reads it really likes it. This makes me interested in moving my children poems\/stories forward. <\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally, Brown makes an entrance. This poem grew from the challenge of two constraints: finding rhymes of vowel-n (-ane, -een, -ine, -own, etc.) and mapping verses to three-hour blocks of time to fill the day. I went as far as to illustrate this whole poem using basic shapes in MS Paint for Windows, then injecting noise to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Day in the Life of Brown The Clown [Classic] (49 line poem)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,21,23,13,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3132,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/3132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lewczyk.net\/tomswritings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}