Poems

Judging Judges

There has been much written about the quality of judging in the dog press recently and even more spoken about round the shows. Although I do think the quality of judging certainly does not "Droppeth from heaven," (like mercy) it wasn't ever perfect or even near!

A fact of which I was reminded when clearing out the back cupboard and found a lifetime of doggy memorabilia including some of my scribblings.

I found the following untitled poem which was penned in the early 1970's.

I've seen a judge, Ah, such a judge, Reviled ere I saw him. His reputation came before, And naught good did it for him. That judge I saw Had knowledge poor, Save that he knew of faces; Incompetence he doth reveal By every dog he places. That judge, alas is not unique, Treading the footprints of his clique, His like do follow after; But the plums they pull are bitter ones And bring forth bitter laughter.

It is maddening I cannot for the life of me remember about whom it was composed. Maybe it's just as well, because I can share it with you with easy conscience.

The exhibitors obviously had their moments too. Of the same era I penned this limerick---

A blond buxom wench name of .................... At Bath nigh pushed me off the sidelines, Next time I'll commit a sin As I'll bring a big pin And stick it---- Right into her bylines!

I've removed the name although the perpetrator's long gone. I've not seen or heard of her in 30 years.

Obviously my sense of the ridiculous had not been totally obliterated by such traumas as the aforementioned incidents because tucked in with them was another scrap on which was scrawled in red ink:

I met a monster last Wednesday, And he was Oh so charming. He was weary, he said, and underfed, But his manner was so disarming. He was 90 miles long And 20 miles wide, With a mouth as big as Yarmouth, He'd nowhere, he said, to lay his head, And he hadn't got any pyjamas. "Though I'm 90 miles long And 20 miles wide, With a mouth as big as Yarmouth, Nobody will play Or else come to stay, For I haven't got any pyjamas".

As a total admirer and devotee of the allegory*, as a means of getting across a message in a palatable form, it was obviously penned as a safety valve to relieve some frustration whether of person doggy or not, I know not, and don't care now. Perhaps it would help if in some of the bitter rivalry and sour things said in the cut and thrust of competition the aggrieved person lifted pen and scrap of paper and scribbled a jingle which could be thrown away having done it’s job by relieving tension - or like my three offerings be found thirty years later to amuse.

* Oxford definition of allegory: (1) story, play, poem, picture etc. in which the meaning or message is represented symbolically; (2) the use of such symbols; (3) a symbol (from the Greek allegoria)

D.E.F-S