Showing posts with label Perverb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Perverb. Show all posts

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Recipe


A Recipe Book of Perverbs

 

Too many cooks make light work, recipes

of a thousand miles start with one step.

 

In for a penny in for a pint

is a bread-and-butter issue.

 

To bring home the bacon eat the frog

chew the cud, and stay cool as a cucumber.

 

Know your onions, spill the beans,

eat your greens and say cheese.

 

If you eat like a horse

your supper will be humble pie.

 

Rhubarb rhubarb is food for thought

take with a pinch of salt.

 

The proof of the pudding

is selling like hot cakes.

 

Found a plum job, pulled out a plum

plum crazy, until plum tuckered out.

 

Everything stops for tea

while the watched kettle never boils.

 

A spoonful of sugar helps the caffeine go down

better latte than never.

 

Life is a bowl of cherries

in a nutshell, a cup of kindness yet.

Saturday, 7 February 2026

Senses

 


The Perverbial Five Senses

 

The eyes have a thousand nights

and each day is a sight to see.

 

Eat, drink, and – it’s on the tip of your tongue -

put your merry where your mouth is.

 

A nose by any other name

sniffs out trouble and smells the roses.

 

Ears lend me your friends:

cheers of words and the spheres of music.

 

Skin deep is the beauty

of nerves headstrong hanging by a thread.

Friday, 30 January 2026

Wardrobe

 


A Wardrobe of Perverbs

 

To have your hat and eat it too

time to put on your thinking cap.

 

A rose by any other name’s the same

through rose-coloured glasses.

 

Off the cuff, bright as a button,

someone gives you the shirt off their back.

 

While another, pocketing red-handed

would take the shirt off your back.

 

An old school tie fashion statement

fit like a glove, goes: keep your shirt on.

 

Every dog coat has its day but

when I am old I shall wear the cat’s pyjamas.

 

To catch someone with their pants down

is a bit below the belt.

 

While the emperor’s new clothes show to effect

the ornaments of his birthday suit.

 

Shrouded - a dress dressed to kill

is a dress to die for - in mystery.

 

When the shoe is on the other foot

who knows if you’re coming or going.

 

To walk in someone else’s shoes

means putting a sock in it.

 

Thursday, 31 July 2025

Synapse

 


the opinions are debatable

the opportunities, relatable

opuses, untranslatable

 

many works make hands light

 

the essences are visible

the assonances, visceral

assurances, valuable

 

do tomorrow what today are put-offs

 

the technologies are indefatigable

the technicalities, manageable

tectonics, unfathomable

 

a stitch in time is a joy forever

 

the mornings are synapses

the meanings, perhapses

moanings, collapses

 

invention is the necessity of mother

 

the needs are elementary

the names, ultraordinary

notes, unnecessary

 

a smell by any other name would be rose

 

the concepts are containers

the suspects, entertainers

intercepts, no-brainers

 

a bird in the hand is worth a song untold

 

the outbursts are personal

the outings, natural

outlooks, universal

 

many a true word is spoken in anger

 

the expressions are prodigious

the experiments, indigenous

experiences, religious

 

the harder they fall the bigger the splash

 

the landscapes are supersonic

the soundscapes, symphonic

dreamscapes, chronic

 

a doctor a day keeps the apple away

 

the guests are elegant

the gooses, grandiloquent

ghosts, eloquent

 

never judge a book by its reviewer

 

the diaries are delirious

the dailies, weariness

deaths, serious

 

familiarity breeds content

 

the journeys are mystical

the journals, physical

jobs, statistical

 

variety is the life of spice

 

the constructions are sound

the instructions, round

destructions, found

 

a day was not built in rome

 

the clockworks are enviable

the fireworks, extinguishable

roadworks, interminable

 

don’t feed the hand that bites you

 

the industries are blameful

the machineries, unmindful

solarities, beautiful

 

strike while several irons are in the fire

 

the syllables are synchronous

the symbols, mountainous

sighs, fabulous

 

rolling moss gathers on the stone

 

the calculations are precise

the populations, outsize

regulations, revised

 

a thousand words is worth a picture

 

 

Image: The Hill of Content Bookshop moves up Bourke Street, Melbourne, July 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

Perverb

A slight subversion is a shared smile:
He who laughs last didn’t get the joke.
Lead with the chin and lose your grin.
One hand clapping gets the ears flapping.
What doesn’t kill you leaves your nose out of joint.
Keep your eye on the ball and shoulder to the wheel.
A phone in the hand is a crash in the pole.
It takes the biscuit how the cookie crumbles.
Money makes the world go round money.
Phoney pols are a crash in the polls.
Her Greek gifts were his Achilles heel.
Trackwork means footwork: less trains less often.
All roads lead to home sweet home.
When in Rome, go to Rio.