I hope this works. Since some of you seemed to like the illustration for the "A" poem of AN ANGEL ARDENTLY ACHED TO KNOW (It appeared two issues ago), I thought I'd send some copies to John of other letter illustrations that I have. I thought that John could arrange in his wizardly way to have the illustrations appear in the left hand side of the text field (when expanded), while the poem that goes with the illustration is presented in the right hand side. Does that make sense?

[Editor's note: Mission accomplished, but keep in mind that these scans only hint at the full color glory of the originals. Thanks to Roger who let me use his scanman.]

Anyway, illustration or no, here's the poem that coincides with the "D" poem in this book of wordplay poems. On (hopefully) the following 4 voice cards will appear the poems and illustrations for the letter's "E," "F," G," and "P," respectively.

(Caveat#1: By the way, it occurs to me I might have already presented some of these poems in previous issues. I forget which ones. Hopefully, with the accompanying illustrations, they'll bear looking at again. Caveat #2: Color monitor or no, these images will appear in glorious black and white, since the copies I'm sending to John are Xeroxes).

O.K., all set? Here goes the letter "D" (Of course, these poems are dedicated to Kristin and her new baby brother Curtis !):

The Best Diver in the Universe

Digby Dromedary
Dived
Down deep,
Down
To the depths
Where the dolphins sleep.

But his hump was so big,
It made him float;
The Dutch navy thought
He was one of their boats.

Then Daphne Donkey
Dived well beyond
That place
Where the dreams
Of the dolphins
Are spawned.

Down
In the depths
In that dungeon of sea,
She saw dogs eat donuts
As they dipped them in tea.

The dalmatian dog wore
A derby hat,
But the Doberman pinscher's
Head was too fat.

Then Dorothy Girl
Dived deepest of all,
To where dingoes play bingo
And the dachshunds are tall,
Where the ducks go on diets
And wear polka dot pants,
Where the dugongs play drums
As the dinosaurs dance
With those dangerous,
Oh, most dangerous chums --
Those disco dragons
Who burn holes in their thumbs!

But if you dived even deeper,
If you had breath and time,
You'd find water cold
And hard as a dime.

There it's always December,
Even in May,
And it's hard to remember
That it drizzles all day.
For since you're in water
Rain's dry as a bone,
Like the dust on your skates
When you've left them at home.

But at this depth
You'd definitely come in first.
You'd be the best diver
In the universe,
The best darn diver
In the whole
Universe.