If you hear somebody say, “or”, four times, would you know what they mean? However, if you see it spelled as, “oar, o’er, or, and ore” then you can distinguish that each “or” is a different word. Phonetic Phantasies of a Rhyming Nature contains micro-stories using one syllable rhyming words which hopefully have humorous meanings while poking some fun at the oddities of the English language.

Or if you hear, “Two Bea oar knot too bee,” would you recognize it as a quote from Shakes Spear which he might have written if he had relied on a spell checker? The English language has many words which sound the same or are even spelled the same, yet have very different meanings. And if you combine those words with other words that rhyme, there are all kinds of interesting possibilities. As one example, you might start with the word “air” and end up with a micro-story like:

They’re there on the street named Air ere their heir took the spare hair to share with the hare to make a coat for the bare bear to wear. You may see some one try to pare the pear and its pair or glare and stare at the stair that goes no where. Ne’er scare the mare while she uses a flare with flair to care for her square lair. If you can, sit in a chair to help the fair find a fair fare. By the way, you can blare or swear for e’er, but ware the snare of the rare tare and do not dare to tear it.

Included with the micro-stories in Phonetic Phantasies of a Rhyming Nature are the lists of words which were used to make up the micro-stories and can be used to make up your own micro-stories. And if you like word puzzles, have fun translating the few homographic riddles such as, “Watch the buck buck the buck,” where each “buck” has a different meaning.