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The Edward de Bono Creative TeamTM

 BONTOS - Volume 41


There are specific forms of poetry like Limericks, Haiku and the Malaysian Pantun. Each of these have a very formal structure as to number of lines, meter, syllables etc. The meaning is often also tightly prescribed - especially the Pantun.

The Bonto is a new formal type of poetry for use on the net.
There are four lines in each poem.
Rhyming is aa bb.
Syllables: as yet undecided (5, 6 or 7)
Content:

  • First line: sets out some extraordinary behaviour. The more bizarre the better.
  • Second line: gives the explanation for the bizarre behaviour.
  • Third line: gives the result or outcome of the behaviour.
  • Fourth line: provides some "philosophical" reflection on life in general but arising from the situation.


    • Hice "Bonto PO Tango"
    para salir del fango.
    Se me rompió la guitarra.
    Cuidado a qué te agarras!

    I did "Bonto PO Tango"
    to get out of the mud.
    My guitar got broken.
    Be careful what you hold on to!
     © Lucas Gonzalez Santa Cruz & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Green hat, red hat, white and blue
    When tried will fit a head in view
    Now I need just black and yellow
    To make myself a better fellow.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    The brain is quite a box of tricks,
    It often seems to need a fix,
    A new hat tried out every day
    Makes life better in every way.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    This modern man from ancient time
    Can more than make a poet rhyme,
    His insights blossom like a flower
    That's why his books have so much power.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Green hat, red hat, white and blue
    Can work for him, for her, and you,
    All together the hats make six,
    They'll make your brain a box of tricks.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Rhetorical love game,
    is always the same,
    makes you feel the pain,
    again and again.
    © Adrian Dalton & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    The breath goes out of life
    In a world of strife
    Keep your soul searching
    Thinking's like a bird that's perching.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    First thoughts in a head
    Are better left unsaid
    What's like flowers after rain?
    What's a cultivated brain?
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Leave your words unsaid
    Let your brain go dead
    Right between your ears
    Are 50 million years.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Complexity taxes brain
    I look for it in vain
    Simplicity took a part
    And now I have a heart.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Aristotle made jelly
    to fill our belly
    He (fictionally) played in a band
    Custard's last stand?
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Words of this millennium
    Too many to remember 'em
    Total eclipse seals lips
    Thunderclaps wake mental kips.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Can you work like an ant?
    Can you make a writer pant?
    Now your pants inspire
    With irons in your fire.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    My train travels backward
    Not knowing its awkward
    It should be engine and carriage
    Just like man, wife and marriage
    © Graham Bauer & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    My building leans to the right
    Not by design or might
    Tourists flock and eat pizza
    Watching my leaning tower of Pisa
    © Graham Bauer & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999


    Stood in piles of manure
    Hoping to make myself pure
    Inside my soul I probe
    Try for the patience of Job
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Spaniards get chased by some bulls
    To prove they are men, not fools
    From this turmoil wisdom dawns
    Grab your problems by the horns
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Make bontos better still!
    Improving lateral will
    Thus laughter maximize,
    Humour is Wisdom's guise
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    I put figs inside my ear
    Makes it difficult to hear
    Comments fall upon the deaf
    Hmmph wob heffle baffer pheff
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    "heffle baffer pheff", he said.
    Words rang hollow in my head.
    Suddenly, I realized!
    Truth comes often in disguise!
    © Mike Gregory & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    I eat sand then snigger
    To keep an hourglass figure
    I'm perfect at egg timing
    Inversion's redefining
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    perdi mi diccionario
    (mi PC tie' mal fario)
    no encuentro que' es "estrofa"
    La memoria es fofa

    I lost my dictionary
    (my PC has bad luck)
    I don't find (the word) "estrofa"
    The memory is weak
     © Lucas Gonzales Santa Cruz & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Here is the shadow of a dream
    Ideas possess the creativity team
    Silhouettes dance in a fire,
    A single thought can never tire.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Slumber creeps upon my mind
    So my thoughts therefore unwind
    Dawn's cerebral aftermath
    Coffee tightens thinking's path
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    I sleep while you're awake
    To join the give and take
    This proves the Earth is round
    Triviality is re-found
    © Lucas Gonzales Santa Cruz & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    A bit of old black hat
    Will keep us where it's at
    It makes newcomers write
    It pays when you incite
    © Lucas Gonzales Santa Cruz & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Elasticize tape measures
    So waists can grow at leisure
    One size fits all addiction
    Equality is fiction
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Set fire to your pants
    To see how well you dance
    Flames result in fears
    Tap your worst ideas
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    A fish tried karaoke
    As hobbies go, less soaky
    But turned into a drinker
    Don't get caught hook, line, sinker!
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    A tortoise beat a hare
    Did it for a dare
    Steroids he's abusing
    Sometimes straight means losing
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Neanderthal man
    arrived in a van
    Was kept in a zoo
    Develop your own view.
    © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Poured water in his ear
    To wash away his fear
    It poured down the wrong hole
    Aim well to wash your soul
    © Michael Gintowt & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    A cro-magnon stole wealth
    To thus improve his health
    But can't buy much more time
    There's payback for all crime
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

    Seven syllables is sweet
    Room to stretch iambic feet
    Luxury with lots to gain
    Make more space inside your brain
    © Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

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