A word or two from our founder

“Setting life to rhyme is a spiritual practice. It requires faith in the ability to find le mot juste, coupled with a kind of fervor you rarely see outside of a tent revival. Oh sure, the ideas may flow, the personal facts may fall into place, but the arrangement of the words and rhymes will dictate whether the ‘portrait’ bears a likeness.

I wrote my first rhyming tributes as a member of the Skitsophrenics, a comic ensemble that performed morning announcements at my East Coast boarding school. My first commission came at the age of 17. It was a 70th birthday tribute, sung to the tune of My Favorite Things. That was thirty years ago, and too many rhymes ago to count.

I am not alone in my love of words and their powers of persuasion. I have a faithful troupe of wordsmiths who help me spread the rhymingtributes gospel. There’s Will who writes his own hip hop beats for our custom rap. Or Jody of the endless innuendo, who makes our lascivious limericks so outrageous we can’t even show you samples. Valerie lives in Florida and thrives on laughter and sunshine. Anne is our poet laureate—she makes Sylvia Plath sound like a jingle for soap powder. These are some of the brains behind the operation. We are constantly adding talent to the mix, which provides more inspiration for all of us.

When I started rhyming for profit back in the days before the Internet, I wrote tributes for people I knew, or for people who knew people I knew. I wondered in those early days if it would be possible to write a tribute for a complete stranger. Turns out it’s not possible. Because once I have been given facts about a stranger, and a tribute begins to take shape, that stranger has become an odd sort of friend. My first “stranger” was a ninety year-old grandmother in Capetown, South Africa. Then came the retired colonel turning seventy. Then the young couple who met at work. The college dean, the farmer, the fly fisherman, the salesman, the stepfather, the arts commissioner, the venture capitalist…they may not know me, but I am honored to know them. As it turns out, there are no strangers at rhymingtributes.com. Just friends we haven't yet met.

And you can never have too many friends! Come join the party and let us help you celebrate love and life in rhyme!”

Joanie
Chief Scribe