H.L. Mencken was a columnist and writer in Baltimore, the city of my birth. I never read much of his stuff but I gather he was witty and withering. I want to write about Ogden Nash, also associated with Baltimore. I knew that Nash has sometimes been referred to as the Bard of Baltimore. Mencken also has a title or nickname and I wanted to be clear about what his was. I searched for "nicknames for H.L. Mencken" and found
The sage of Baltimore
The anti-Christ of Baltimore
At one time, I had three or four books of Ogden Nash poems in the house. During various purges and divestitures of books, I got rid of them all.
Then a friend wrote that he had given a charity donation to a man on the street and commented "there but for the grace of God…". Usually, that phrase is used to say that a down and out person might be me except for luck and God's grace. Generally, that is true: we all have untold blessings and lucky breaks. However, Nash has a poem in which he turns the usual idea around and says, look, but for the grace of God, I could be as rich as Warren Buffet, as beautiful as George Clooney, as popular as that crazy rock star or reality tv hero.
Remembering that poem got me interested in tracking it down. I haven't been able to, but I have found quite a few sources of Nash poems. I have some posts in this blog about Nash writings:
https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=ogden+nash
There are several places online where you can read his poems which are quite different from typical poetry from any era. For instance, you can sample his stuff here:
https://www.poemhunter.com/ogden-nash/poems/
Once you get going, the titles alone can be a chuckle.
