150th poem about masonry

I can hardly believe it:
what began as a dare,
still I concede it
caught me unaware -

Here is April's last day
looking back at the mix
of my silly foray
into poems of bricks.

It's been too much fun
but now at long last
my poems are done
they are in the past.

When you see a mason
just please remember
they might be tracing
poet's spark from an ember.

The spark, once lit
can burn with ease
those words will fit
those bricks in these.

Review

For five years now every April
I've endeavored to write
poems on masonry every day
the result's banal and trite.

Poorly conceived, poorly composed
poorly written and poorly done
thoughtless, reckless and poor
not even read by anyone.

Stilted and derivative
foolhardy and stupid
pretentious and sloppy
even hated by Cupid.

The worst of the worst
all too synthetic
these poems all suck
just plain pathetic.

Bridges

Bridges: they do connect us
their safety is important
Once broken, they wrecked us
their disrepair's a portent

Of ominous things to come
for this country's many millions
Broken bridges have become
A problem worth 52 billions

We need a better way
to make our bridges strong
we need it done today
and they should last quite long

But cutting edge design
can borrow from the past
aqueducts come to mind
those Roman structures last

They've lasted over 2 millenia
civilizations have come and gone
abuse? they've seen plenty o'
and they're still standing strong

The masonry arch is tough to beat
It's simple yet it works so well
it is an engineering feat
and it's really strong as hell

Masonry arches made from block
can be quickly easily made
with cement and sand and rock
New bridges from new masonry laid.

Hay(na)ku epiphany

Block
can be
used for roofs.

Seismic support

Masonry built in seismic zones 

must be carefully designed

especially if it's used in homes

the strain must be confined.

For if it's allowed to move sideways

(and catenary thrust will go lateral)

not if but when, on somber days

and falling walls can shatter all.

We've learned it before, and yet again

the danger of inadequate wall

thoughts and prayers do begin

for the people of Nepal.

Clerihew #3

Saint Patrick crossed the border
into Ireland with some mortar
With religion he brought grace in
and became the right first mason.

The Block Not Taken

Two blocks replaced some rotting wood,
And sorry I could not lay them both
And be one mason, long I stood
And tamped down one as far as I could
To where it lay in the mortar bed;
Then took the other, as just as level,
And having perhaps the better aim,
Because it was glassy and wanted bevel;
Though as for that the grouting there
Had laid them really about the same,
And both that morning horizontally lay
In scaffold no step had trodden mud.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how lay course on the way,
I doubted if I should ever cut wood.
I shall be troweling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two blocks replaced rotting wood, and eye-
saw the one less mortared by,
And that this mud all the difference.