New Jersey River Rhymes

Sailing on the Navesink
I had time to stop and think
Ships sailing here have never sunk
At least that's what I thought I thunk.

Sailing on the Delaware
Is, as you are well aware,
Serious, so don't be silly
Or you'll be sailing into Philly.

Sailing on the Hackensack
It takes a certain knack to tack
It was a knack I seemed to lack
And that is why I won't go back.

Sailing by the Jersey Shore
Something I have done before
There's the land just out of reach
Do I dare to say The Beach?

Sailing on the Raritan
You might say, "Sounds like a plan"
But you'd be wrong for when my mutt grrrs
You know we've come too close to Rutgers.

Sailing on the River Hudson
I said, I think I'd like a Bud, son.
Said son to me with pinpoint timing,
You don't drink beer, not even rhyming.

Sailing on Little Egg Harbor
I cried out, Help! I need a barber.
Moral: Sailor, do not beg
On either Great or Little Egg.

Sailing up on Lake Hopatcong
Seems that I wore my top hat wrong.
One dresses correctly when one sails
And that includes not wearing tails.

Sailing on the great Passaic
Was, I must admit, prosaic.
Wait, "prosaic" is not a rhyme
And not poetic at any time.

*River rhymes are a verse form invented by the late William Rossa Cole. They are generally four-line rhyming poems, with the name of a body of water in the first line. Beyond that, the rules are pretty flexible and beyond that, often winked at.