The Pottiness of the Past Tense

Richard Lederer, in his book, Crazy English, wrote a pithy if not pleasurable poem about the insanity associated with the past tense of verbs in the English Language.

The verbs in English are a fright.
How can we learn to read and write?
Today we speak, but first we spoke;
Some faucets leak, but never loke.
Today we write, but first we wrote;
We bite our tongues, but never bote.

Each day I teach, for years I taught,
And preachers preach, but never praught.
This tale I tell; this tale I told;
I smell the flowers, but never smold.

If knights still slay, as once they slew
Then do we play, as once we plew?
If I still do as once I did,
The do cows moo, as they once mid?

I love to win, and games I've won;
I seldom sin;, and never son.
I had to lose, and games I lost;
I didn't choose, and never chost.

I love to sing, and sons I sang;
I fling a ball, but nevre flang.
I strike that ball, that ball I struck;
This poem I like, but never luck.

I take a break, a break I took;
I bake a cake, but never book.
I eat that cake, that cake I ate,
I beat an egg, but never bate.

I often swim, as I once swam;
I skim some milk, but never skam.
I fly a kite that I once flew;
I tie a knot, but never tew.

I see the truth, the truth I saw.
I feel from falsehood, never flaw.
I stand for truth, as I once stood;
I land a fish, but never lood.

About these verbs I sit and think.
These verbs don't fit. They seem to wink
At me, who sat for years and thought
Of verbs that never fat or wought.