Poetry Challenge #245-Tap Happy
When I was a kid, my friend Valerie sat in her room for hours playing one song over and over and over again on her record player. Replaying the song was easy because the record only had one song per side (and Valerie only owned one “real” record). We replayed it until we knew every word by heart, and then replayed it to sing along. The song, Mr. Bojangles, written by Jerry Jeff Walker, about a homeless guy in jail, with a dog who died, who’d let go a laugh, shake back his clothes all around and dance for coins, was the saddest song we’d ever heard. Can’t recall ever flipping that 45 to the B-side. Why would we? Mr. Bojangles, dance…
And that’s what National Tap Dancing Day (May 25) is all about. Tap, which has its basis in African and Celtic dance was developed by slaves in the early 1800s. After the Civil War, tap dancing was popularized after the civil War by traveling minstrel shows and vaudeville, where performers like Bill Robinson, the original “Mr. Bojangles,” made everyone want to tap dance.
“Ginger Rogers did everything he [Fred Astaire] did, but she did it backwards and in heels.”
Poetry Challenge #245
Tap Happy
Tap dancing is all about the beats, the sounds. In celebration of National Tap Dance Day (May 25th) let’s see if we can’t use the beats in words to tap out a poem. Choose a poem to revise. A free verse poem might be a stretch—or a fun challenge. For purposes of this prompt, a poem with an established rhythm might be easiest.
Read the poem to yourself. Now, read it again, but this time, tap out the rhythm of the poem by tapping out the syllables with your feet, a pencil or clap your hand. Tap softly for unstressed syllables, harder for stressed syllables. Listen to the beats of the rhythm you’ve created.
Interestingly even in Free Verse we will subconsciously write rhythmically. Iambic meter, for instance, that repeated soft-hard/stressed-unstressed beats as in “I am. I am. I am…” Shakespeare favored, is close to how we speak naturally, which makes it easier to remember (they say.) Coincidentally, it’s iambic meter is also the rhythm of the heart. Buh-bump.
As you read, are you tapping soft-hard? Hard-soft hard-soft? Hard-hard-soft? Or some other combination entirely. Whatever it is, set that rhythm in your mind and see if you can’t rework a section of your poem with an ear to making it more rhythmic.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it! Keep the Beat!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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