Poetry Challenge #222-Calling All Cat Herders!
Boots? Check! Hat? Check! Lasso? Check! Yeehaw! Y’all get ready for today, Dec 15, is officially National Cat Herders Day!
Thomas and Ruth Roy from Wellcat.com, herb growers and quirky holiday creators, invented Cat Herders Day to honor not cats, or cat herders (well maybe cat herder’s too.) but mostly people who’s jobs are challenging, chaotic, crA-ZZZ-y! Now it’s a thing.
Poetry Challenge #222
Calling All Cat Herders!
If you’ve ever tried to get a cat to do what you want it to do, you know that’s close to impossible. Now imagine a whole group of cats. Listed below are a bunch of cat types. Herd as many as you can into a poem—extra credit if the poem is NOT about cats.
Persian, Main Coon, Bengal, British Shorthair, Siamese, Sphinx, Ragdoll, Munchkin, Scottish Fold, Norwegian Forest, Savannah, Siberian, Polydactyl, Snowshoe, Calico
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And while we’re on the subject…
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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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #194-Make Mine Rocky Road
It’s June! Summertime searches for the best ice cream have begun!
Today we’re honoring Rocky Road ice cream.* This smooth chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts & marshmallow. Is your mouth watering?
Mix up your own rocky road ice cream blend and sneak in whatever you like—we do!
Poetry Challenge #194
Make Mine Rocky Road
While on the subject of ice cream, what do you like better—soft serve or hard? What’s your favorite kind? What’s the strangest flavor you’ve seen?
For this poem, pick a flavor. Think about what ingredients are in your ice cream. Make a list of 5 or more words associated with that flavor—one word on each line. (Be sure to put the flavor first.) Use the words in your list as the first word in each line of a poem.
Here’s Cindy’s list for Rocky Road. You can use this list or make your own to write a poem:
Rocky
Road
chocolate
almond
mini
marshmallow
Hurry! You have 7 minutes before it melts!
*Why today? Because June 2nd is National Rocky Road Day. William Dreyer of Dreyer’s Ice Cream fame, is credited with blending his partner Joseph Edy’s chocolate confection of chopped nuts & marshmallow with his ice cream to create a new flavor sometime in the late 1920s. And while Americans claim the name Rocky Road was given “to bring smiles to faces during the Great Depression,” Australian’s claim it’s named for the Rocky Road gold hunters traveled. Since Australia’s version of Rocky Road candy dates back to 1863, they win. BTW: Rocky Road candy is said to have been created by George Ferrin as a way to sell confections damaged during the long trip from Europe—he mixed the broken candied fruits, marshmallows, etc with locally-grown nuts and cheap chocolate to disguise the flavour.”
George Ferrin’s “Rocky Road” would have looked like this…Yum!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #83-Pick A Pet
Which animals make the best pets? Dogs? Cats? Lizards? . . . Rocks?
. . . If you ask me the answer is Goldfish! Definitely Goldfish! (But it’s not up to me . . . )
Poetry Challenge #83
Pick A Pet
List 5 or 10 or as many as you can in one minute.
Which animals make the worst pets? List for another minute.
What other animals can you think of? Time yourself one more minute.
Write a list poem using animals from your lists.
Write three lines with 7 syllables on each line and finish the poem with a fourth line that has 5 syllables. If you need an extra syllable, you can add an adjective—a word that describes the animal—or a sound.
Set the timer for 5 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1100-ish days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This one is Cindy’s.) If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #81 Don't Bother Checking Twice
Santa still snoozing at some sunny warm spa, recovering after the busy holiday season. So, while he’s otherwise occupied, no need to bother about checking twice—unless it’s to be sure you have ink/lead in your writing implement of choice—thus clearing the way for this prompt:
Poetry Challenge #81
Make a List
Although at first glance you might not notice, soooo many poems are list poems: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I Love Thee”, Billy Collins’ “Bread and Knife,” Shel Silverstein’s “Eighteen Flavors” to name a few.
In a list poem, you can list things you like (animals, colors, kinds of cars, playground games), signs of a season, tasks you have to do, items in a category, or what you’re going to do today.
Once you have your list, play with the order.
Choose better words that sound the same (maybe rhyme, or use alliteration).
Can you make the poem sound like it has an ending?
Try writing a list poem. What are your plans for the day today? Or use one of the ideas above.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1100-ish days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.