Poetry Challenge #192-Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
It’s National Juice Slushie Day! Yes, it really is a thing, celebrated annually on the 3rd Wednesday in May (May 18, 2021). And why not?
What do you get if you put juice and ice in a blender? A Slushie! Orange, cranberry, grape, lemon, lime, the list is open to anything you want to add. Or you could mix them up and see what you get. According to the National Day Calendar, slushies have been around as long as snow!
I hear McDonald’s has teamed up with Minute Maid to introduce a watermelon/strawberry slushie this summer. Can you say Brain Freeze?!!!
Poetry Challenge #`192
Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
Pick two (or three if you dare. Come on! You dare!) poems that are close to the same length. Either your own or other poet(s) poems. Now add them to the poem blender, one line at a time from each.
Read over your new poem.
Add more words (berries) if necessary to make the meaning clear. Cut words that are unnecessary. Turn on the blender and shift lines to make it even better.
Then read and enjoy your Poem Slushie aloud!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
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.
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Poetry Challenge #187-Look Up at the Sky!
Because, with all we do, it seems we need to be reminded, today, April 14th, has been officially declared Look Up at the Sky Day! in honor of Jack Borden a former news reporter and founder of For Spacious Skies.
This crocodile cloud was captured by Rob Millenaar, 30,000 feet above China.
During broadcasts Borden routinely reminded viewers—especially children—to look up and admire the sky and beauty around us. On his 92nd birthday, April 14th, 2020, the Day was officially declared. Jack passed on in December and now the link to the For Spacious Skies websites seem to be broken, but the Facebook page is live, with some glorious snaps. And the sky!
Poetry Challenge #187
Look Up at the Sky Day
Every time you look up at the sky, it’s different. Sometimes there are clouds. Maybe a flock of geese fly overhead. Or you might hear the sound of an airplane and see the trail it leaves behind. Maybe you see the moon or stars or…something else.
Look up! Describe what you see. Use similes (the ____ looks like ___) to create a feeling.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
HEAD’S UP!
Look Up at the Sky Playlist: Charles Kuralt reported on Jack Borden.
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 launch playtime with words. 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 #173-Cha-cha Chain of _____________
Cuddles are chains of sort. We link arm in arm, snuggle to snuggle, heart to heart when we cuddle. Which brings me to today, Jan 6, National Cuddle Up Day. The same way we cuddle up, thoughts jump, mingle and connect—cuddle— one to another to another.
In the same way letters cuddle up—cluster—to form words, and words linked together to form passages and worlds and images that bundle, group, cuddle up to create stories and poetry. Let’s try it:
Poetry Challenge #173
Cha-cha Chain of ______________________?
Fill in the blank with a noun: Chain of ____________.
With that at the title, write a Chain Poem. Chain poems have two known forms:
1. The last word or syllable of a line become the first word or syllable of the next line. You’ll need to extend the poem out at least five lines for the chain to be effective.
2. Or if you’re game for writing a long poem, the last line of each stanza becomes the first line of the next stanza.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; just do the Cuddle up!
Cha-Cha Chain Playlist:
About Cuddle Up Day: Holiday Insights : Cuddle Up Day, January 6
About Chain Poems: Chain verse at a glance : Poetry through the Ages (webexhibits.org)
Chain of Fools the best: sung by Aretha, danced by Travolta: Aretha Franklin | Chain Of Fools || John Travolta Dance || - Bing video
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 1700 days ago! (with nary a miss!!!) We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #113-One Must Ask Children and Birds
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today . . . “
J. Wellington Whimpy, as any Popeye fan knows, would do just about anything for a hamburger. Parisians rioted over the lack of break, likewise so did Starbuck fans during a recent run on Pumpkin Latte (not really), but, I imagine they would. Cindy’s weakness is lobster. Mine (in case you’re gifting) is salted caramel. What’s your favorite food?
Poetry Challenge #113
One Must Ask Children and Birds
“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Pick a food that begins with a consonant (not a, e, i, o, or u). Can you think of other foods that begin with the same letter? List 5-10 foods that begin with the same letter. Next, list 3-10 foods that end with that letter. Then, list 3-10 foods that have that letter in the middle. Finally, list 3 verbs and 3 adjectives that have to do with food and contain your letter.
The repetition of a consonant sound is called alliteration. Many times tongue twisters are made from these repeated sounds. Use words from all your lists to write an alliterative list poem. Read it aloud and see if it trips your tongue.
“I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
Set your mind to channel FOOD
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1280++ 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.
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #112-Bend it like Adolphe . . . Sax that is!
When we were about twelve, my friend Theresa and I closed ourselves in a music room at CSULB and played over and over and over and …the opening phrases of the song Windy. We only stopped when the guy in the next room knocked. Turned out, he too played a sax. We only wished we did . . .
Said to emote a sound reminiscent of “the echo of an echo” . . . a resonance “situated at the edge of silence,” the saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s (patented in 1846.) Sax only received a 15-year patent for the sax (and immediately others began copying his design). Sax’s sax however was the first.
Poetry Challenge #112
Bend it like Adolphe . . . Sax that is!
In honor of Sax’s birthday, November 6, 1814, let’s write a saxophone poem.
Listen to a Saxophone play. This 2017 post highlights “The 20 Greatest Saxophonists of All Times” with clippings of each playing.
Let your mind wander as you listen. Where does the music take you? How does it make you feel? What does it make you feel?
Or, look at the saxophone itself, it’s shape. And ask yourself, if a saxophone were an animal, which animal would it be?
Draw on these saxophone images and feelings to write a Saxophonic poem.
Set your mind on “Cool”
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
FYI: The child of Belgian instrument makers, Adolphe Sax is credited with having, by the age of 14, invented at least invented about 9 instruments. For more on Adolphe Sax, including why he was nicknamed “Little Sax, the ghost,” read on:
“Sometimes serious, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned, dreamy or melancholic, or vague, like the weakened echo of an echo, like the indistinct plaintiff moans of the breeze in the woods and, even better, like the mysterious vibrations of a bell, long after it has been struck; there does not exist another musical instrument that I know of that possesses this strange resonance, which is situated at the edge of silence.”
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1280++ 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.
**How to Write a Scary Story post on the Nocturim