Poetry Challenge #123.5-Reverso
“If I could turn back time…”
Icon! Diva! Pop Idol!…personal role model Cher is 80! (Her birthday was May 20, 1946.) All my life, she has been there—loud, alive, unappologetic! And dang, at 80 still rockin’!
Cher looks as fabulous as she does because she has had a little help. She doesn’t hide it, even jokes about having had rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, a facelift, braces, along with “regular Botox, dermal fillers, and facial fat grafting.” But those abs! That stamina! That voice!
Best yet, Cher has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, Kennedy Center Honors, Cannes Best Actress, Golden Globe for Supporting Actress, Golden Glove for Television Series, Golden Globe for Best Actress, Billboard Icon Award, Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, 17 Top-10 singles (12 as a solo)… and so many more!
If you ask me, she didn’t only sing “If I could turn back time…” she did it!
The first woman to regularly show her belly button on TV. Check out those abs!!!
If Cher can reverse time, so can we…if only with our words! Let’s try!
Poetry Challenge #122.5
Reverso
A reverse poem (Reverso)is a poem that conveys two contrasting meanings when read from top to bottom and then from bottom to top. The meaning of the poem changes but it needs to make sense whichever direction you read. Or, as Marilyn Singer, a Reverso Masteroso put it:
“A reverso is a poem with two halves. In a reverso, the second half reverses the lines from the first half, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization — and it has to say something completely different from the first half.”
Here’s an example of Marilyn Singer’s reverso poem, aptly named “In Reverse” from her picture book collection of fairy tale reverso’s Mirror Mirror.
1. Choose a theme or topic.
2. Write a short, simple poem. (short and simple because we don’t have much time, say 3 to 5 lines)
Rewrite the poem backwards. For instance, if you begin with a 3 line poem: 1-2-3, then line 4 will repeat line 3, 5 will repeat 2, 6 will repeat line 1. Like this: 1-2-3-3-2-1
Here’s the tricky/fun part: rework the punctuation, capitalization, etc. to give the second half a different meaning.
(You might want to write on paper so you can cut the lines up and rearrange them easily.)
Ready????
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
And when you’re finished, click on the video and dance Like it’s 1999!…Like Nobody’s Watching! …Like Cher!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years 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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Poetry Challenge #122-Here's To Bagels, Hats & Bagel Hats!
Full disclosure: It’s early and I am hungry.
Furthermore: I am craving a bagel.
Add to that: I didn’t have a clear idea of what this week’s 7-minute challenge should be so I did what I often do when I need inspiration, or a laugh, or to shake my head at some of the silly, fun, delightful…. odd ideas humans dream up to use as excuses for holidays. I consulted the National Day Calendar.
Helpful hint: you can search subjects or dates or categories willy-nilly and someone somewhere will have created a holiday for it. Try it sometime (not now.) And, as you read on, remember where I began…
SUCCESS! SURPRISE! DELISH-DELIGHT!
January 15th, is both National Hat Day and National Bagel Day. I’ve given some thought the matter and still, I have absolutely no idea what hats and bagels have to do with each other…except, of course, that everyone hungry/bagel-crazed enough to be bageling on the streets of Manhattan in the winter chill is wearing—or should be wearing—a hat. Maybe you’ll have a better idea:
Poetry Challenge #122
Hat’s Off to Bagels, Hats & Bagel Hats
Think of words that have to do with either hat or bagel.
Come up with words to describe your pick, words you think of when you have one or the other, or words that bagels and/or hats bring to mind.
Now use those words to form a shape poem. Fit the words into either the shape of a bagel or the shape of a hat. Make it beautiful!
Einstein’s Bagels is a Texas fav.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
As soon as I finish my poem, guess where I’m going? Why don’t you join me? On the way there I’ll wear a hat; on the way home, I’ll be wearing a bagel—with creme cheese!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sooooooo many bagels ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us by writing a poem, 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 #121-Joy Germs?!
It’s Spring….it’s supposed to be, that is. Spring seems a fickle friend this year. One moment it’s bright, sunny, glorious—get out in the garden and dig!—the next it’s cloudy and cold. My seedlings are shivering.
With regards to weather, Will Rogers famously said, “Give it, time, it will change.”
The trouble is, that the lack of sunny skies has given me a case of the gloomies. (Maybe you too?) to Combat it, I’m conjuring “Joy Germs.”
Technically, Joy Germ day is supposed to be January 8th. National Joy Germ Day is a holiday created to remind people “that by being positive and treating people with kindness, we can influence those around us and pass that positive attitude on to others.
Joy Germ day was established in 1981 by Joan White of Syracuse, New York, in honor of her mother. Here’s Joan’s prescription for observing Joy Germ Day: “Laugh, smile, be kind, inspire and spread the one type of germ that is good for everyone to catch!”
Joan White, Joy Germ Day’s Founder
Poetry Challenge #121
Joy Germs
What’s your Joy? Imagine you are a scientist in a happy lab concocting your own Joy Germ.
What would those ingredients be?
What’s your Joy?
What does it smell like?
Taste like?
Sound like?
How would you spread your Joy Germ?
Write a poem entitled Joy Germ
“May a giant jar of jaunty joy germs rest gently on you and yours.”
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 more than 8 years 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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Poetry Challenge #119-Rainbow Logic
I have been in 3 different cities, in 3 different time zones over the past 3 days and in each it has rained. To quote Brooks Benton:
“Feels like it’s raining all over the world.”
Consider the climate—weather and otherwise—what I/we need now, is some Kate, and some Leo* and... Iridescence!
I just learned (thanks to my beloved Merriam-Webster) that the word “iridescence” come from Iris.
“Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, took messages from Mount Olympus to earth, and from gods to mortals or other gods, using the rainbow as her stairway. “
Thus, Iridescence is “the glowing, shifting, colorful quality of a rainbow, also seen in an opal, a light oil slick, a butterfly wing, or the mother-of-pearl that lines an oyster shell.”
Which brings us back to the one thing I have not seen over the past 3 days, in any of the 3 different cities across 3 different time zones.
Poetry Challenge #119
Rainbow Logic
If we can’t find a rainbow arching across the sky right now, we’ll have to create our own. Here goes:
1. Write the word “Light” or “Rainbow” vertically down the length of a page.
2. For each letter, write a related word or idea beginning with that letter extending out horizontally.
3. Take a few moments to refine your poem. Try adding or changing some words to add interest, rhythm or rhyme to your poem.
4. Select your favorite word or image to be the title of your poem.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
And, for a real treat, check out Patricia Maclachlan’s brilliante picture book biography of Henri Matisse. A tidbit of trivia: it came about when her editor/publisher Neal Porter asked her what she was working on she said, (and I am paraphrasing) a little something I love but I don’t think anyone will ever publish. His response . . .
*If you know the movie I’m riffing of here, send word, you’ll receive a prize!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge many rainbows 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.
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Poetry Challenge #118-Beyond Your Control
It’s that time of year when every day is a little bit longer than the one before.
And then, just when we are used to it, snippet by snippet night will begin stealing back moments. . .
and there is not one thing we can do about it. There are some things that are simply
Beyond Our Control. . .
Poetry Challenge #119
Beyond Your Control
Pretend I’m waving a ticking pocket watch before your eyes.
“You’re getting sleepy…sleepy…your eyes are getting heavy” …TICK-TICK-TICK
Let your eyes drift closed. . . Tick-tick . . .Now image you’ve been hypnotized into doing something that you would not ordinarily do. Something so out of character you’d have to be under some sort of unworldly power to attempt it.
And now, because the clock is ticking, fast as you can write a poem about where you are, what you’re doing, and how you feel doing it.
Keep it short. Four lines maximum. Because the clock is ticking!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much.
just
Start
writing!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 summer 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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Poetry Challenge #117-Celebrate!
Every day is a special day. If a day dawns in need of an excuse to celebrate I make a quick search. I delight in finding calendars that telling what each day is special for—more than 365 reasons to make a ruckus!
Today, April 15th is according to nationaldaycalendar.com, is Purple Up Day! Rubber Eraser Day! and Take a Wild Guess Day!
And, if that’s not enough to get you blowing those weird paper roll-up horns, it’s the 30th Anniversary of National Poetry Month!
Poetry Challenge #117
A Month of Holidays
As the inimitable fashion of Kool and the Gang:
Celebration time…Come on!
No matter what day it is, find something to celebrate. (If only it’s not having to listen to me singing along…because you know I am.)
Choose something to celebrate. Erasers maybe, or purple, or the neighbor’s irritatingly loud wind chimes. (At least they haven’t blown off into my yard or through a window…YET!)
Write a celebratory poem.
Jazz your poem up with some celebratory words: Clap, cheer, rejoice, glitter, shine, hallelujah!
And if you need some mood music, click and listen to Kool and the Gang singing Celebration!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
And when you’re finished…CELEBRATE!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 3500 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.
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Poetry Challenge #115-Knit Wits
Can you name the book?
Think “knitting” and an image of the “quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’” springs to many a mind. But that’s bunk. All sort of folks knit. All ages and stages. And it’s not just about yarn (although yarns are told.)
Knitting is such a useful word. In the same way yarn becomes sweaters, wounds knit back together. Families are closely knit. Brows knit in consternation or contemplation. Thoughts knit together become ideas, just as words knit together can be poetry.
In Merriam-Webster speak, knitting is “a series of connected loops,” so that’s where we’ll begin.
Classic Knit-One, Purl-Two pattern
Poetry Challenge #115
Knit Wits
Close your eyes and write down the first word that pops into your mind. One word. That word will be the title of your poem.
Next, quickly list words that you associate with your word. From that list, choose the best five.
Take a moment to reorder those five words into a sort of pattern that makes sense to you.
Let’s use our wits to knit those words together to create a poem.
For our first effort, we’ll use a simple knit one, purl two pattern. Consider those five words to be your “knit” stitches. The “purl” part of our poem will be modifiers. Let’s get knitting!
Write your first “knit” word. Below it “purl” two modifiers. Below that purl, write your next “knit” word, then “purl” two; continue in this knit one-purl two pattern until you come to the end of your word list. Just like that you’ve knitted a 10-line poem.
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 more than eight years 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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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 way too many meals 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.