Poetry Challenge #158-Mine for Lines--Foundlings
“Nikki Grimes” saying her name is synonymous with poetry. The way Nikki lives, loves, creates is pure poetry—as are her books! I keep a copy of her WORDS WITH WINGS on my desk-always!
A few years back I was gifted with a week of mornings with Nikki at Kindling Words West. If you’re not familiar with KW it’s a “professional retreat for the children’s book world.” To continue:
Fellow attendee, SCBWI-Houston bud, Force of an Author, Lynne Kelly was there too.
While I soaked up Nikki’s magic, Lynne shared snippets of what Nikki sprinkled us with on her blog: “Making Stuff Up and Writing it Down” including Nikki’s instructions for creating Found Poems which, to non-poet me felt like validating paint-by-number as “art”. It sort of kind of feels like cheating—but also like an easy way in. I can do easy!
Nikki’s magic doesn’t come in a jar!
Poetry Challenge #158
Mine for Lines-Foundlings
Its time to revise. Read through some of your previous poems and “find gems”—favorite lines or phrases or words. Use these foundlings to create a new poem. You might decide to only mine one poem.
Or, maybe even more exciting: stir things up by combining foundlings from several poem to create your new poem. Surprise yourself!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than SIXTEEN HUNDRED days ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
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Poetry Challenge #157-Cinnamon Raisin Kind of Day
Cinnamon Raisin Bread… Cinnamon Raisin Bread… Cinnamon Raisin Bread…
Can’t you imagine the smell? Cinnamon, sweet with sugar. Yeasty smell of freshly baked bread. Tangy saucy raisins daring to be plucked… Stomach growling?
With it’s swirly cinnamon sugar yummy-ness, who (aside from my friend, Liz) would/could say “no” to a freshly baked slice? Statistically speaking, not many:
“In bakeries across the country, we request cinnamon raisin bread more often than many others.”—I got that on the best authority; the 2020 National Day Calendar.
Poetry Challenge #157
Cinnamon Raisin Kind of Day
In honor of National Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day (celebrated every September 16th—for what reason no one knows) write a poem about the smell, taste, anticipation of something you remember in the oven.
Pay attention to the images in your poem that will help the reader picture the time, place, people, and food.
Now: Try breaking your poem between every 2 lines. Play with the last words on the lines like the poet in the following example:
“The Last Swim of Summer
by Faith Shearin
Our pool is still blue but a few leaves
have fallen, floating on the surface
of summer. The other swimmers
went home last week, tossed
their faded bathing suits aside,
so my daughter and I are alone
in the water which has grown colder
like a man’s hand at the end of
a romance. The lifeguard is under
her umbrella but her bags are packed
for college. We are swimming against
change, remembering the endless
shores of June: the light like lemonade,
fireflies inside our cupped hands,
watermelon night. We are swimming
towards the darkness of what
is next, walking away from the sounds
of laughter and splashing, towels
wrapped around the dampness of our loss.”
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
As a reward, treat yourself to a loaf. BTW: Cinnamon Raisin Bread is, oddly fun to watch so here’s a video from allrecipes.com.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than SIXTEEN HUNDRED days ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
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Poetry Challenge #156-Fuzzy Wuzzy Was a . . . Ferret?
If Theodore Roosevelt hadn’t been a hunter; if he had not refused to shoot the tired old bear guides had trapped to the tree expressly so the 26th President would have had a clear shot; and if cartoonist Clifford Berryman hadn’t immortalized the moment in a that 1902 Washington Post cartoon (and many others), what animal would kiddles cuddle up with an night? A stuffed pig maybe? Or a ferret?
We’ll never know, will we? For, as the story goes that cartoon gave Brooklyn candy store owner, Morris Michtom, a grand idea. Michtom created a new stuffed toy, and after writing to the president asking his permission, named it after him, “Teddy Bear.”
Poetry Challenge #156
Teddy, Oh, Teddy!
In celebration of National Teddy Bear Day, September 9th, write a sonnet in the spirit of Elizabeth Browning’s, “How Do I love Thee,” (Sonnet 43). You might even begin your sonnet the same way Browning began hers:
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . .
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
And, while we’re on the subject of Teddy’s—they aren’t just for squishing; they’re for reading time, too!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1580ish days ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
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Poetry Challenge #155-No Rhyme Nor Reason
Today, September 1st is No Rhyme (nor Reason) Day. A day set aside to honor, recognize, pay tribute to “words that do not rhyme with any other words in the English language.” (Why September 1st? no one seems to know.)
Rhymeless words are called refractory rhymes. According to the National Days Calendar, “Poets reason that avoiding these words helps keep their poetry consistent. However, refractory words only interrupt poems where rhyme and reason matter.”
WAH-WAH-WAH! scoff some, fecklessly taking on rhymeless words the way bulls (other than Ferdinand) challenge red sashes by fabricating words ala Lewis Carroll, or using proper names to make the rhyme.
Others get around the pesky rhyme issue by adding a suffix to rhymeless words, such as changing month to month-o, or orange to orangine, orangish, orangey, oranguar, etc. etc. and so forth . . .
Poetry Challenge #155
No Rhyme Nor Reason
Below is a list of rhymeless words, with no reason other than having fun, write a rhyming poem:
Use one or two… or even a few. Long or short, funny or not, we care not a jot—it’s completely up to you!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
More No Rhyme nor Reason Reading:
National No Rhyme (nor Reason) Day: #NoRhymeNorReasonDay
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1580ish days ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
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Poetry Challenge #154-That's Puzzling?!
Shirley Ellis was the Queen of rocking song games: The Name Game, The Clapping Game, 3-6-9 Song, and the inspiration for today’s poetry challenge, The Puzzle Song (A Puzzle in Song), 1965. Definitely a tongue twister which posed a lot of questions:
To who do you do the thing to do
When it's time to do it
No matter to who
But there's nobody there to do it but you
And what isn't that has to be done
Is a puzzle in song
Now how do you know
If you know how to do
Whatever it is to be done by you
If there's nobody there to do it to
And what isn't that has to be done
Is a puzzle in song
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Can't compare with trying to figure out the puzzle song
Holding your tongue
And saying molasses on the table isn't as hard
As trying to figure out the puzzle song
Supposing you find the answer to
To who do you do the thing to do
The puzzle is still is a puzzle to you
Is what isn't that has to be done
Is a puzzle in song.—”A Puzzle in Song” lyrics, Shirley Ellis
Poetry Challenge #154
That’s Puzzling?!
In the spirit of The Puzzle Song write a stanza poem that does one of two things:
1. Answers the questions posed by Shirley
2. Poses questions for the reader to ponder.
In The Puzzle Song, sneaky Shirley inserted a refrain that begins with this familiar tongue twister: “Peter Piper picked a pepper.” That refrain seemingly has absolutely nothing to do with the anything, thus making it even more puzzling.
See if you can’t follow suit by breaking up your stanza with a nursery rhyme line refrain—which may or may not make sense.
Have fun puzzling us with your poem!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Take a listen: A Puzzle in Song sung by Shirley!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1570ish prompts ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
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Poetry Challenge #153-Flying High!
Aviation—flying—has fascinated humans forever. Stories are told about Icarus who flew too close to the sun with homemade wings and melted the wax that held the feathers on.
The Wright Brothers are famous for being first in flight. Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart flew long distances. And Neil Armstrong took a walk on the moon.
Poetry Challenge #153
Flying High!
In honor of National Aviation Day (August 19th) Write an acrostic poem using the name of a famous aviator (Lindbergh, Earhart, Armstrong) or of a flying machine (airplane, rocket, Apollo) or of something to do with aviation (Kitty Hawk, airport).
Write the name down your paper, one letter per line and then use that letter to start each line.
Read over your poem and make it soar!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Flying High Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1570 prompts ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
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Poetry Challenge #152-Me in the Middle
Malcolm in the Middle
In honor of National Middle Child Day, think about your placement in your family. Are you an oldest or a youngest? An only? A middle child?
It’s thought that middle children have it the hardest (hence Middle Child Syndrome), but research has shown that middle children often have the best peace-keeping skills. They’re very good at finding ways of getting attention. They’re independent and have an easy time making friends.
Poetry Challenge #152
Me In the Middle
Make up a singsong refrain about being a middle child that’s 2 lines long.
Then write a poem about middle children everywhere. You can write about your own experience as a middle child or about a sibling or relative or friend. Or, write about a time you were the friend in the middle.
After every 2 lines of your poem, repeat your refrain.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1570 prompts ago! (without 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. And scroll down for my happy news:
Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
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Poetry Challenge #151-Tidy Whities Unite!
Today is a day dedicated to mentioning unmentionables—specifically underwear: bloomers, nickers, pantaloons, briefs, boxers, tidy-whities. . . whatever you call what you wear under your outer clothes.
“Underwear of some kind appear in nearly every culture.”
Back in the Middle Ages (400AD-1400AD) men sported undies more like string bikinis than tidy-whities.
As for the lady of the castle: a bra is a bra is as my grandmother called it, “torture device,” the earliest existing example of which is about 600 years old.
Poetry Challenge #151
Tidy Whities Unite
In honor of National Underwear Day (Aug 5, 2020), write a brief poem about undies.
By brief meaning: A poem using no more than five words per line, and no more than three lines, write a poem about whatever it is you wear under your clothes-- but if you’re one of those who prefers wafting in breezes…call it Commando!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing
Don’t Think Too Much About it; Just do it!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 1563 days ago! (without 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.
