Poetry Challenge #220-Red Apple Day
No one seems to know how it came about, or why, but today, Dec 1st, 2021, is National Eat a Red Apple Day. Here’s what I do know:
Red vs. Green? Yellow wins! In spite of the prescribed “Apple a day…” apples are only the 2nd most consumed fruit in the U.S. Banana are #1.
Here’s something else: A poem doesn’t taste like an apple, but it can look like an apple, and it can be about an apple, or have apples in it, but it doesn’t have to.
Poetry Challenge #220
Wall and Red Apples
“Something there is that does not love a wall…”
Robert Frost wrote in the poem “Mending Walls”, published in 1914.
What if we changed that line to “Something there is that does not love a red apple”? Use that as the first line of your poem and see where it takes you.
Write a second verse replacing “red apple” with something else.
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 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 #219 Two Scoops of Gratitude!
Gobble Gobble Gobble! That’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow. Maybe you, too? Or maybe you’ve already enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast and will be going in for seconds…or thirds. Regardless of what you’ll eat, where you’ll go, what you’ll do, or whether you’ll celebrate alone or with other, let’s take a moment to reflect on reasons we have to give thanks. (For if you are reading this, then like me, you do have reasons.)
Spotted this rafter of turkeys strutting around our backyard last week. When I said our local B-Ball team “The Gobblers” was warming up, a friend wrote “you mean ‘pre-heating’!” Gobble-gobble!
Poetry Challenge #219
Two Scoops of Thanks
Write a poem of thanks. For? or To whom? is up to you.
The poem must be at least twelve words long—one word beginning with each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G.
Yes, it can be longer.
Yes, you can include words that begin with other letters, too.
Yes it can rhyme. . . No it doesn’t have to.
When you’ve finished, take a moment to polish your poem so you can share it—perhaps later, with pie!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for your support!
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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #218-Bread & Butter
The smell of Homemade Bread is one of the best smells in the world. Warm bread with butter melted into the nooks and crannies…mmmmmm! Happy National Bread and Butter Day!
If bread and butter doesn’t float your happy boat, it’s also Baklava Day and Hike Day.
Poetry Challenge #218
Gorge Yourself . . . First
This is indeed a day worth celebrating because no matter which of the three Bs you choose —Bread, Butter, or Baklava—you can work it off with the H word—or if anyone says you shouldn’t, tell them to Take a Hike! So, let’s celebrate with a 4-way poem.
Use all of these words (homemade bread, butter, baklava, and hike) in a rhyming poem—either an AABB rhyme scheme or an ABAB rhyme scheme.
Let us feel and see and smell this poem!
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 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #217-I'll Be True As Long As . . .
Getting forgetful? I am. So I’m keeping this short and sweet in hopes it will help us remember for that’s what today, National Forget Me Not Day (Nov 10th) is all about: Not Forgetting.
The Alpine Forget Me Not is the Alaskan state flower, chosen in 1917 for it’s “true blue” color. That term “true blue” originally comes from the indigo-dyed cloth made in Coventry, England in the Middle Ages, reported not to fade, but rather to keep its “true” color no matter how many times it was washed. And from that beginning, the term came to mean people who are “always the same and like themselves”—true blue.
Poetry Challenge #217
I’ll be True as Long as You . . .
Go back, back, far as you can remember to one true-blue friend from your past. Or that someone to whom you have been a true-blue friend. Using a truly blue pen, pencil, or crayon, write that person’s name vertically down the center of a paper.
Write an acrostic poem about that true-blue person, a true-blue moment, or qualities that make them true-blue. As you write, fill in the lines on either side of the letters, so when the poem is finished, that person’s name with remain steadfastly in the middle.
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 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #216-Hold the Pickles
Sandwiches are easy take-along foods and can be customized to any person’s liking. Dress them up with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions. Add condiments like mayo, mustard, pesto. Use your favorite cheese: cheddar, American, Swiss, provolone, muenster. And bread: white, wheat, rye, pumpernickel, sub roll. And just before you take that first bite, raise your sandwich high and cheer: “Here’s to the Earl of Sandwich!” because legend has it, we have John Montagu, 4th of Earl Sandwich to thank for the name because Montagu, known to be a rake and gambler, in 1762 once spent 24 hours at a gaming table and all he ate the whole time was meat stuff held in place with slices of bread to keep his fingers and the cards clean. Happy National Sandwich Day (Nov 3)!
Poetry Challenge #216
Hold the Pickles
Today, write a take-along poem. Each stanza will be 3 lines long.
The first and third are the bread and should be 8 words/syllables long.
The middle line is the filling and should be 5 words/syllables.
If you center your poem, it should look like a sandwich!
Make it a picnic and write 3 or more stanzas!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Hungry for more? Watch the short comedy by Daniel Inglese & Joe Coen
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1990+ 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #215-Meow! Scat! Hiss!
Meow! Scat! Hiss!
Don’t let a black cat cross your path. But to avoid one you’ve got to see it coming, so beware, it’s Black Cat Day! Or maybe hurrah!
In some parts of the world, Scotland, England, parts of Asia, black cats are welcomed. A white hair resting on a black cat is a portent of good luck. In Scotland, a black cat on your porch is a sign of imminent prosperity for the owner, according to a Scottish tradition and a black cat walking in your direction is also thought to bring good fortune. In my house, a black cat means sneezes and wheezes. . . great for tissue sales.
How did black cats get a bad rap? (Say that 5 times quickly.) Here’s a timeline from NationalToday.com
Poetry Challenge #215
Meow! Scat! Hiss! . . . Hello!
Whether fearsome or harbinger of fortune, imagine yourself a black cat.
Write a Monostitch poem from the point-of-view of your black cat. But…DO NOT USE the words “black” or “cat” in your poem.
A monostich is a one-line poem that expresses a complete thought. Often the title of a monostitch works with the text to “create a poem in the space between.” (Thanks Writer’s Digest for this and more.)
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it! MEOW!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #214-LIving the YES!
Happy Youth Confidence Day!
Are you sure?
Poetry Challenge #214
Living the YES!
What does it mean to be confident?
Write an acrostic poem with a recipe for being or becoming confident.
Use the word Confidence or Confident and put one letter on each line going down.
Use that letter to start the word for each line.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it . . .
You can do this! You’re amazing!
A bunch of confidant kids—living the YES!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000 days ago! (Yep two thousand 0-0-0H!) 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #213-One Grey Matter Shake Coming Up!
You can train your dog. You can train your car. But, can you train your dog to sit in your car on the train?
Think about it . . .
Hurrah! The work-out has begun!
Today, October 13, is Exercise Your Brain Day. Because, when it comes to your brain, it’s use it or lose it. Research has proven that doing routine things—same ole’-same ole’ does not exercise our brains. And just like the rest of us, without exercise, our brains get flabby.
Here are a few suggestions for ways shake up the grey stuff:
Poetry Challenge #213
One Grey Matter Shake Coming Up!
For today’s prompt, let’s exercise our brains by writing a poem that is also a riddle.
Latex on!
Pens up!
Timer set! GO!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1990+ 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .