Poetry Challenge #236-That Was a Close One...
It’s said, truth is scarier than fiction. That’s what today is all about. National Near Miss Day (March 23) commemorates our near annihilation ala Leo and Jennifer’s comedy-disaster Don’t Look Up.
What happened on March 23, 1989 was definitely nothing to laugh about. A massive mountain-sized asteroid, named 4581 Asclepius, came within 500,000 miles of colliding with the earth. In space distance super close! And unlike in the movies there was not one thing we could do have done about it because scientists didn’t see it coming until 9 days after its closest approach to Earth.
“On the cosmic scale of things, that was a close call.”
“Geophysicists estimate that a collision with Asclepius would release energy comparable to the explosion of a 600-megaton atomic bomb.” A collision would have had catastrophic effects on our planet. Scientists discovered the asteroid on March 31, 1989 – nine days after its closest approach to Earth.
Poetry Challenge #236
Happy Near-Miss Day
Have you ever had a near-miss? Not, perhaps, of asteroid proportions, but close enough. Or an almost but… One of those time when afterwards you shake your head thinking, “Dang . . .” Or, if you’d rather look on the bright side, can you recall a time when you thought you didn’t have a snowballs chance in the sunshine of getting something, or getting to do something, or winning—and you did?
Write a poem about that experience, good or bad. And, in the spirit of 4581 Ascelpius, add some hyperbole to make it even bigger-badder-better CinemaScopic even!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Could we survive being struck by an asteroid? In 1954 Ann Hodges did. View a photo and her account in National Geographic.
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 #235-Everything You Do is Right
It’s Everything You Do Is Right Day!* That means nothing you do is wrong! (When was the last time you heard that?)
Poetry Challenge #235
Cause for Celebration
Write a list poem celebrating your accomplishments for the day, the week, the month, or even the year! Celebrate everything, no matter how big or small. Add details.
Start with: Today I… (or this week I… etc.) Remember nothing is wrong! You’re the best!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
*National Everything You Do is Right Day is celebrated every March 16th. Definitely a day to remember so mark it on your recurring event calendar now!
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 #234-Cloudy with a Chance of?
Hip-hip Okay, it’s Meatball Day!
March 9th is National Meatball Day. A day set aside to honor meatballs, according to the National Day Calendar some restaurants even serve meatballs for free today. (What it failed to mention was whether that meant the restaurants would serve meatballs to customers or serve customers who were meatballs. . .) Moving on:
Poetry Challenge #234
Cloudy with a Chance of ?
According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, the #1 definition of “meatball” is “a small ball of chopped or ground meat often mixed with breadcrumbs and spices.” By this definition, the first written mention was in 1856 (although I didn’t follow up to find out where or by whom}.
But I did explore further.
Definition #2: “A stupid, clumsy, or dull person.”
Definition #3: “A pitch in baseball that is easy to hit.”
Other names for meatball include: netball, kofta, frikadelle, bitki, cheatballs (as son Max calls the store-bought frozen variety) and ala All in the Family: “Michael!”
In honor of the day, using one of the definitions of meatball above, or the popular picture book, movie & series, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (first published in 1978), to create a meatball of a poem. But . . .
Do not use the word “meatball” in your poem.
Do use one or more of the synonyms for “meatball” in your 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 #233-Ho Hum, Humdrum, En-er-ee!
Ho-Hum, Humdrum, Second verse same as the first…
Exactly one month after Groundhog Day are you still doing things the same old way? Getting up on the same side of the bed? Tying your shoes the same way? Drinking coffee the same way—from the same cup, singing the same verse of the same song over and over—and maybe slightly off tune: “I’m En-er-ry the Eight I am/En-er-ee the Eight I am I am/I got married to the widow next door” . . . Enough!
For today is officially National Old Stuff Day! A day to look at your life and make some changes. Or, in the words of the Little River Band, Time for a Cool Change. But first:
Poetry Challenge #233
Ho Hom, Humdrum, En-er-ee
In honor of Old Stuff Day, look around your room. What treasures do you have?
Write a non-rhyming poem describing one (or more) of your treasures. Make it as descriptive as possible using as many senses as you can. What does the treasure remind you of? Is there a story that goes with it?
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
M&M turned this junkyard Hoosier into a bar!
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 #232-Wait One Dog-Gone Minute!
Oh my . . . where has the time gone? We are already 46 days… 8 weeks… 12.6 percent of the way through 2022! Before we go one more step forward into the future, let’s take 7 minutes to reflect, regroup, and revise!
Poetry Challenge #232
Wait One Dog-Gone Minute
Choose one of your poems to revise. Do not pick it because it is “almost” good. Do not pick it because it’s soooo bad that in your will you’ll demand it burned so no one will ever ever ever see it. (I have some of those too.) Just pick one—whichever one catches your eye—pick it.
Now, use the elements of your chosen poem to create a Tanka.
Tanka is an ancient Japanese form of poetry expressing mood, thoughts, feelings, desires—usually about nature. So, no matter what the subject of your poem, see if you can’t include a hint of the natural world.
Tanka directions:
A Tanka has five-line poem with a total of 31 syllables.
Lines #1 and #3 have 5 syllables each
Lines #2, #4 and #5 have 7 syllables each.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
To find out more about Tanka poems—along with the answer to every question about Tanka imaginable—click over “How to Write a Tanka” by lisbdnet.com
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 #231-Uncrank the Crank
Curmudgeon, crank, grump, sourpuss, bellyacher, grouse, crosspatch, malcontent, crab, grumbler, grump …Uncle Ted! Call um what you will, we all know one (maybe even are one…) the person who is chronically cranky, aka The Grouch!
Caroll Spinney was the original puppeteer behind Oscar and Big Bird:
Surprise! Today is Do a Grouch a Favor Day (Feb 16th). A day devoted to turning those grouchy frowns upside down.
Think of all the things you could do to try to make a grouchy person smile.
What might you give them?
What might you say to them?
What might you do for them—to them—to brighten their gloomy dispositions?
After his mom posted this Grumpy boy’s school photo it went viral. Click over to @today’smom for the rest of the story. But first…before you DO one thing more…
Poetry Challenge #231
Uncrank the Crank
Write a rhyming poem with things to try to make a grouch happy. Remember to smile!
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 #230-Pizza Party
Here’s all the excuse you need. . .
Give me a P!
Give me an I!
Give me a Z!
Give me another Z!
Give me an A!
What are we talking about? PIZZA!
Yep, February 9th is officially National Pizza Day. A day set aside specifically to honor-eat-make-eat-celebrate-eat-read about pizza. Let’s start with these fun pizza facts from Giovanni:
Every second, Americans order 350 slices of pizza.
Every day, Americans eat about 100 acres of pizza.
On average, each American eats 23 pounds of pizza every year. (and puts on 23#…)
The most popular pizza topping is pepperoni.
The world’s first pizza, largest pizza, longest pizza were all made in Italy. *
But, the real question and inspiration this prompt is: Who Wants Pizza???
Poetry Challenge #230
Pizza Party
Ding-Dong! Surprise! It’s a pizza party and you’re invited.
Begin by writing a shopping list of pizza toppings—at least 10!
Cut the list into bits—one word per bit.
Stir the bits, toss them into the air as one would a pizza crust, and then scoop them up and arrange them into a tasty pizza of a poem.
Feel free to add more or delete some, after all you’re the pizza chef!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Let’s get this Pizza Party started!
*The world’s record for the largest round pizza ever made was set in Rome, Italy on Dec 13, 2012. How big was it? The pizza was so big, they named it Octavio! Octavio stretched more than 130 feet across, bigger than 1 ½ baseball fields and weighed 51, 257 pounds! It took 19,000 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce, 8800 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 1488 pounds of margarine, 551 pounds of rock salt, 220 pounds of lettuce, 55 pounds of vinegar and two full days to bake it. “The dough had to be baked in more than 5000 batches over a 48-hour period.”
The longest pizza ever made looked like a pizza sidewalk and was more than a mile long! In 2016, 250 pizza chefs from around the world gathered in Naples, Italy to construct a margherita pizza that stretched “1853.88 meters, which is approximately 6082.28 feet, or 1.15 miles.” It took more than 4400 pounds of flour, 3500 pounds of tomatoes, 4400 pounds of mozzarella, 200 liters of oil, and 66 pounds of basil to make the pizza.
Hungry for more? Here’s a round-up of pizza picture books from pocketofpreschool.com.
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 #229-Once More with Feeling!
Happy Groundhog Day aka Feb. 2nd, the day where folks all over the US and Canada look to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and a groundhog named Phil, to tells us when winter will end.
Here’s the 4-1-1: The drama begins when Phil comes out of his burrow. If he sees his shadow, Phil will freak and scurry back into his den. If this happens, winter will last six more weeks. If he stays outside to play, spring is on the way!
I feel like I’ve watched this over and over and over . . .
Poetry Challenge #229
Once More With Feeling!
In a popular movie in the 1990’s, a weatherman got stuck repeating Groundhog Day. In honor of this year’s Groundhog Day, write a poem that gets stuck repeating a line.
Write two lines that rhyme and then write the repeating line (refrain).
Try to write at least a 9-line poem.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
In the mood for more Groundhog’s Day Lore? Click over to “11 Little Known Facts about Groundhog Day” published in Better Homes and Gardens (and don’t you dare say you’re read it all before.)
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 . . .