Poetry Challenge #239-Scrabble Scramble
The game of Scrabble was invented by unemployed architect Alfred Mosher Butts during the depression. It was first produced and sold in 1948. Now, nearly a third of American homes own a game. And if you need an excuse to pull out and dust off your game—or click over online—every April 13th is National Scrabble Day. (I was so engrossed in a game I forgot to post…sorry…whoops a whole different game entirely.) Moving on:
Pick Your Letters—Any Letters!
Poetry Challenge #239
Scrabble Scramble
In honor of National Scrabble Day, let’s play: Draw 2 letters from a game of Scrabble, or pick the first 2 letters in an online version.
Use these letters as many times as possible in a poem about Scrabble, words, games, or keeping score.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And now that you have the game out, convince someone to play!
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 #238-Ready Boots?
What the heck are you doing reading this? Don’t you know what day it is? It’s National Walking Day (The first Wednesday each April), the one day per year declared— by the powers that be and the American Heart Association—a day to “get out, stretch your legs, get your heart pumping” by taking a 30-minute walk.
So in the immortal words of Nancy Sinatra, “Are you ready Boots! . . . Start Walking!”
Poetry Challenge #238
Ready Boots???
First things first: Take a Walk. That’s the order (and your heart will thank you.)
Now, after rehydrating it’s time to pontificate. Close your eyes and mentally retrace your steps. Pay particular attention to the colors, the sounds, the smells experienced on your walk. Now, recreate the wonders of your walk in a poem.
Structure your poem to look like the path you walked. If yours was a steady forward-march down the sidewalk, then keep your lines the same length and a measured beat so the poem marches down the page. If it was along lazy ramble, then vary the line lengths so your poem visually rambles.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
*In the mood for more about Nancy, the “Icon of Cool.” Did you know Nancy Sinatra starred with Elvis in Speedway (1968); she was the first American to sing a James Bond theme song (You Only Live Twice in 1967); is half of the only father-daughter duet to ever top the Billboard 100 chart (Something Stupid); and sang about 10 chart-topping songs of her own, and has her own Hollywood Boulevard star!
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 #237-Ticonderoga Moments
The moment I learned it was National Pencil Day (every March 30), a scene from my all-time favorite Broadway Musical turned film Bells are Ringing (link is to the Broadway show) staring Judy Holiday and Dean Martin popped into my head. Jeffery Moss (Dean) is a playwright who procrastinating. Millie Scott (Judy) who works at Sue’s Answer Phone, and has stuck over to Dean’s apartment because he’s about to miss a deadline, relays her schoolgirl procrastination story ala the pencil sharpener:
“I’d sharpen down to the GUH and then to the ROG and then to the TI and then to the Tuh.”—Millie Scott in Bells are Ringing
Okay, so this little musical segue is my TICONDEROGA …keeping me from getting with the prompt (or rather “point”?)
Poetry Challenge #237
Ticonderoga Moment
In honor of National Pencil Day, find a pencil—Ticonderoga or not—and write a poem on paper. You can write about anything. Think about how it feels to write with a pencil.
Maybe you should try that more often!
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 #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 . . .