Poetry Challenge #262-State of Mind
It seems like every week there’s a National “State” Day. With 50 States in these United States, not to mention all the other geographically defined states in the world, it makes sense! There are lots to states to celebrate. This National State Day , Sept 22, 2022 . But which state you ask?
It could be a physical “state” but… it could also be the “state of denial” or the “state of unrest” or maybe the “state of disarray”… it all depends on your state of mind. we dare to ask the tough question: Which state? It could be the “state of denial” or the “state of unrest” or maybe the “state of disarray”…sometimes it all depends on your state of mind. . .
Poetry Challenge #262
State of Mind
Today let’s honor the state you live in.
Make a list of things you like best about your state.
They might be products your state is known for or facts about your state, or they might be special things only you notice.
Write a postcard poem, inviting people to visit the best state.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
In the spirit of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” try setting your state poem to music!
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 #261-Kidding Around
It’s National Parents’ Day Off (Sept 14th)! Can you imagine how excited your parents are today?
National Parent’s Day Off was established in 2021, but EPIC! A digital library. Why? “Parenting can be challenging and messy; that’s why parents should get ready for an EPIC BREAK!”
While that is absolutely true, what’s happens to the kids? Enter that Cat in the Hat!
Poetry Challenge #261
Kidding Around!
Imagine your parents really take the day off. What doesn’t get done? What happens because of that? What would you miss the most?
Write a poem about one of the things your parents wouldn’t do. Or write a list poem of all the things.
Try to include how these missing tasks would make you feel.
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 #260-Grandma Moses Me Anytime!
If anyone ever calls me a “Grandma Moses” I won’t bop them on the head with a broom. No way! I’ll smile and say, “Thank you, kindly!”
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, aka “Grandma Moses” spent all of her 101 years tootling around in the same few square miles called Eagle Bridge, New York.
But, to paraphrase George Baily, folks did a lot of living and dying in her corner of Washington County and at is aptly called “ripe” age of 78, Grandma Moses began seriously painting what she saw…her way!
Happy Grandma Moses Day (Sept 7th)!
Before we rush into our prompt, Here’s more from Bennington Museum, which houses the largest publicly owned collection of Grandma Moses’ work.
Poetry Challenge #260
Just Like Grandma Moses
Take a good long gander at one of Grandma Moses paintings below. Take a moment and transport yourself into the painting, to that time, that place…into Grandma Moses’ world.
Write a poem inspired by that painting.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Luckily Grandma Moses’s spirit is preserved in interviews like these. Click on!
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 #259-Catch Me a Catch
What are Dolly Madison, Yente, Headhunters…Literary Agents…best at? Matchmaking. Bringing people projects and products together! Without them many of us would be living little lonely unfulfilled—literarily-speaking anyway—existences. And I’m not the only one who believes this for today, August 31st is National Matchmaker Day, an entire day dedicated to celebrating Matchmakers who bring us together to help make happy endings happen.
Tzeitel! Hodel! Chava! Sing it Sisters: Matchmaker! Matchmaker! Make me a match/find me a find/catch me a catch…
Yente from Fiddler on the Roof , music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein,
Poetry Challenge #259
Catch Me a Catch
Peanut Butter and Jelly; Fried Chicken Feet and Movies; George and Gracie; Green Eggs and Ham—someone back in some long-forgotten time decided that these things would go together. Happy Endings!
Now it’s your turn. You are the Matchmaker in this prompt.
Your job is to bring two seemingly unconnected things together in a poem. For inspiration here’s an effort by Pablo Neruda:
Set the Timer for 7 Minutes!
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Amy and Mona, this one is for you!
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 #258 Waffling
The largest waffle ever made weighed in at 50 kilograms, (110 pounds, 3.68 oz).
Tallest stack of waffles ever made stood 67 centimeters (2.19816273 feet) tall.
There are 1963 Waffle House Restaurants in the United States. (As of Aug 24, 2022)
Why do you need to know this?
Because it’s National Waffle Day (Aug 24th)!
While I’m pretty sure they mean the kind you eat, let’s think about another meaning of the word. Let’s think about when when you waffle between decisions.
Poetry Challenge #258
Waffling
Have you ever wanted to do two things at the same time but you had to pick one?
Have you ever held up the ice cream line while you decided which flavor?
Have you ever held two books, trying to decide which one to read next?
Write a poem where you argue with yourself. One line will talk about one decision you could make and the next line will tell why you want to do the opposite. Argue with yourself!
Add descriptive language so a reader can see how hard the decision is.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it! Waffle!
For more waffle fun, here are “12 Waffle Facts You’d be “Hard Pressed” to Find Anywhere Else” (except here) from www.foodbeast.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 #257 Love Those Toes
If my feet are happy, everybody’s happy!
Beat the pavement!
Hit the road!
Ants go Marching…Hurrah! Hurrah!
Happy National I Love My Feet Day! (Aug 17th)
Poetry Challenge #257
Hi-Ho Hi-Ho Off to the Market We Go!
What’s in those Mystery Cans?
Imagine yourself off to the market to buy several items—on foot! Important items. Forgetting even one item on the list could mean big trouble for you—terrible terrible trouble. What do you do?
Make a list—but dang. No phone. That means making a mental list.
Turn the list into a poetic march by rearranging items into iambic feet: I am/I am/I am . . . Poet’s choice how many feet on each line.
You might need to change/substitute/rename some items on your list for others that follow fit the iambic pattern. Be creative.
Hint: numbers one through ten have one hard/stressed syllable. Pity the poet whose list includes eleven of anything.
When your poem if finished try marching it out…maybe all the way to the market!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Be kind to your feet, for if you let them, they will take you far!
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#256 S'More Please?
When was the last time you made a s’more? Two points if you used the microwave. Seriously, it’s possible! When was the last time you made a s’more? Two points if you used the microwave. Seriously, it’s possible! Although lacking the depth of flavor of its fire-roasted nee charred campfire cooked flavor of the original graham cracker-marshmallow-chocolate concoction—microwave S’mores are mighty tasty. According to limited resources, the first S’more recipe was published in the 1927 guide, Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts, when you’re finished you might want s’more. Happy S’More Day (Aug 10th)!
Poetry Challenge #256
S’more Please!
The original name for the campfire dessert created by sandwiching hot roasted marshmallow and chocolate between graham cracker squares was “Some More,” probably because that’s what anyone who ever tasted one said.
No telling when and who first slurred “Some Mores” into S’more, the Girl Scouts adopted the contracted name in the ‘70s. So let’s go with it.
Building on the name, S’more, write a poem about something you’ve only done once and would love to do again. And, in honor of the person, possibly talking around a mouthful of marshmallow, who first contracted “Some More” into “S’more,” use as many contractions in your poem as possible.
A contraction is made by replacing a letter or letters in a word with an apostrophe. Usually, a contraction uses the remaining letters of the original words. For inspiration, here’s a list of some uncommon contractions:
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
When you’re finished whip up a batch of ooey-gooey s’mores and reread your poem while savoring s’more s’mores!
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 #255-Watermelon Daze
It’s Watermelon Season! Watermelon at my local patch is selling for 3 cents a pound. 3 cents—pick your own. How could I resist? My favorite way to serve watermelon is as a salad. Cut the watermelon from the rind, cube it, toss it with fresh mint, lime juice and feta cheese crumbles—cool, crisp, tangy-and just a hint of salt…delish!
Ready for more?
Poetry Challenge #255
Watermelon Daze
One way to come up with an idea for a poem is to start with a noun. Today in honor of National Watermelon Day, August 3rd, let’s use WATERMELON.
Think of ways to describe a watermelon and jot them down—its color, shape, texture, taste, smell, use.
Think of ways to compare it to something else—it looks like…feels like…tastes like…
Think of what watermelon reminds you of—when, where, why, what memories do you have?
Finally, write a poem using the best things you discovered while you were answering the watermelon questions.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Don’t forget to spit out the seeds!
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 . . .