Poetry Challenge #72-World Read Aloud Day
Happy World Read Aloud Day!
Poetry Challenge #72
World Read Aloud Day
Let’s celebrate in style. For today’s prompt, instead of taking 7 minutes to write a poem, let’s read poems aloud. Grab a collection of poems, click over to one of the poetry links below, or if you’re feeling truly brave, flip back through your notebook and reread some of the poems you’ve written. Then, take a deep breath and read—aloud! To someone or something else. After all, poetry is best shared!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start Reading!
(Be warned: You just might get carried away!)
World Read Aloud Day Links:
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than a thousand fifteen days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #71-Lists
January is a month of lists: resolutions, goals, projects, groceries.
Poetry Challenge #71
Lists
You can write list poems over and over with different results every time.
Begin with any topic and list things it makes you think of as quickly as you can.
Next go through the list and pick out one or more things that stick out for you.
Try making a list from the thing you picked out.
What does that thing make you think of?
Why did you pick it?
Add detail.
Use your senses.
Play with rhythm or rhyme.
Here are a couple prompts you can use to start if you want:
I like…
I wish I liked…
I remember…
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
*Cindy Faughnan and I resolved to begin this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1010 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #70-Noises On!
For the last poetry challenge we explored the Sound of Silence, this time, let’s crank up the volume by focusing on noise.
Poetry Challenge #70
Noises On!
Visualize an event, a moment, an incident—either real or imagined. Now, close your eyes and listen to the sound of significant movements and/or actions happening in that moment. What sounds do you hear? Heart beats, water dripping, footsteps, maybe bells . . .
Write a poem using these sounds. Try establishing a rhythm by repeating the sound a few times in each line followed or preceded by what is making the sound. Some hugely successful songs use sounds in this way. For example, in The Trolley Song sung notably by Judy Garland in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis sounds are used to describe the first moment Ester meets John:
“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heart strings
From the moment I saw him I fell
Chug, chug, chug went the motor
Bump, bump, bump went the brake
Thump, thump, thump went my heart strings
When he smiled I could feel the car shake”
And in one of the all-time greatest stick-in-your-head songs That’s Amore! sung notably by Dean Martin jingly sounds are what make us what to sing and dance along:
“Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you’ll sing “Vita bella”
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella”
If you have your list of sounds, but you’re stuck for a way in, use one of these songs as a model for your poem (that’s what I did.)
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Noises On! Playlist:
That’s Amore! written by Jack Brooks & Harry Warren
The Trolley Song by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane
BTW: If you are wondering where the usual links are, my resolution is to stop promoting compensation-free downloading. Please download from your fav buying spot.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1000 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #69-The Sound of Silence
I’m writing this from the middle of a snowstorm. Heavy snow blankets the ground, outlines the trees, and continues to fall. Schools and businesses are closed. There’s no traffic. The world is silent. And that got me thinking: what does silence sound like?
Poetry Challenge #69
The Sound of Silence
Write a poem that’s filled with silence. What images make you think of silence? What can you see and not hear?
Try using quiet sounds—s and l and w—for your words so your poem has a quiet sound to it.
Shhh. Listen. Write.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
The Sound of Silence Playlist:
Simon & Garfunkle’s Sounds of Silence (Of course!) BTW: If you are wondering where the usual link is, my resolution is to stop promoting compensation-free downloading. The link attached is to info about the song. Please buy it if you want to listen.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 998 days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This prompt was Cindy’s idea.) If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #68-For Old Time’s Sake
Happy first 7-Minute Poetry Challenge of the New Year!
Did you sing Auld Lang Syne on New Years? Or maybe watched/heard it sung in scores of movies including, It’s A Wonderful Life, Charlie Chaplin’s The Goldrush, Harry Met Sally, Meet Me in St. Louis, Out of Africa, or, naturally, the movie New Year’s Eve?
If “yes,” then the first stanza and chorus of that iconic song is familiar—although you probably don’t actually “know” the words. According to a CNN report I googled (to be sure I had the words correct) “just 3% in the United Kingdom know the words (42% of millennials have no clue).” For the record:
Auld Lang Syne* penned by Robert Burns in 1788
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne.
CHORUS
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
*Note not “old land sign.””
Those words “Auld Lang Syne” literally meaning “old long since,” are commonly translated as “days gone by” or “old time’s sake.” The song is basicallty a call to share “a cup o’ kindness.” The “kindness” in Burns cup is believed to be firewater, but that’s not necessarily the case.
Poetry Challenge #68
For Old Time’s Sake
Let’s begin this spanking new year by sharing a cup of kindness in the form of a poem. Think back over the past year and recall a kindness someone gave to you. What was that kindness? How did it make you feel to receive it? With that in mind, fill a cup with a kindness of your own. To whom will you pass it?
Title your poem “Cup of Kindness”
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think too much, just do it!
More movies featuring Auld Lang Syne
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 990 days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #67-Are You Blue? or Green? or Purple?
End of the year-post/mid holiday crush check in time . . .
Poetry Challenge #67
Are You Blue? or Green? or Purple?
Look around the room. List as many things as you can see that are that color. Look again. Find one more.
Pick one or more items on your list and write about them. What is it? Where did it come from? How long have you had it? Is it useful? Do you need it? Do you want it?
When you’re finished, try to cut 10 words from your poem. Play with your word choices to add better sounds, rhythm, or rhyme.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think too much, just do it!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 988ish days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #66-Blank in a Box
It’s that time of year! Porches all across America are heaped with boxes. Such tempting boxes. (Too tempting for some; more than one friend has had packages pilfered.) Ever wonder what’s inside those boxes? Let’s find out!
Powetry Challenge #66
Blank in a Box
Imagine a mysterious box on your doorstep. What’s inside?
For today’s prompt, begin by filling in the blank: I found a ___________ box . . .
With that as the first line, compose a five-line poem of one syllable words about what’s inside that box.
Challenge yourself by creating a box-shaped concrete poem. For example, 5 lines of 5 three-letter words would look box-like, or vary the length of the words so each line is the same length.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Blank in a Box Playlist:
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 975+ days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #65-I Yam! Channeling Shakespeare/Popeye
William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, 4 poems and 154 sonnets (that we know of). Of these, many of the plays and all 154 sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. Popeye guzzled spinach from the can and sang one truly memorable song, “I Yam what I Yam.”
What do Shakespeare and Popeye have in common? I Yam!
“I Yam” as in I-Yam-bic Pentameter. Iambic meaning a two-syllable soft-hard beat foot: “I-am” or “I-Yam”; Pentameter meaning five metrical of these feet, thus creating that singsong rhythm—da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA.
That pattern soft-HARD-soft-HARD-soft-HARD (like a horse gallop) is said to “fit the natural rhythms of English fairly well” in that it offers “enough structure to be memorable and enjoyable, without feeling sing-songy.”
Too, in Shakespeare’s case (and maybe Popeye’s creators, too) the words were intended to be memorized—not read. Mimicking the natural rhythm of the english language I am I yam I am I yam I am made memorization easier.*
If Shakespeare and Popeye could do it, surely we can to.
Poetry Challenge #65
I Yam! Channeling Shakespeare/Popeye
Can you write a four-line rhyming stanza of iambic pentameter?
Or, in Popeye-ese, four-lines each line five I-Yams long?
You can rhyme each pair of lines (AABB) or every other one (ABAB), whichever you choose.
Write on any subject you want or choose one of the prompts below.
I wish I could remember…
I love the smell of…
I’m waiting for…
Once you’ve got the rhythm, ala Shakespeare, try writing a complete 14-line sonnet.
BTW: “French and Italian frequently use six-foot lines, which correspond to about the same number of words but with more gender-marked endings,” (Literature Stack
Channeling Shakespeare Playlist:
*Cindy Faughnan nd I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 950 days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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