Poetry Challenge #225 This One's for the Birds
Click off those inside noises, pop your head outside and take a listen. Listen to the birds!
Happy Bird Day! (Jan 5th)* Different species of birds sing very different songs with different sounds and rhythms. Here are some birds and their songs (in human speak):
Chestnut-sided warbler: pleased, pleased, pleased to meet you
Whippoorwill: whip-poor-will
Chickadee: chick-a-dee-dee-dee
Common Yellowthroat: Witchity, witchity, witchity
Red-winged Blackbird: konklaree.
Ovenbird: Teacher, teacher, teacher
American Bittern: bloonk-a-doonk
Barred Owl: Who cooks for you?
Poetry Challenge #225
One For the Birds
Pick a bird from the list above (or find your own) and write a poem using the rhythm of that bird’s song. Your poem can be about a bird, or it could be the bird’s thoughts.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it! Tweet Tweet!
*Established in 2002, National Bird Day, established by Born Free USA with Avian Welfare Coalition, it’s a day to promote avian awareness—and the harsh reality that “nearly 12 percent of the world’s almost 10,000 bird species are in danger of extinction.” So . . . what can we do????
Plant 2/3rd for the Birds! What you grow in the garden can make a difference!” Here’s more at 234birds.org
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 . . .
What Inspires Me #1-Family Photo Collage
The holidays behind me, I went to bed last night with a feeling of “Tomorrow back to the same-o?” Soooo…? We all thought by 2022—all those welcoming curves and 2 two too me toos—the world would be all sunshine and light, but… Thinking maybe, like me, you too “22” need a little boost, I’m returning to a practice from those darker days of Bird Flu and empty nest syndrome: Collecting inspiration.
Each week, along with my regular posts, a 7-Minute Poetry Challenge each Wednesday & Ask Norman, response to a reader’s letter each Friday, I’m going to post What inspires Me. Here’s #1
What Inspires Me #1
Collage Art by Sharry Wright
You know all those old family photos—the ones of people you know and most especially those you can only wonder about? Sharry, a friend and fellow classmate from VCFA uses them in collage art. And her captions are the best! Check it out!
Here’s a bit of what inspired Sharry to begin creating these delightful collages:
“…found myself pouring over photos of my grandparents and great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, cousins in various categories of removal and my parents in their youth, wondering about their hopes and dreams and all of the “what-ifs” and forks in the road not taken.”-Sharry Wright
To view more of Sharry Wright’s art (and perhaps snag some of her notecards) click over to her website: SharryWright.com
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 my “Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner” Quarterly Giveaway!
WINNER of the "Goodbye 2021 WINNER-WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" QUARTERLY GIVEAWAY IS . . .
THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the “Goodbye 2021” Quarterly Giveaway is . . . Fanfare please!
Wait! Before we announce the winner, huge thanks and fishbowl love to all of you who entered this quarter’s Winner’s Choice Giveaway by subscribing to my blog, “Kelly’s Fishbowl,” sending letters & drawing to Norman the Goldfish’s advice column “Ask Norman,” or sharing snapshots of “Activities” on social media. The good news is you made our fishy hearts flutter with joy. The better news is, there weren’t as many entries as there could have been—did you forget you could enter more than one time each quarter? —so all of you who did enter have a 1 in 77 chance of winning. Talk about great odds!
In the interest of fairness, we wanted choosing the winner to be completely random random drawing. To that end, first we asked this guy to pick a winner. Now! Without further ado—Here’s Jack
And the winner is: Blanca17
Lucky Blanca17 will win dinner with a chicken or her choice of any one of these fabulous prizes:
To all of you, There’s still next time! Enter now, enter often, even better—have your kids, students, second-cousin on your goldfish’s side enter. There is no limit to how many times you enter—or WIN the Quarterly Winner-Choice Giveaway!
Poetry Challenge #224 Ticking Along
Tick-Tock. Tick-Tock The clock is ticking, running fast. Tick-Tock Tick-Tock…
Yesterday was National Tick Tock Day (Dec. 29th). In a matter of hours this year that has ticked by sooooooo quickly will be over . . .
Have you done everything you need to do before the end of the year? Do it just now…but first:
Poetry Challenge #224
The Clock’s Ticking
Tick Tock.
Tick
Tick Tick
TALK
Write a poem with one or two words on each line. Listen to the rhythm. Listen to the sounds. Does it sound like a wristwatch or a grandfather clock.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
For inspiration, here are 11 songs with Time in the Title. Maybe you can write one of your own!
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack
Feels Like the First Time by Foreigner
Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper
I’ve Had the Time of My Life by David Cook
Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce
Love Me Two Times by The Doors
Any Time at All by the Beatles
Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is? by Chicago
Time is on my Side by The Rolling Stones
As Time Goes By sung by Jimmy Durante
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 . . .
Calling All Finpals!
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Poetry Challenge #223-'Tis the Season!
It’s that time of year. It’s December 22nd, and no matter what we celebrate or where we live, we are all racing around trying to do too much all at once and everything else too—all the while trying to keep it real and still make it special. Right? The last thing you have time or energy for is writing a new poem. True? So I won’t ask you to. Promise.
Poetry Challenge #223
Tis the Season
First: Take one minute. One. 60 seconds to sort through some of the poems you’ve already written. Select one that you absolutely do not think works. One that you wrote on your least inspired day. One that, if a whole stack of your poetry blew across the room and out the window, you would race after first just so you could grab it before anyone else had a chance to read it. Yep. That one.
Now: Think of the Season: whether it’s Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, winter in the Northern Hemisphere; summer in the South . . . What does Tis the Season mean to you?
Finally: Using words, images, sounds, and smells of the season, turn your hideous poem into a seasonal sensation! Twist it, change it, rearrange it, rhyme it, line it, redefine it. Sprinkle it with elf dust if you must. Surprise yourself!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
HAPPY CELEBRATING! Wishing you health and joy!
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 . . .
Fin Pal to Norman: Do You Like Pizza?
Norman T. Goldfish answers letters from readers. Click on the link to read his reply.
Do you like pizza? What about orange? Some people put orange cheese on their pizza. Some people put fruit on their pizza. But I’ve never seen anyone put orange fruit on their pizza…have you? Some humans put fish on their pizza, too. Norman would never put a human on his pizza…or would he?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Just as we humans can get sick from eating things that are not good for us, goldfish can too. So unless your pizza is made of seaweed topped with freeze-dried brine shrimp, don’t fee it to your goldfish!
Here’s more from the Fish Vet on What and How to Feed your Goldfish.
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Poetry Challenge #222-Calling All Cat Herders!
Boots? Check! Hat? Check! Lasso? Check! Yeehaw! Y’all get ready for today, Dec 15, is officially National Cat Herders Day!
Thomas and Ruth Roy from Wellcat.com, herb growers and quirky holiday creators, invented Cat Herders Day to honor not cats, or cat herders (well maybe cat herder’s too.) but mostly people who’s jobs are challenging, chaotic, crA-ZZZ-y! Now it’s a thing.
Poetry Challenge #222
Calling All Cat Herders!
If you’ve ever tried to get a cat to do what you want it to do, you know that’s close to impossible. Now imagine a whole group of cats. Listed below are a bunch of cat types. Herd as many as you can into a poem—extra credit if the poem is NOT about cats.
Persian, Main Coon, Bengal, British Shorthair, Siamese, Sphinx, Ragdoll, Munchkin, Scottish Fold, Norwegian Forest, Savannah, Siberian, Polydactyl, Snowshoe, Calico
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And while we’re on the subject…
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 . . .