7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett 7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett

Poetry Challenge #64-Just Ducky

Rubber Ducky you’re the one! Rubber Ducky so much fun….

Grandboys splish-splashing back when they could all fit in the same tub.

Beyond rumors of the ducky jeep phenom and our grands winning ducks at swim meets, I didn’t realize just how big the duck craze was until a trip to Croatia last fall when I spotted my first Duck Boutique in Dubrovnik. And another in Split. I wonder how many ducks a day must they sell to keep the lights on?

Stores full of ducks for sale! @duckboutique.croatia

We always have a rubber duck or two bobbing in the bubbles, but this is quackers!

How did this rubber duck craze start? I turned to Reader’s Digest for the answer.

As the story goes, in 2020,  by way of thanking a friend for helping her “calm down” after a gas station altercation,  Allison Parliament bought a bag of rubber duckies to hide around her friends house.

“Before those ducks were scattered around an unsuspecting friend’s home, however, Parliament put a single yellow duck on a stranger’s Jeep in the store’s parking lot, with a simple, sweet note saying “nice Jeep.”

The owner of that Jeep saw her and laughed then suggested that she post about it on social media. She did, and that was the birth of a movement that now has more than 73,000 fans (and growing) on Facebook.”
— Reader’s Digest

Turns out there are duck stores all over the world.

Isn’t that ducky? Definitely quackers!

Poetry Challenge #64

Just Ducky!

Write a poem about a Ducky Bubble Party using some or all of the following words:

Bub, Bubbles, Suds, Splash, Scrub, Soap, Splash and Duck

Extra points if it rhymes.

If you need inspiration, here’s Bobbie Darian with Splish-Splash!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 3200 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!

Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email?  Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).

Read More
7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett 7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett

Poetry Challenge #62-Please Pass the Peas!

Remember this joke:

What did the customer respond when the Pub server asked what they wanted?

Answer: Whirled Peas

Get it? (You may not, but it is what we all want—world peace.) Alas, that’s not what this challenge is about, but it could be… You decide!

Say “St. Patrick’s Day” and visions of Corned Beef, Cabbage, green applesauce—and Tums pop into my head.

Say “Thanksgiving” and the menu switches to crispy golden roasted turkey, cranberry, stuffing, creamy gravy and pie, glorious pie, dance though our heads.

Say “Summertime” and it’s all about fruit, fruit cobbler, fruit crisp, fruit swirls, fruit juice dripping from chins…and pie. (Anytime of year is all about pie.)

Peas and pie are what led to this prompt.

Poetry Challenge #62

Please Pass the Peas!

Take a moment to imagine your favorite feast. What foods are on your table?

If you’re like me, that feast is going to include…you guessed it: pie! Several kinds of pie.

Maybe even this four-layer PieCaken sis-in-law Valarie suggested we try, specially created for those of us who can’t decide which kind of pie to choose. It’s One layer of pumpkin, one spice cake, one pecan pie, frosted together with buttercream and topped with apple pie filling. Yum! https://www.oprah.com/food/whats-inside-a-piecaken

However . . .

The characters in Ethan Long’s picture book FANGSGIVING are definitely not traditional. However they kind of are as they served up pie, too—pumpkin pie with maggot meatballs thrown in.”

Now it’s your turn:

In the spirit of whirled peas, imagine you are some alternate reality  or you are some other creature. An animal for instance, or an alien . . . or maybe even a monster! What would your favorite feast be?

Take a moment to imagine all the fantastical foods your creature would love. Whip those words into a feast of a poem!

For the title, fill in the blank with whatever creature you are:

Please Pass the _______________

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

YUMMY! (So is this book!)

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 3100 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!

Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email?  Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).

Read More
7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett 7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett

Poetry Challenge #63-Five Books High

Do you have a pile of books? I always have a stack that I want to read. Sometimes it grows so large I’m afraid it will fall on me and hurt!

Here’s a snap of the top 5 Picture Books on my to read/reread stack:

One solution to the overflowing book issue is to use them to solve decor issues (preferably after you’ve read them):

Or use all those books to solve housing issues…

Since, as the song goes “It never rains in Southern California…

In San Diego and other places, tiny houses are a viable solution for the housing shortage—

Here are the top 5 books in Cindy’s to read stack. (Notice a difference?):

Poetry Challenge #63

Five Books High

For this prompt, take a look at a stack of five books or five books on a shelf—yours, mine, Cindy’s, someone else’s….

Take the first word (not A or THE) and write it down. Use these words in a poem.

Here is one poem resulting from our practice prompt. The selected words from books titles in that stack were: cool    miracle    spell    tamed    bird

And here’s the untitled poem:

Watching the sun go down

was a cool miracle,

a study in pink and orange and red,

a mystical spell

that tamed the world.

And like the evening bird,

we sang one last word.

Your turn!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it. I’ll be waiting on my book couch…

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 3200 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!

Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email?  Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).

Read More
Ask Norman Kelly Bennett Ask Norman Kelly Bennett

Fin Pal Asks: Are you having a good life, Norman?

Ask Norman HERE

Ask Norman HERE

IMG_3374.jpg

In case this is your first time visiting, Norman is a “Star” fish!

(Really he’s a goldfish) & a “star” because he is a main character in these books. Click on the bookcover and the link will take you to the read-aloud of NORMAN ONE AMAZING GOLDFISH.

Ask Norman

Hey Kids!

Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter



Read More
7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett 7-Minute Poetry Challenge Kelly Bennett

Poetry Challenge #61-Riffing Off Queen

We Will, We Will ______(Fill in the blank).

If you finished that phrase with ROCK YOU then this post will be right up your alley.

If you didn’t then go directly to your viewing device of choice and watch Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic about Freddy Mercury and Queen.

Freddy Mercury at his Zenith

…”caught in a landslide, no escape from___________(another test).

Not to give anything away (we all know Queen was a success) a high point in the movie comes when the band is plays its first stadium concert. They look out over the crowd and realize everyone in the stadium is playing-singing-performing with them! According to the movie, this prompts Brian Mays to create songs for the audience to perform. And thus, the blockbuster anthem We Will Rock You came to be.

Whether you know the lyrics or not, everyone knows the rhythm:

stomp-stomp clap/stomp-stomp clap/baam-baam boom!

Poetry Challenge #61

Riffing Off Queen

Write a rhythmic poem about something that rocks you. Or, about a rock… or a rolling stone (if you like Dylan or the Stones better).

First, set that classic We Will Rock You rhythm in your head by actually, physically, pounding out the beat: stomp-stomp clap/stomp-stomp clap/baam-baam boom.

Continue pounding out the beat as you compose each line of the poem.

Who knows, you may create another best selling song—at least have fun trying! Rock on!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 3200 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!

Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email?  Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).

Read More