Poetry Challenge #77-Heave-Ho!
Sing-Alongs are always challenging—and sometimes embarrassing—even for me. (And those of you who know me, know I love to sing—badly.) The worst is when someone sticks a microphone in my face and I don’t know the words. That’s when I resort to the trusty mumble-mumble-murmer-murmer— la-di-dah-daaaaaaaa
My Best Friend’s Wedding Classic!
Songwriters who like audiences who sing-along— pirate ship captives & those wanting tips, for example—make singing along easier by writing song with repeated refrains—the more often repeated the better. Which brings me to today’s prompt.
Poetry Challenge #77
Heave-Ho! Chant-She-Blows!
“The chant poem is about as old as poetry itself,” writes Robert Lee Brewer in his Oct. 23, 2012 post. “Chant poems simply incorporate repetitive lines that form a sort of chant. Each line can repeat [as they do in Blues’ songs], or every other line [as in a Sea Shanty].” Sailors sang shanties as they rowed or heaved on ropes to keep everyone working at the same pace. It’s believed “Shanty” is a morphism of “chanty” meaning both the type of song and a name for the sailor who leads the singing. By way of an example, below is a Chant Poem Cindy created.
“Snow fell this morning, soft and white and cold,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.
I liked it more before I got so old,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.
I left the city a long time ago,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.
Now I hear sounds of birds—the caws of crows,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.”
Follow these three easy steps to create your own Chant Poem—Or “Shanty” if you will!
Find a headline in a newspaper or magazine that you like the sound of. That will be your chant.
Write a four line rhyming poem where the first 2 lines rhyme and the last 2. AABB
Insert the chant between each line of your rhyming poem and you have a chant poem.
“They know a song will help the job along…”
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 more than 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 poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #75-Scramble Poetry
Have you played a game where you’re given some letters and you have to see how many words you can make out of them? Bananagrams and Scrabble are two family favorites. For today’s prompt, let’s start there and push it further.
Poetry Challenge #75
Anagram Poetry
For today’s poem, begin with a title. Create a poem from words you can make by rearranging the letters in the title.
You might want to spend a few minutes listing words ala an anagram game before you start writing.
Come up with your own title or use one of these:
A Walk in the Garden
Birds Fly over My House
The Bus is Late--Again
Snow Falls in Silent Forests
Here’s Cindy’s attempt:
“The Last Time I Went to Town
The last time
I went to town,
the lawn was mown.
I lost a shoe,
the steam was mean.
It went to
a test to see what the mist meant.
Now was the time to stow meat low.
In the lost mantle, I settle.”
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 3000 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 and be sure to tag @kellybennettwrites
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Poetry Challenge #73-Contrapuntality of Life
I love music, love singing, love listening—am lousy at playing music. Yes, I’ve tried. I took piano lessons from 13-17 and finally, when I could not grasp the concept of “chords” my teacher wrote me off as hopeless. But that doesn’t stop me! (My current challenge is a ukulele…I’m trying to learn using the “think system” ala Prof. Harold Hill.)
Poetry Challenge #73
Contrapuntality of Life
Contrapuntal is defined as two or more independent melodic lines in music. You can write a contrapuntal poem by combining two independent poems—one line of one and then one line of another. Try it!
1) Find two poems you’ve written that are of a similar length.
2) Alternate your poems by writing one line of one and then one line of the other. If it doesn’t seem to be working, try it using the opposite one first.
3) Change what you need to change to make sense. Sometimes that’s just capital letters and punctuation, but sometimes you might need to add or delete a word.
Here’s what came of Cindy melding two poems.
“I could have made dinner tonight, but instead
alone with the elements of craft,
I read a good book and cleaned under the bed.
I wonder why
I sorted my yarn and picked up the craft table
to grow this garden better.
I folded the laundry and now I’m not able
to cook any food.
Outside the window, there’s crackers and cheese
and fruit if you like.
I see my history.
I’ll have some please.”
Now it’s your turn!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Langston Hughes’ collection of Jazz poetry—did it come from exercises like these? I like to think so!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years ago. We 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 on my social @kellybennettwrites.
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Poetry Challenge #74-I Am From . . .
A few years back, we shared a prompt inspired by the I Am From Project, celebrating our unique voices through poetry (my summation of the project, not the official word.). The project’s goal was “to create a national river of voices, reminding America that diversity is our origin and our strength.” I Am From Project invited us—all of us—to share our stories and rejoice in the experiences—different and the same—that make us, U.S.
Poetry Challenge #74
The Stuff of Me
Write a poem describing where you are from, your ancestors, roots, family, and or your own personal journey.
Begin with the words:
Where I’m From . . .
“Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments—
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree. ”
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 3200 days ago and counting . . . 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-Listing Up!
Find this list and more on Growing in the Garden website.
Spring is in full swing. Which for me means the frantic rush between post-winter clean up and pre-summer weeding & planting. A glorious time of year, but hectic—and the rest of life doesn’t slow when the garden goes into hypergrow either.
To keep up, I make lists (and borrow lists like this one.)
Lists are good. Checking items off lists is better.
Lists can help keep our “boats,” in the sometimes rough and rocky ocean, from well…listing and possibly crashing or sinking in the process…
What’s more, lists are easy, which makes them a great way to begin:
Poetry Challenge #71
Listing Up!
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…
Help! My peonies have fallen and can’t get up…in other words, they are listing, too!
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 8 years 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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Totally Cool
Cool to be Busy or Hip to be Boring?
Yesterday morning, on hold with a ticketing agent, while reading email and checking Instagram, this article entitled, Cool to be Busy, popped up. I didn’t have time to read more than the headline just then—the operator clicked on—had too much going on to get back to it, later, so I never learned where the article went. But, maybe I didn’t need to know . . .
California Dreaming:
As a teen in Southern California, in The Beach Boys 70s, in Huntington Beach, when “sunscreen” meant sitting on the shady side of Lifeguard Stand #5, it was cool to be busy. (Having nothing to do, nowhere to go, was just sad, dude.) We were totally cool, and kept ourselves totally busy—working on our tans.
Being tan was cool & tanning was a job. Job performance was judged by our tan lines. Fading was not an option! “Tanning” was a top item on our To-Do lists. An overachiever even then, I put in my hours and then some “working” on my tan. Which, even I’ll admit, was a pretty mindless task. As long as I minded the sun’s position, turned & basted accordingly, I was free to mentally pass the time doing whatever I liked: reading, dozing, people watching, daydreaming.
Grandboys at the Lake
I was trying to find a snap of my kids back when but the photos have all gone yellow—yes it was that long ago…
Lazy, crazy, hazy daze of Momming:
Later, as a mother in the 80s and 90s, in “Bring on those babies” Tulsa, Oklahoma, “Momming”—Play Dates, Swim Lessons, T-Ball, Soccer, Dance—replaced “Tanning” on my to-do list. While the name had changed, commitment-wise “Mom events” were much the same as Tanning: schedules chunks of the day during which, aside from tossing out cautions or cheers, depending, my job was to be there. And while I was there, mentally pass the time however I wanted: reading, dozing, chatting, people watching, daydreaming.
Fast Forward to Now:
If busy is cool, I am the Coolest! But, busy cool now doesn’t make me feel as chill as back then, it just makes me tired. Why?
Now, looking back on those golden unplugged days of yore, I miss having “Tanning” and “Momming” on my To-Do list! Not that I miss having to doing them. “Tanning” and “Momming” were definitely not Free Time. I wasn’t free to go or do what I wanted. (After all, my job was to minding my tan, or my children, depending.) Because the nature of the tasks, “Tanning” and “Momming” required me to be some place physically, while mentally leaving me free to do or think—or not—as I pleased, call it ME TIME.
(As I define it, ME TIME is some scheduled time in the day when I absolutely cannot Go or Do or Produce anything for any purpose other than to pass the time.)
So, if “Cool to be Busy,” is cool! It’s time I played it real cool by getting busy, getting in some ME TIME. How about you?
Scheduling Me Time:
Step 1: Take an honest look at your weekly schedule and find a slot for ME TIME. (How much time depends on you, your schedule, and your guilt threshold.)
Step 2: Don’t take NO! Find Time—15 minutes here, 10 minutes there, half-an-hour on a Sunday—Time you would, or could, or used-to reserve for _____________ (Insert your equivalent of “Tanning”).
Step 3: Imagine yourself laying on the beach, slathered in Bain de Soleil. Don’t move or you’ll muss your tan lines! Don’t touch or you’ll get sand in your device! Can’t scroll cause there’s sun glare on the screen!
Step 4: What’s left? List things you want to/enjoy/miss that you don’t allow time for now. For Example:
Reading for fun
daydreaming
baseball games
People Watch
Taking a nap
Organize photos
Stamp Collection
Write letters/cards
Build a model airplane
Work a puzzle
Watch the grass grow
Work on your non-tan (SPF 100 & hat mandatory)
Be Totally Cool!
Totally Cool Playlist:
Poetry Challenge #69-The Sound of Silence
I’m writing this in the wee small hours of the morning, when, as David Mann wrote, “the whole wide world is fast asleep (sing it Frank).
Schools and businesses are closed. There’s no traffic. The world is silent.
And that got me thinking: What exactly 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.
Shhhhhhhhhhh. Listen.
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!)
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years 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 #3-Party Time!
Hurrah! Happy to have you with me. You know the drill (and if you don't it's easy enough): Grab a pen, a paper, your timer, and--why not!--a party hat!
Poetry Challenge #3
PARTY TIME!
In honor of poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, and children's author Shel Silverstein's whose birthday isn’t for months (Sept 25, 1930) but we are celebrating now anyway, just because…
Write a silly-funny poem about a made-up animal--or the perfect birthday party.
For inspiration, read one of Shel Silverstein's Birthday poems:
Set the timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Write a poem, paragraph, or story. If the prompt moves you, follow it. If it sparks something else, go with it! Our 7-Minute Poetry Challenge is not about writing great poetry; or writing what is expected; it’s not even about writing anything good. It’s about one thing, writing IT!
And, if you do join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge be sure to let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole dang poem, in the comments!
And for a real treat, celebrate by reading one of Shel Silverstein's books!
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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
