Poetry Challenge #50-Ode to the Lone (Ly)
“DON’T USE ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS TO PRETIFY YOUR PROSE!” The warning—BOLD & ALL CAPS—is issued at least once, in ever writing class. So much so, that it’s the title of a Writers’ Digest article expounding the excellence of Raymond Carver via his teacher John Gardner’s leaner-is-neater adverb and adjective-free prose.
If "Ly" were a dog, this is him. Sad.
Following in Carver/Gardner's footsteps has let us to “cast a suspicious eye on these forms of speech because many times they add little to what is already on the page.” As a result those ly-ending adverbs (and adjectives*) we once sprinkled throughout our prose as liberally as we sugared our Lucky Charms have been unnecessarily shunned, ignominiously tossed aside, and relegated extremely disposable.
A sign, at the entrance to the Cooper Hewitt Museum's exhibition “Design Beyond Vision” caused me to wonder: Where have all the adverbs gone? Long time passing . . . What has become of those lowly, loathsome “Ly”s? They are, frankly, lonely.
Here's the juicy sign. What's missing?
Hence today’s battle cry and prompt: Down with Understated. Let’s bravely go where no adverb has gone before…(or at least not for a long, long time.)
Poetry Challenge #50
Ode for Lonely "Ly"
Let’s write an adverb poem. Begin with the simplest sentence: A subject and a verb. For example: Jack ran. Mary ate. Unicorn flew.
Now ask yourself “how?” or “when?” or “Where?” Answer by adding an adverb. Repeat that adverb and ask “how?” Answer with another adverb.
Keep repeating this pattern, asking “how?” or “when?” or “where?” and answering with adverbs, one after the other after the other after the other, until you’ve used all the adverbs you want. Then, bring it to a rousing—or not—finish.
As an example, here’s my effort:
Your turn!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Ode For Lonely "Ly" Playlist:
Link to the article “Don’t Use Adjectives and Adverbs to Prettify Your Prose”
Where Have all the Adverbs Gone by Peter, Paul & Mary
Ode to the Lowly [Ly] by Roy Orbison
**To paraphrase McArthur and Arnold: “Adjectives! We’ll be back!”
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
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Poetry Challenge #9-Time for a Cool Change
The Spring Clock is ticking! Blossoms are busting out all over North America! It’s almost time. This Sunday, March 10, Daylight Savings Time 2024 begins.
Saturday night tick-tock change your clocks! Spring Forward!
Once the clocks reach 2 a.m. CST, they will "spring" forward to 3 a.m.
(Or if you live in the few places in the US that don’t Spring Forward take note.)
If you wonder why these places don’t observe DST, here’s the reason. As for the rest of us . . .
Yes! Daylight Savings Time, Spring Forward does mean you’ll lose an hour of sleep…
. . . But you will also gain an hour to what???
Poetry Challenge #10
Time for a Cool Change
Spring is a time of change, regrowth, renewal.
When you think of spring changes that are coming…or changes you might make…what springs to mind?
Let’s celebrate by crafting a five-line pyramid poem.
A Pyramid Poem is a five-line poem, growing in line length, 1-2-3-4-5, so the finished poem is shaped like a pyramid. That’s it…
But not so fast! We’ve added some specific instructions for each line. (Note: by definition a Pyramid Poem doesn’t have to have these specifics, but we’re changing things up.)
Line 1: 1 word (a noun)
Line 2: 2 words (include a description)
Line 3: 3 words (include sensory)
Line 4: 4 words (include action)
Line 5: 5 words (surprise)
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
For inspiration here’s the Little River Band singing “Time for a Cool Change.”
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Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2700+ 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):
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 . . .
What inspires me #4 Two Thousand One Hundred Ten
Babe with Little Ray Kelly
2110 whoopee! Not talking dollars. Or baseball. Although I do love baseball. And I do have a baseball book forthcoming next spring: The House Babe Ruth Built, a celebration of Babe Ruth’s historic first homer in baseball’s first stadium, comes out Spring 2022 from Familius, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the original Yankee Stadium (more about that later).
Today I’m reposting this cat I let out of the bag 1710 days ago. PSSSSSSSST It’s been a secret! A secret-secret I’ve been doing that now, on this 2110th day, I'm Celebrating! Cue the Band!
“...be kind to your fine feathered friends/for a duck maybe some-body’s mo-th-er!”
For 2110 consecutive days, midst three moves, construction, vacations, births, goodbyes, hellos, and oh no! I have generated a poem a day.
No, I am not going to share any of my poems here, now. (You're safe...for now!}
No, I did not do it alone!
Nor would I ever have imagined getting to day 2110. That's why I'm telling you about it.
Is there something you've been meaning to try, but haven't?
Perhaps a personal goal? Maybe a resolution? Do you keep saying to yourself, as I have/do/probably will again: "I'll start next week" . . . "After the holiday, really" . . . "Tomorrow." . . Tomorrow. . . tomorrow. . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . .
What's the Gimmick? Gotta Have Skin in the Game.
Here's what I mean: I committed to the challenge with a friend. The rules of the game were set in writer's blood (aka "Ink"). We pledged to email or text our assignments to each other every day by midnight. Or else...
It's that "Or Else" that made the difference.
Rewards & Consequences: Some folks respond better to positive reinforcement. I've shared previously how my author-mentor-friend the late Paula Danziger bought herself pieces of amber jewelry but...gave them to her editor to hold until she met a deadline. In order to get SE Hinton to write her second novel (after The Outsiders), her then boyfriend waited each day for her to finish her pages. Others reward themselves by putting dollars into a honey pot. (Big bucks!)
Rewards do not work for me. It is too easy not to pay myself. Nor have I yet found a payoff big enough (and attainable) to entice me to do anything...and I mean An-ny-thing!
I need Consequences, penalties, shame. That's what motivates me. Deadlines with consequences. So, in order to insure that I'd stick with the challenge, I set a penalty a miserable embarrassing consequence. I pledge to complete each days prompt and send it to Cindy by midnight. If failed I vowed to donate $50 to Trump's campaign publically--on Facebook. Pre-election that was the stiffest-realistic-penalty I could imagine. One I was not willing to pay and so, I did the work Every. Single. Day. Here's the 1-2-3 of it:
Set a "realistic" Goal
Set a "clear" Consequence or Reward
Set a Timer (The secret ingredient!) Cindy and I devoted 7 1/2 minutes each day to complete the prompts. That's it 7 1/2 minutes. Read. Set Timer. Go.
I was amazed at what we accomplished in 7 1/2 minutes. GDC: a concrete GOAL, a set DEADLINE, and a CONSEQUENCE for not meeting that deadline was exactly the motivation I needed to stick with the journal, especially through those first couple of days, then weeks, and vacations, and late nights, and yucky prompts. The answer is YES I CAN!
Tomorrow is here. 2110 down, more to go!
Celebrating 2103 Playlist:
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Poetry Challenge #211-Coffee? Tea? Or...
Coffee?
Latte? Americano? Cappuccino? Cold Brew? Espresso?
Why not? After all, it is National Coffee Day (Sept 29). While we’re on the subject:
Lore has it that in the 17th century, one Baba Budan, a Sufi Saint/Monk/Tourist, made the pilgrimage from India to Mecca, and while visiting the Yemen port city of Mocha, was served a drink called “Quahwa” which wowed him. So, even though it was illegal to take green coffee seeds from Arabia, Baba Budan hid 7 green coffee seeds in his beard and smuggled them back home to Mysore. He planted them, they grew, he shared the quahwa with friends, they grew some too, thus bringing coffee to India. Put that in your coffee mill and grind it!
Or… maybe, after all that, you prefer Tea?
Darjeeling, Earl Gray, English Breakfast, chamomile, mint?
or Hot Chocolate?
Raspberry? Mexican? with whipped cream? marshmallows? Fluff?
Rumor has it Starbucks Pumpkin Spice is back!
Poetry Challenge #211
Coffee? Tea? Or . . . What’s Your Pleasure?
Whatever you like to drink, it’s time to make up a new flavor. Write a poem about this flavor and give it a great name. Make us see it, smell it, taste it, and WANT it.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Once you've finished your poem, treat yourself to a cup of your creation and a movie. Here’s more about Baba Budan courtesy of Akara Coffee.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1990+ 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 #192-Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
It’s National Juice Slushie Day! Yes, it really is a thing, celebrated annually on the 3rd Wednesday in May (May 18, 2021). And why not?
What do you get if you put juice and ice in a blender? A Slushie! Orange, cranberry, grape, lemon, lime, the list is open to anything you want to add. Or you could mix them up and see what you get. According to the National Day Calendar, slushies have been around as long as snow!
I hear McDonald’s has teamed up with Minute Maid to introduce a watermelon/strawberry slushie this summer. Can you say Brain Freeze?!!!
Poetry Challenge #`192
Mix-Blend-Whirrrr-Slurp!
Pick two (or three if you dare. Come on! You dare!) poems that are close to the same length. Either your own or other poet(s) poems. Now add them to the poem blender, one line at a time from each.
Read over your new poem.
Add more words (berries) if necessary to make the meaning clear. Cut words that are unnecessary. Turn on the blender and shift lines to make it even better.
Then read and enjoy your Poem Slushie aloud!
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 more than 4 years 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): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #190-Lift Off!
It’s National Astronaut Day! Why May 5th? On this day in 1961, “Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7 Space Capsule. Shepard’s “brief suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,” came in the wake of Cosmonaut Yuri Gargain’s flight orbiting Earth (April 12, 1961). Less than three-weeks later, on May 25th, Pres. JF Kennedy challenged the US to send a man to the moon. The Space Race was on!
Eight years later on July 20th of 1969, only 12 years after Sputnik blasted off, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. And now, more than 50 years later, only 10 other men, from 3 countries, have been to the moon. 65 Women have been sent to space, and we’ve set our sights on Mars…or beyond! The only limits are our imaginations!
At least 10 Astronauts, 2 Cosmonauts & current candidates attended Space Camp as kids. Here’s more!
Poetry Challenge #190
Lift Off!
Imagine yourself an astronaut. With current technology it’s estimated that a trip to Mars would take between 5 and 8 months. What would you do? Think? Feel mid-flight? When you peered out the windows, would you look back? Or forward?
As there’s no gravity in space, it seems fitting to write in free verse. Free Verse poetry does not follow a set rhythm or rhyme scheme, but it does employ literary devices.
Prepare for Lift off!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
3-2-1-BLAST OFF!
National Astronaut Day Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years 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): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
Poetry Challenge #189-Leftovers Again??
In our old house what’s for dinner was never a question: Meatless Monday, Tuna Tuesday, Whatever Wednesday, Taco Thursday (yes, Tuna Noodle Casserole—don’t knock it…), Pizza Friday, Saturday and Sunday Surprise! That was then. Nowadays and since CoVid-19 struck every meal is a mystery. The only thing that’s remained is Whatever Wednesday as in Q: What’s for dinner? A: Whatever you can find. It’s our version of Leftover Night.
Thanks to my sis-in-law Valarie, who forwarded this The New Yorker article by Roz Chast, I’m realizing every house with a fridge has Leftover Night with at least 1700 different names for it. I know because Roz Chast, clever Instagramista @rozchast, took a poll. After reading through some options, I’m changing ours to Touski, the Quebecoise version of leftovers. It’s short for tout ce qui reste, “all that’s left.”
So, from this post on, Tuna Tuesday becomes Touski Tuesday for the way in sounds not because we have many leftovers on Tuesdays. With fridge pickings in mind, Touski Thursday would be better but it’s a tongue twister. And as food is the way to this writer’s soul and the sole purpose of this prompt is using up leftovers, let’s pull out our touskis (Ala Scarlet, the matter of what to do about tuna casserole will wait.)
Poetry Challenge #189
Leftovers Day aka Touski On!
The best thing about Leftovers Day (Touski Tuesday) are the strange combinations you can make into a meal.
The same goes for poems. Read through some old poems and pull out some juicy tidbits. They can be whole lines, phrases, or one special word. Combine your “leftovers” into something new.
Put 7 syllables/words onto the first line and 5 syllables/words onto the second line. Repeat this pattern for the whole poem.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just Toutski!
And, because I know you want—need it: Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole Recipe
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years 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): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL