Poetry Challenge #202-Got Milk... Chocolate?
When was the last time you reached into a fridge and chugged chocolate milk? Or savored a chunk of chocolate. If, like me, it’s been too long (more than 24 hours) It’s time! Today, July 28th is National Milk Chocolate Day ! (If you missed it consider this your rain check.)
The first use of the term milk chocolate dates back to 1687 when a beverage made from milk and chocolate was introduced to the people of London. While the first chocolate bar was created in 1847, it was dark chocolate. The first milk chocolate bar appeared in 1875 in Switzerland which quickly became known for making the best chocolates. By 1900, chocolate was universal.
Poetry Challenge #202
Got Milk . . . Chocolate, that is!
What is your favorite chocolate treat?* A specific candy bar? Chocolate cake? Hot fudge?
Describe it in great detail. What does it look like? Taste like? Feel like? How does it make you feel?
Try using similes or metaphors--______ is like ___________.
Make your reader’s mouth water. Make them want your chocolate treat.
(If you really truly deeply…madly don’t like chocolate, poem a treat you do you like.)
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
I’m off to the kitchen—store—to find…Chocolate!!!
Serious Chocoholics take the Chocolate Challenge: Cadbury vs. Hershey’s vs. Dove vs. Godiva. Then click to insider.com to see how your results match up.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 5 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. This is INCREDIBLE NUMBER 201! 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.
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All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #201-If Billy Can, Then I Can too!
Hey, if Billy Can do it…
Today, in case you need an excuse—or permission—is National Junk Food Day (July 21st). However…contrary to what the good child in you is thinking, this is not a day set aside to “raise awareness” of junk food so we’ll stop eating so much.
Absolutely not! Much perhaps, to Michael Jacobsen’s chagrin. This day, and every July 21st, is unabashedly set aside for the sole purpose of cramming as much junk food into our already junk-filled bodies as we possibly can.
Chips! Soda! Candy-candy-candy here I come!
Poetry Challenge #201
If Billy Can, So Can We!
Billy Collins is a thief! Yes, the former U.S Poet Laureate freely and openly admits that he steals poem by taking the first two lines of someone else’s poem and “rewrite it for them.” So while we’re gleefully breaking all the nutrition laws by indulging in “junk porn” (another of Jacobsen’s terms), let’s add theft to our list of crimes.
For “Litany,” a love poem of metaphors comparing the person of affection with food and more, Billy Collins stole the first two lines of Jacques Crickillon’s untitled poem:
You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon
For our poem let’s spatter, smother, cover Litany with junk food metaphors. But rather than leaving those first lines intact as Collins did, let’s follow Maria’s advice from The Sound of Music. Let the junk feast begin at “the very best place to start” The Beginning! Fill in the blanks and then slather it on:
You are the ___________ and the ___________
The _______________ and the ____________
. . . and so on and so forth . . .
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Now that you’re cravings for junk food are sated—or maybe while indulging—treat yourself to Billy Collins reading “Litany”!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1900 days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. This is INCREDIBLE NUMBER 201! 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
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #200-Mac & Cheese, Please!
What’s for lunch? Dinner? Breakfast? Dessert? Of all days, today, July 14th, there’s only one right answer:
Mac & Cheese please!
Today, July 14th, National Macaroni and Cheese Day is about the melding of two ooey-gooey favorites: pasta and cheese. What’s more, it’s also National Nude Day and Bastille Day—imagine that 3-way mash up . . . hmmmm . . . Viva La France! . . . moving on . . .
Naked Bike Ride pre-Cape Town Argus. Disclaimer: we did not participate
Poetry Challenge #200
Mac and Cheese, Please!
Macaroni and Cheese go together much better than Macaroni and Peas. Or Macaroni and Knees. Maybe Macaroni makes you…sneeze? wheeze? Oh, please!!!
Today, write a silly poem about two things that go together—with a twist. Change one thing. Make your poem rhyme in silly ways. Make up words if you need to.
You can choose your own pair of things that go together or use one from the list below.
salt & pepper bread & butter
peanut butter & jelly pen & pencil
bacon & eggs hammer & nail
batman & robin needle & thread
shoes & socks sugar & spice
Or try the July 14th 3 -way mash up of Bastille Day & Nude Day & Mac-n-Cheese!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
When you’re finished, treat yourself: Mac & Cheese Ice Cream anyone??
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1900 days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. This is INCREDIBLE NUMBER 200! 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
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #199-Strawberry Sundae Sunday aka One Scoop or Two?
While the proper spelling might be debatable: Sundae vs Sunday; the exact recipe might vary: One scoop or two? Cherry or no cherry on top?; and its origin is up for dispute: Two Rivers, Wisconsin in 1881 or Ithaca, New York in 1892; one thing is for certain:
Ice cream with crushed strawberries & a dollop of cream tastes like summertime!
Poetry Challenge #199
Strawberry Sundae Sunday—One Scoop or Two?
Write a poem inspired by a Strawberry Sunday or Strawberry Sundae—ending and meaning of the word “Sunday/ae” is up to you.
Include sensory words and details to make your poem taste as good as it sounds.
Close your eyes and repeat after me: Strawberry Sunday, Strawberry Sundae…
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And, since it’s National Strawberry Sundae Day (July 7th) treat yourself! Click on the image below for DelishKids Strawberry Bites recipe!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1900 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): SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #198-More Stars! More Wishes!
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a . . .
“Supercat” by Cristina Borobia
No… It’s a meteor shower. When you wish upon a star . . . faster! More stars! More wishes—
Meteor showers—the kind that light up the sky with fast moving bits of light also known as shooting stars—are the result of debris shed by passing comets. The comets passed 100-200 years ago and left a trail of dirt and rocks and ice particles behind. When this debris—some the size of a grain of sand—drift into Earth’s orbit, the burst into flame in a display similar to fireworks.
Poetry Challenge #198
Meteor Stars! More Wishes!
For today’s poem, write a shape poem about meteors*, shooting stars, comets, orbits, or fireworks. Make your poem look like its topic.
When it gets dark, be sure to get outside and watch for evidence of a comet’s passing.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
*Why today? Because June 30th is National Meteor Watch Day!
For more information about meteors and meteor showers and when to see them best here’s a stellar article from NYT Science.
Look up! and . . . Make a Wish!
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.
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Poetry Challenge #197-In The Pink?
Are you in the pink? Hope so? If you’re feeling blue, seeing red, a little green around the gills (or green with envy), time to pull out the paint pallet and mix it up for today is National Pink Day! Yep! June 23rd is set aside as a day to bust out the pink!
Legend has it that sometime in the last 17th century (back, evidently, when the world was all black, white, and primary colors), someone waxing lyrical (or frustrated with the English language), pointed to a dianthus flower named “pink” and said “that color.” Shazaam! The color “pink” was born.
From there, Pink, ever vibrant, varied, nuanced a word as it is a color, went on to mean so much more!
Pink in Roses:
Dark Pink Roses: If you want to express appreciation, gratitude, or to say thank you.
Medium Pink Roses: If you have a first love, want to congratulate someone or want to cheer up a friend who’s grieving or healing.
Light Pink Roses: If you want to show gentleness and admiration.
Poetry Challenge #197
In the Pink
Because “pink” is much too much for only one option, for this prompt choose your own pink to explore in poem. Here are some options. Surely one will tickle you, well…pink!
· Explore one or more meanings of the word pink in a poem.
· Write a about a day you felt “in the pink” what did you do? Who were you with? Where did you go?
· List all the shades of pink you can and blend them into a poem.
· Describe a pink person, place or thing.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just get with the pink!
Puffed up proudly pink now that you’ve created your poem? Here are ways the National Pink Day Calendar suggests celebrating: #NationalPinkDay
Use pink in a sentence.
Plant or give some pink flowers.
Dye your eyebrows pink.
Color or paint something pink.
Earn a pink ribbon by donating to Breast Cancer Awareness!
Feeling in the Pink Playlist:
“Theme from the Pink Panther” of course! Take it away Henry Mancini!
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 #196-Simple Poem of Freedom
Juneteenth! Jubilee Day! Liberty Day! Freedom Day! is this Saturday, June 19th. That’s the official day marking the end of slavery in Texas and the United States. About 2 months after the end of the Civil War, on June 19th, 1865, U.S. General Gordon Granger march into Galveston, Texas and read General Orders No. 3:
The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.
Saying-proclaiming-making laws—declaring slaves free—is not the same as doing it. As U.S. History since June 19, 1985 has shown, we the people have repeatedly, in myriad ways—social, fiscal, political, physical—tried to maintain slavery. Finally, now—again?—awareness that the U.S. Constitution’s promise to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity is resulting in active change in support of all peoples’ rights. Let’s join the Juneteenth Celebration with, to paraphrase Bobby Darin , a simple poem for freedom.
Poetry Challenge #196
Poem of Freedom
In celebration of Juneteenth, write a poem of freedom. It might be a prayer, a hope, a promise, but, in the spirit of Bobby Darin’s Simple Song of Freedom, try writing it in the form of a chant or song. To do that write:
A rhythmic stanza of at least 4 lines (rhyming or not),
A rhyming refrain (of at least 2 lines)
Another rhythmic stanza in the form of the first.
Continue the pattern: stanza-refrain-stanza as long as you’d like. End your poem of freedom with the refrain or a riff on the refrain.
Let Freedom—for all—ring!
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 #194-Make Mine Rocky Road
It’s June! Summertime searches for the best ice cream have begun!
Today we’re honoring Rocky Road ice cream.* This smooth chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts & marshmallow. Is your mouth watering?
Mix up your own rocky road ice cream blend and sneak in whatever you like—we do!
Poetry Challenge #194
Make Mine Rocky Road
While on the subject of ice cream, what do you like better—soft serve or hard? What’s your favorite kind? What’s the strangest flavor you’ve seen?
For this poem, pick a flavor. Think about what ingredients are in your ice cream. Make a list of 5 or more words associated with that flavor—one word on each line. (Be sure to put the flavor first.) Use the words in your list as the first word in each line of a poem.
Here’s Cindy’s list for Rocky Road. You can use this list or make your own to write a poem:
Rocky
Road
chocolate
almond
mini
marshmallow
Hurry! You have 7 minutes before it melts!
*Why today? Because June 2nd is National Rocky Road Day. William Dreyer of Dreyer’s Ice Cream fame, is credited with blending his partner Joseph Edy’s chocolate confection of chopped nuts & marshmallow with his ice cream to create a new flavor sometime in the late 1920s. And while Americans claim the name Rocky Road was given “to bring smiles to faces during the Great Depression,” Australian’s claim it’s named for the Rocky Road gold hunters traveled. Since Australia’s version of Rocky Road candy dates back to 1863, they win. BTW: Rocky Road candy is said to have been created by George Ferrin as a way to sell confections damaged during the long trip from Europe—he mixed the broken candied fruits, marshmallows, etc with locally-grown nuts and cheap chocolate to disguise the flavour.”
George Ferrin’s “Rocky Road” would have looked like this…Yum!
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