Poetry Challenge #257 Love Those Toes
If my feet are happy, everybody’s happy!
Beat the pavement!
Hit the road!
Ants go Marching…Hurrah! Hurrah!
Happy National I Love My Feet Day! (Aug 17th)
Poetry Challenge #257
Hi-Ho Hi-Ho Off to the Market We Go!
What’s in those Mystery Cans?
Imagine yourself off to the market to buy several items—on foot! Important items. Forgetting even one item on the list could mean big trouble for you—terrible terrible trouble. What do you do?
Make a list—but dang. No phone. That means making a mental list.
Turn the list into a poetic march by rearranging items into iambic feet: I am/I am/I am . . . Poet’s choice how many feet on each line.
You might need to change/substitute/rename some items on your list for others that follow fit the iambic pattern. Be creative.
Hint: numbers one through ten have one hard/stressed syllable. Pity the poet whose list includes eleven of anything.
When your poem if finished try marching it out…maybe all the way to the market!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Be kind to your feet, for if you let them, they will take you far!
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.
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Poetry Challenge#256 S'More Please?
When was the last time you made a s’more? Two points if you used the microwave. Seriously, it’s possible! When was the last time you made a s’more? Two points if you used the microwave. Seriously, it’s possible! Although lacking the depth of flavor of its fire-roasted nee charred campfire cooked flavor of the original graham cracker-marshmallow-chocolate concoction—microwave S’mores are mighty tasty. According to limited resources, the first S’more recipe was published in the 1927 guide, Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts, when you’re finished you might want s’more. Happy S’More Day (Aug 10th)!
Poetry Challenge #256
S’more Please!
The original name for the campfire dessert created by sandwiching hot roasted marshmallow and chocolate between graham cracker squares was “Some More,” probably because that’s what anyone who ever tasted one said.
No telling when and who first slurred “Some Mores” into S’more, the Girl Scouts adopted the contracted name in the ‘70s. So let’s go with it.
Building on the name, S’more, write a poem about something you’ve only done once and would love to do again. And, in honor of the person, possibly talking around a mouthful of marshmallow, who first contracted “Some More” into “S’more,” use as many contractions in your poem as possible.
A contraction is made by replacing a letter or letters in a word with an apostrophe. Usually, a contraction uses the remaining letters of the original words. For inspiration, here’s a list of some uncommon contractions:
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
When you’re finished whip up a batch of ooey-gooey s’mores and reread your poem while savoring s’more s’mores!
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):
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Poetry Challenge #255-Watermelon Daze
It’s Watermelon Season! Watermelon at my local patch is selling for 3 cents a pound. 3 cents—pick your own. How could I resist? My favorite way to serve watermelon is as a salad. Cut the watermelon from the rind, cube it, toss it with fresh mint, lime juice and feta cheese crumbles—cool, crisp, tangy-and just a hint of salt…delish!
Ready for more?
Poetry Challenge #255
Watermelon Daze
One way to come up with an idea for a poem is to start with a noun. Today in honor of National Watermelon Day, August 3rd, let’s use WATERMELON.
Think of ways to describe a watermelon and jot them down—its color, shape, texture, taste, smell, use.
Think of ways to compare it to something else—it looks like…feels like…tastes like…
Think of what watermelon reminds you of—when, where, why, what memories do you have?
Finally, write a poem using the best things you discovered while you were answering the watermelon questions.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Don’t forget to spit out the seeds!
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 . . .
Poetry Challenge #254-Love is Kind
Because, as evidenced by our daily dose of news, kindness must be a learned behavior, July 27th has been designated National Love is Kind Day, a day set aside to “encourages you to become aware of how you are treating people, how people are treating you, and how you can become emboldened, supported, and empowered to lead the joyful and productive life.”
Poetry Challenge #254
Love Is Kind
Write an echo verse with “Love is Kind” as the theme.
An Echo Verse is one in which the last word or syllable in a line is repeated on the next line. In essence, that last word/sound is “echoed underneath to form a rhyming line, normally ending as the last line being the title to the poem.”
Below is an example of an Echo Poem YoungWriters.com.
Read it aloud and listen for the echo:
Set the theme of “Love is Kind” in your mind. Then, when you’re ready to begin:
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
After all, every day—especially on Love is Kind Day—What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Burt Bacharach! Hit it Dionne!
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 . . .
Poetry Challenge #253-Lolli-POP!
Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lollipop…
The very popular song Lollipop, written by Julius Dixson and Beverly Ross in 1958, used this line to ear worm its way onto #20 on the pop charts; and later, when the Chordettes covered it to #2 & #3 on Pop and R&B*
The song Lollipop originated when Julius Dixson was late for a songwriting session with Beverly Ross. He explained that his daughter had gotten a lollipop stuck in her hair, and that had caused him to be late. Ross was so inspired by the word "lollipop" that she sat down at the piano and produced a version of the song on the spot. —
Why the fixation on Lollipops? Because July 20th is National Lollipop Day, of course!
*Not to be confused with Lil Wayne’s Lollipop song: Lil Wayne - Lollipop (Audio) Ft. Static Major - YouTube
Here’s the perky Utube Video—Watch and Make this cute Lollies!
Poetry Challenge #253
Lolli-POP!
Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lollipop…
Read it aloud several times and listen to the L’s, the P’s, and the rolling rhythm.
Next, pick a different three-syllable word and make your own refrain, being sure to repeat a word or syllables.
Once you have your refrain, try to write at least 2 verses, repeating your refrain.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
All puckered up for a tasty read? Check out Rukhsana Khan’s Big Red Lollipop with art by Sophie Blackall.
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 . . .
Poetry Challenge #252-There Was a Good Old Cow . . .
A few years back on a tour of Margaret River, Australia’s wine region (near Perth), instead of the expected—kangaroos, wallabies, boomerangs—we stumbled onto painted cows. Everywhere! Along with the cows was some utterly ridiculous Moo-ology. (If you’re curious, I wrote an article about being on the Margaret River Cow Parade entitled “Where’s the Cow, Mate?” for Now! Jakarta Magazine. Moooore on that in the magazine (which I highly recommend!)
For today, because it’s National Cow Appreciation Day, July 13th, here’s some Moo-ology:
“MOO-OLOGY FROM MARGARET RIVER
Cow-operation for co-operation
Sh-udder, as in “I sh-udder to think about it.”
Cow-herd, as in “don’t be such a cow-herd, try some more…”
Cow-L-neck, as in “I’m chilly; I think I’ll change into my cow-L-neck sweater.”
Curd-yah, as in “curd-yah please mooove out of the way, I’m trying to snap a picture.”
Let’s moooooooove it!
Better hoof it on out a here. Cheers, Mate!”
Poetry Challenge #242
It Was a Good Old Cow . . .
Write an elegy about a cow. An elegy is a poem or song expressing sadness or grief. Write your elegy in three parts.
An elegy is lyrical but does not necessarily rhyme.
Part #1 Express grief
Part #2 Praise for the departed
Part #3 Comfort and support
If you’re at a loss as to how to begin, begin with this snippet of an elegy my mom used to sing to my brother and me on road trips:
It was a good old cow . . .
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And if you’re really keen on cows, this month’s Visual Verse Anthology prompt might really mooove you… But hurry, submissions must be in by July 15th!
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 . . .
Poetry Challenge #251-Roll of the Dice
Know who coined the idiom “The die is cast”?
If you answered Shakespeare, thinking it one of the many idioms and phrases William Shakespeare coined for his plays, think again. It was Julius Caesar, and no not in the Shakespeare play either. The real Julius Caesar.
Technically, according to my go-to, Writing Explained.org, Roman historian, Suetonius, said, what Caesar said was Alea iacta est, the Latin phrase meaning “die is cast.” The year was 49 B.C and Caesar had just entered Italy with his army, thus starting a civil war.
Since then, the saying “the die is cast,” has come to mean that the dice—literal six-sided gaming cubes—had been thrown and whatever numbers had come up were the numbers that would be played. For Caesar it meant that it was too late to stop the war from beginning. He had already disobeyed orders, and he must win the war if he wanted to keep his life. On that cheery note, let’s toss some dice!
Poetry Challenge #251
Roll The Dice!
Topics for poems are all around us, but sometimes we don’t know how to start.
This is a simple exercise you can use as many times as necessary to create a structure for a poem.
Roll a pair of dice. The lower number indicates how many words should be on each line. The higher number indicates how many lines in the poem.
(If you don’t have dice, you can use the A-6 cards in a deck of cards. Or use a number generator on the computer. Or make slips of paper with the numbers 1-6 on them and draw numbers from a hat…)
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Warm up the dice with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s song “Roll the Dice”! It’s a winner!
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 . . .
Poetry Challenge #250 Crunchy Toffee
Butter Crunch, English Toffee, crumbled Heath Bars . . . just thinking about it makes my teeth tingle. If like me, you love almond butter crunch anything, any time, any way, this is your lucky day! National Almond Butter Crunch Day (June 19th)!
So nice of the powers that be to declare gorging on crumbled almonds, toffee bits and chocolate mandatory!
See’s Toffee-ettes® are my fav! Hint-Hint!
Poetry Challenge #250
Butter Crunch
Almond Butter Crunch. It sounds good. It tastes good. If you repeat the words, they have a distinct rhythm—especially if you repeat the last word several times.
CRUNCH crunch Crunch Crunch
CRUNCH crunch Crunch
CRU uNCH . . .
Write a sound rhythm poem using the words “almond butter crunch”. You can add other ingredients: maybe other kinds of ice cream or ingredients for a sundae.
Use repetition to get the beat you want.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
And because you know you want to, treat yourself to some Almond Butter Crunch. This Almond Popcorn Crunch recipe by Queenkungfu is only half the calories—after all it is popcorn!
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 . . .