Poetry Challenge #39-SMILE!
What’s the most popular emoji?
If you answered “smiley face” you win! In fact, in a recent list of the “150 Most Popular Emoji” some variation of the smiley face dominates.
What you may not know is:
Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts created the smiley face in 1963.
That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet.
Don't smile...don't even move...
As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace. Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day®.
Harvey thought that we, all of us, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world. The smiley face knows no politics, no geography and no religion. Harvey’s idea was that for at least one day each year, neither should we. He declared that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day®.
After Harvey died in 2001, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation was created to honor his name and memory. The Foundation continues as the official sponsor of World Smile Day® each year.
“A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you’re at home.”
“A smile is a frown turned upside down.”
Most children get 20 baby teeth, 10 on top, and 10 on the bottom. After those fall out, adult teeth grow in.
How many teeth do most adults have—or start out with, anyway?
Thirty-two. This includes 8 incisors, 4 cuspids, 8 bicuspids, and 8 molars and 4 wisdom teeth*
With that in mind, here’s a prompt to chew on:
Poetry Challenge #39
SMILE!
What makes you smile? How do you feel when someone smiles at you? What are some different kinds of smiles? Or what does a certain someone’s smile look like?
With smiles in mind, write a poem. But not just any poem, let’s stretch really wide for this one. Using bright white toofers as inspiration, write a 5-line poem with an 8-4-8-8-4 pattern: The first line will have eight syllables or words (your choice); the second, 4; the third, 8; the fourth, 8, the last 4—On the subject of smiles
And if you’re feeling creative, turn your Smile poem into a concrete poem by arranging the words so they look like a smile.
After all: “Life is more worthwhile when you smile!”
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
“Smile: It's Free Therapy”—Douglas Horton. If that’s not enough reason to smile, here are 185 Adages about Smiles! Say Cheese!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #38-Picture This. . .
Joan of Arc’s was the face that launched a thousand ships:
Google "Joan of Arc" and 6,886 images pop up on one site. This one by an "unspecified" artist: Joan of Arc (Saint Joan c1412-1431) French national heroine during the Hundred Years' War between France and England. Joan entering Orleans in triumph, 1429. Nineteenth century Trade Card Chromolithograph'
Moving on…
In a 1910 promotion selling ads on trolly cars, Fred R Barnard wrote “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
And, in the immortal words of Rod Stewart and Ronnie Woods, “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?” Hmmmmm Let’s see . . .
Poetry Challenge #38
Picture This . . .
Find a picture. It can be of anything. Look at the picture. Study it. Notice not just the main subject, but the background, the colors, the feelings.
Now write about the picture. In other words, write an Ekphrastic Poem. It could be thoughts from one of the people or objects in the photo. It could be description. It could be a story.
So what ever else you do, be sure to use vivid details.
If you’re missing the picture, The New York Times has a resource with pictures to use as prompts. Here’s the link to NY Times Picture Prompts.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
If you enjoyed this prompt, try your pen at Rattle.com Each month the Rattle team post an Ekphrastic Challenge—and they publish the winner (and pay) This is the September image. Here’s the link:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #37-Put Me In Coach!
It’s football season. At my house, chill winds blow in from the North, fog blankets float over from the ocean to the south, and come fall, coaches whistle, early morning band practice, drill team sergeant barking waft in from the East on the football wind.
No wonder I’m having cravings for my all-time favorite football movie, Brian’s Song.
The “Kansas Comet,” Gayle Sayers, considered “one of the greatest players in NFL history,” was born on May 30, 1943. (I don’t recall ever actually seeing Gayle Sayers play. In my mind he’s Billy D. Williams from the 1971 movie Brian’s Song.)
Sayer, who played for the Chicago Bears, said,
“I had a style all my own. The way I ran, lurchy, herky-jerky, I kept people off-guard…”
“Lurchy, herky-jerky” works! Football fans take note: For the record, Sayer piled up “4,956 yards rushing in his 68-game career and was voted to four Pro Bowls. Sayers scored 22 touchdowns and 132 points in his first season, both then-rookie records.”
Poetry Challenge #37
Put Me in Coach
Write a poem to the “Coach” of your imagination asking to be “Put in” to something you really, really, really want.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
After poeming, reward yourself with a movie date. Brian’s Song! If you haven’t seen it, you should—bring tissues.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #36-In Memory of Bees
Today as I was walking through the backyards, I noticed bees drunk with happiness, rolling on the golden yellow dandelions. So many flowers! So much nectar! So many bees!
I was about ten years old when I experienced my first bee sting. I stepped (barefoot) on a bee in the driveway, jumped with the surprise and ouch of the sting on my toe, and my leg swelled up above my knee!
I remember earlier bees than that, too:
The bees that chased my next door neighbor when she poked a stick into their ground nest;
The little boy from down the street who rode his bike through a swarm of bees and ran into our house to get away from them.
So many memories, so many stories, all from one word: BEES.
Poetry Challenge #36
In Memory of Bees
Now it’s your turn. What do you think of when you think of bees? Is it an experience you had with them? A lazy, buzzing, summer day? A fascination with the way they live?
Write a poem/story about bees. You might try to write a paragraph first, and then cut away the golden tidbits for use in a poem.
Maybe cut it by half the words. Then another half.
Add a few words too, so it makes sense. Play with rhythm and maybe rhyme.
Get BUZZZZZY!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Wishing for more bee time? Can’t go wrong with a Fleming-Rohmann collaboration like Honeybee. Here’s the link to the read aloud: HONEYBEE THE BUSY LIFE OF APIS MELLIFERA with great info at the back.
And if you want be read more, here's a list of excellent Children's books about Bees!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #35-Riffing Rhyming it So!
It’s raining where I live. It rained yesterday. And the day before. And guess what? Tomorrow is forecasted to be another dreary. Rainy. Blucky day.
Yes, I know rain is good for the flowers, but it’s been raining so much, even the zinnias are drooping. And zinnia are the perkiest flowers of all!
Is there any better raining blues song than Rainy Night in Georgia? To listen, click on the album cover.
Channeling Brook Benton:
“Feel’s like it’s rainin’ all over the world…”
I’m trying to change that. Remember that nursery rhyme, “Rain, Rain go away”? I’m singing it today, just as we used to sing it when I was a kid. And dang if it didn’t work…sometimes.
(Even when it didn’t, just singing it made us feel sunny.)
Let’s give it a try:
Poetry Challenge #35
Riffing Rhyming it So!
Let’s begin with the old nursery rhyme, Rain-Rain-Go-Away. Here are 3 stanzas—it can continue . . . as long as the rain falls.
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Little Johnny wants to play
Rain, rain go away.
Rain, rain go away
Come again another day
Crazy Kelly wants to play
Rain, rain go away.
Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day
Big Brother wants to play
Rain, rain, go away . . .
Now, think of something you’d like to go away. If it’s not rain, something else—whatever you would like to go away. Begin by substituting what you want to go away for the word “Rain” every time it appears. (It works best if your “go away” thing is only 1 or two syllables; if it has a long name you’ll have to abbreviate it.)
Next, skip to line 3 and substitute your name for “Little Johnny.” Notice mine is “Crazy Kelly”—cause the rain is driving me CraZy!
Now, you have a choice. Do you want to riff the easy way? Or the harder way?
Easy way: Notice how every line in the original ends in a rhyme: Away, Day, Play? If what you’d like to do is “play” or rhymes with play, you’re on easy street. Simply substitute what you’d like to do for “play” throughout the nursery rhyme. Easy as that, you’ve created a new chant. Or . . .
Harder way: If you’re ready to really riff, think of some similes for the phrase “Go Away.” Here are a few to get you started. (Because I am still hoping this chant works, I’m sticking with rain.):
Rain, Rain, hit the road . . .
Rain, Rain, take a hike . . .
Rain, rain, wave bye-bye . . .
Crack open that rhyming dictionary again because you need to come up with WHAT you’d do if whatever you want to go away, really did do just that—and it must rhyme!
Now put it all together. Feel free to change other words, mess with the pattern . . . heck, skip rhyming all together if you want. After all, it’s your riff. Here’s mine:
Rain, Rain take a hike,
Curtis wants to ride his bike.
Rain, rain wave bye-bye,
I’m sick and tired of staying inside!
Rain, rain, hit the road,
Or Crazy Kelly might EXPLODE!
Wha-lah! Just like that we have created our own nursery rhyme. If we’re lucky it might even work!
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 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #34-I Have Never Ever…
Truth time.
I’ve done a lot of things in my life—a few I’m not proud of. Ahem….
There are many things I’ve never done. I’ve never pet a tiger although I had a stuffed one growing up.
Make it stand out
I’ve never eaten snails or octopus. I’ve never run a marathon . . .
or climbed a mountain over 3000 feet tall.
What about YOU?
We all have “I Have Nevers” if we didn’t there’d be no need for bucket lists.
Poetry Challenge #34
I Have Never _____________
Make a list of some things you’ve never done.
Try dividing your list into sections: things you’ve never done and never want to do, things you’d like to do but haven’t done yet, and things that seem impossible.
Write a poem using some of these. It could be a list poem or it could be about one of these things. Maybe it’s a wish poem of things you want to do.
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 2900 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #33-Yes You Can!
Sometimes, we just need permission. Someone to say “Yes!” Do it! Try it!....Don’t do it!
YES! You can leave the dishes until morning.
YES! You can spend a few hours reading.
Yes. Yes! YES!
Here’s the secret:
You don’t always need to wait around for someone else to say, “yes”.
Permission can come from YOU!
Poetry Challenge #33
“Yes, You Can!”
With “Yes, You Can” as the title, write a poem giving someone (or something)—maybe yourself—permission to be naughty, mischievous, daring—in other words, to do something he, she, it—YOU—would never, ever do.
As this poem is a celebration of possibility, use flowery, colorful, provocative language.
And, if you’re in the mood to be extra daring, give permission to go all out by having every line begin with “Yes, You Can” . . .
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 2870 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #32-Pick a Number
Do you have a favorite number? Cindy's is 5; mine is 8. Sing it Ringo: “Eight Days a Week” . . .
An odd thing about eight though: while it is my favorite number, it isn’t necessarily lucky. For instance I’ve never won at Craps when betting on Black 8.
And when I make up a number for a story or stirring or minutes, I always choose some other number.
Eights are Wild! Anyone up for Crazy Eights?
That Crazy Eight quandary will have to wait; it’s Challenge Time!
Poetry Challenge #32
Pick a Number…Pick a Letter…Pick a Perky Subject for a Pert-New Poem
You can pick your own number for this challenge or use a deck of cards or a pair of dice to come up with a random one. Same with the letter. Pick your own or draw a letter from a word game. Have fun!
1) Pick a number between 1 and 10.
2) Pick a letter.
3) Write a poem using that many syllables (or that many words) on each line.
4) Use as many words as possible beginning with your letter.
5) Write at least seven lines. Play with those words.
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 2870 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):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .