Poetry Challenge #80-Scribbles
Really, would the tike in this pic do a naughty thing like that?
My love of writing can be traced back to when I was two-ish. As the story goes, I used my mom’s black mascara and lipstick to write on the neighbor's car! (And maybe blamed it on my brother… although he says I blamed it on him.) Nevertheless, a scribble is a scribble.
Early Childhood Educator, Anna Reyner, in “The Fine Art of Scribbling” wrote:
“Scribbling is the foundation of artistic development and is intimately linked with language acquisition.”
Rhoda Kellogg, an early champion of scribbling, analyzed over 1 million children’s drawing during a 20 year study. Kellogg concluded that
“Children need plenty of time for free drawing and scribbling to develop the symbols that will later become the basis for all writing and drawing.”
What say we roll back the clock to our pre-school days and scribble. Who knows what it might lead to…
A Nothing Scribble--or not…
Poetry Challenge #80
Scribble Something
Scratch around for something colorful to write with: crayons, markers, colored pencils . . . lipstick—whatever you can find—and a piece of paper. Hold the writing implement in your non-dominant hand, close your eyes, take a deep breath and focus on whatever comes to mind. Then open your eyes and scribble—preferably on the paper.
Try scribbling whatever came to mind. if it was nothing, then scribble nothing. Scribble with 2-year-old abandon for as long as you can—at least 30 seconds.
Now, hold your scribble arm’s length away. While squinting like an artist (a beret might come in handy here), look beyond your scribble to what you drew.
Write a poem about your scribble.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
If you want to explore scribbles more, check out Diane Alber’s books/website.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 3250 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 #79-Fibonacci Awakening
Hurrah! Everything is in bloom! Take a close look at the way the leaves on a plant and petals on a flower grow. Notice how they often grow in a pattern: One in the center; next row 2; third row 3; fourth row 5; fifth row 8 and so on. This pattern, which allows each leaf/petal to have maximum exposure to light and moisture while maintaining a tidy spiral pattern, called is the Golden Ratio, is the Fibonacci Sequence in action! Pure poetry, right! Which leads naturally to today’s prompt:
Fibonacci Sequencing Succulent
Poetry Challenge #79
Fibonacci Awakening
Number sequences are fun ways to create a form for a poem in that they pose a puzzle without too many rules.
For this prompt let’s add some geeky science fun to our poetry with Fibonacci.
A Fibonacci sequence begins with 0 and 1. Each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. The third number would be 0+1=1. The fourth number is 1+1=2. And so on.
Write a poem matching the number of syllables or words on each line with the first six numbers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
When you finish step outside and find the Fibonacci Busting out all over!
If the Fibonacci has you fired up for More MATH! Here’s a fab Math Challenge game!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years 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 comments or on social @kellybennettbooks
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Come Fly With Me!
(I fully intended to send this update right after the 4th of July. But with the flooding in Texas and all those people lost…and the devastation, there was no celebrating. There was only hoping, praying, sending strength and energy.) We continue to hope with love and light.
Hello dear friends! If you are reading this, you are one of the reasons for this post. Because without you I would have given up writing—scratch that, don’t think I’ll ever give up writing…(I might have given up trying to get any of my scribbles published, though.) You inspire me! Imaging you reading my words, hopefully chuckling along the way I did when I wrote it. And maybe sometimes feeling that satisfied awwwwww.
So right now, I hope you’ll raise whatever your delight du jour and celebrate with me, because I have wonderful news!
At long last my newest picture book will be landing July 22nd!
Surprise!—it is not about baseball!
The ART! Let me tell you about the art illustrator K.M. Brown created to bring my words to life. It’s not like any of my other books—or many other picture books for that matter. It’s sort of got an anime vibe—as does K.M. (who goes by Katie.) Find out more about Katie from the Q&A she did a few months back. Katie spills secrets! Here’s the link to K.M. Brown’s Q & A.
There’s a lot of fun stuff on the Rainbow Kite page on my website. Along with K.M.’s interview there are book-in-progress sketches. And soon, there will be Activities, because my buddy, award-winning author Doris Fisher is creating them. And Doris is a puzzle wiz!
And YOO-HOO teachers and librarians…parents too. Coming soon is a Teaching Guide with crafts. Another buddy, award-winning author, Pinterest Guru Deb Gonzales, founder of PinLit, is bit-by-bit putting it together…
Rainbow Kite is available for Pre-Order now! (And if you’d like a digital copy to review—we need those reviews—pop me a note.
And mostly . . . . Thank you for your support! Kelly always and all ways!
Poetry Challenge #78-Bloomin' Luck
“With a little bit of Bloomin’ Luck!” Alfred P. Doolittle sings in My Fair Lady. I know exactly how he feels!
Who doesn’t wish for a little bit more luck—bloomin’ or otherwise.
Clover is bloomin’—spot any with 4 leaves? The bunnies love it!
Poetry Challenge #78
Little Bit of Bloomin’ Luck
If you had a bit of “bloomin’ luck what would it be? What would you do with a lucky charm? Write a poem about it. Here’s a list of luck/flower related words. See how many you can use in your poem:
blarney, clover, coins, donnybrook, green, fortune, gold, luck, flower, blossom, blub, petal, bloom, magic, mischief, rainbow, shamrock, hollyhock, sunflower, daisy, petunia.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
When you’re finished, read your poem aloud—maybe you’ll get lucky!
Lucky the deer haven’t dined on these flower pots…
*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 #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 Prompt #76 Thirsty Thursday
Maybe because there’s a heat wave on—the likes of which I can’t recall.
Maybe because it will soon enough be Thursday and I’m thirsty.
Maybe because water isn’t cutting it, I recollected a play called The Drunkard by William Henry Smith, which brought to mind the song cowboy song Cool, Clear Water, you know the one: “Don’t you listen to him Dan/He’s a devil not a man/and he spreads the burning sand with water/Cool, clear, water….” Thus today’s 7-Minute Poetry Challenge.
Poetry Prompt #76
Thirsty Thursday
Draw inspiration from the title, Thirsty Thursday, write a poem about thirst using as many “th” words as you can throw into it.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Here’s to You! & Your 7-Minute Poem!
When you’re finished reward yourself with a nice tall glass of something cool. Cheers!
Thirsty Thursday Playlist:
*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. 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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Fin Pal asks Norman "How Much Does Norman Eat?”
Goldfish Fact: Goldfish do not have stomachs like we do. They eat, their bodies take what they need as the food goes through their digestive system and the poop out what is left. You should only feed your goldfish what they can eat in a few minutes. After that scoop out what is leftover. And if you want, it’s better to feed goldfish tiny snacks a few times a day rather than one big meal. (Learn more about goldfish care at Goldfish Keepers.
Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
Before we say glug-glug, how about a finny!
Q: What did the shark say after eating a clown fish?
A: That tasted a little bit funny!