Poetry Challenge #98-Beach Time
Winter hit this week. It is FREEEEEEEZING! I know deep in my rattlin’ bones that I’ll get used to the cold (soon, please) even embrace wearing bulky comfy clothes to brave the outdoors—or, more likely, use the cold as an excuse to stay inside: Baby it’s cold outside!
Huntington Beach—my Beach Time then
But right now I am asking myself why did I ever leave home? Gidget take me back to HB! So bear with me, pull a flowered shirt on over your sweats and let’s head to the beach! Hey Moon Doggie, wait for me!
Poetry Challenge #98
Beach Time
Beach Time is way more than just a thing to do. It’s a mindset. And best, it’s way Cool! So let’s get beachy!
Begin by listing whatever comes to mind when you think of a day (or night) at the beach. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
Frothy surf, bikinis, surf boards, sand, shells, waves, orange sherbet sunsets, coconut and cocoa butter, Gidget & Jeff aka Moon Doggie
Now you try:
Fine! If “sand in your pants” is what Beach Time means to you, go with it.
Create a poem using a many of those beachy words as you can. Here’s a little theme music to get you in a beachy mood: Da-na-nah-na-nah-nah-na…WiPE OUT!
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 3 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 #96: Hot Diggity Dog!
Mere days—days— after post baseball season and we’re already craving hot dogs. I’m serious (nitrates aside) we love hot dogs! Okay, maybe not me so much but, I love the bun. I love the relish. I crave sauerkraut. And what I really, really miss, is any excuse to say Hot Dog!
“Mimi, what’s for lunch?”
“How about hot dogs?”
“HOT DOG!!!”
Poetry Challenge #96
Hot Diggity-Dog
In honor of those lazy, crazy…tasty Hot Dog Days of Summer, let’s write a concrete poem. Concrete poems are words arranged in a shape to give extra meaning to the subject of the poem. Maybe the words form the branches of a tree or letters drip down the page to show rain. Sometimes there’s a surprise hidden in repeated words like the marshmallow in the concrete poem below created by Cindy*.
For this one step grab an old-school writing implement (aka pencil, marker, pen). Unless you’re a “Cindy”, it’s harder to create a concrete poem on a device. Begin by visualizing a hot dog. Now, to turn it into a concrete poem you can:
*Sketch the outline of a hot dog and fill it by writing hot dog hot dog hot dog over and over and over . . . until you are fed up with writing hot dog.
*Or, fill your hot dog outline with a poem about hot dogs or a hot dog memory.
*Or, draw a hot dog with words associated with hot dogs.
*Or, use letters as Cindy did by using hot dog part words to create an image. Use other words to dress up your hot dog. Do you like ketchup? Mustard? Onions? Chili? Sweet relish? Marshmallows?
Grab Your Marker
Get Set
Hog-Diggity Draw! (I do relish a good concrete poem…with mustard.)
#TheColombianHotDog trucks set up in Bridgeport & Norwalk, CT—close to the grandboys—HOT DOG!
Poetry Challenge #93-Pretty in Pink (Copy)
Close your eyes and repeat after me ten times: Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink Pink
Or maybe a Florida Belle . . .
What images came to mind?
Did you imagine cotton candy clouds?
Flamingos?
Ballerinas?
. . . A Pop Star?
... Molly Ringwald
with sprinkles!!
Poetry Challenge #93
Pretty in Pink
Use your Pink images to write today’s poem.
You might begin by listing everything that comes to mind related to Pink. Reorganize and embellish them to create a list poem.
Or, write a PINK acrostic poem, with each line beginning with a letter in the word PINK.
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 before you were born (kidding…maybe…). 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 #92: This Plum is Too Ripe!
All of us is sorry for or about something. (If you’re not, then lucky you!)
My All-Time Favorite Off-Broadway Musical—if you’ve never seen it, you should. Or you will be sorry…
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones drew on this uniquely human need* to apologize in a song about two neighbors who are great friends until they tear down a wall in the longest running Off-Broadway, sometimes on Broadway musicals of all times The Fantastiks. Here’s a snippet:
“This Plum is too Ripe!”
“Sorry.”
“You’re standing in MY Rose Garden!”
“Sorry.
And now, with no further apologies, on to our prompt:
Poetry Challenge #92
Who’s Sorry Now?
For this prompt, list things you are sorry for. (Your list can be as long or as short as need be.) Select one or several items that are related from that list and write a poem about it.
Finish the poem with a positive spin by suggesting ways you can, or might apologize. Or do it better next time . . .
* I don’t imagine whales apologize for combing up krill, or cheetahs apologize for mowing down gazelle, but maybe they do . . . if so: Sorry!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
No Apologies, No excuses—Just do it!
Song for Inspiration: Who’s Sorry Now as sung by Miss Patsy Cline—Of course!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge when the current POTUS was running for office the first time. It was to fend off impending darkness. (So sorry how that turned out.) We’ve continued as a way of adding a bit of light. And, we 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 #91: Words! Words! Words!
Words! Words! Words!
I’m so sick of words!
I hear words all day through/first from him, now from you/is that all you blighters can do?*
YES, Eliza! The answer is unequivocally, unapologetically, YES!—so on to the Challenge:
Poetry Challenge #91
A Few of My Favorite Words
Do you have favorite words? If you do, pause right now and jot them down.
I love to collect words I hear or read that are unfamiliar or that have an interesting sound. I try to remember to write them down to use another day. As you go through your day, pay attention to words that you like the sound or meaning of. Write them down! Save them!
A few I like are: Lilliputian, grommet, butterfly, whimsical, and gumption.
Think of five of your favorite words.
If you can’t think of words, open to a random page in the dictionary and find a word you like.
Write a Poem using one or more of the words on your list. Extra noogies if you use them all!
You can use some of my favorite words if you like.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
* Eliza sang those words to Freddy in Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady. The song is Show me, Now!
Here’s another ditty for inspiration: Three Little Words by Kalmar & Ruby
And one more because I just can’t help myself: My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music by Rodgers & Hammerstein
**Tara Lazar’s book Absurd Words is everything the cover says it is—and definitely not “just for kids”!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 3200-ish days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This one is Cindy’s; the “I” is her speaking. 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 #90: Like a YO-YO, Yo!
Sorry I’m tardy in posting this prompt. I had to untangle some knots. But how it’s all wrapped up, ready to roll!
“I used to be a swinger/Til you wrapped me round your finger . . .” Who can forget inspired lyrics like those by Joe South—or the singer who sang them to Hit status in 1971? (BTW: It was not Yo-Yo Ma.)
Did you know June 6th was National Yo-Yo Day? Neither did I. As soon as I learned, Donnie Osmond started singing away so I went with it…(how could I (k)not?
Take a moment to ponder YO-YO. Who could have ever imagined how, with the flick of a finger, one could make a disc roll up and down on a string* thus providing endless hours of entertainment, inspiring more than one hit song, and now, if you’re game, poetry!
Poetry Challenge #90
Like a YO-YO
Write a YO-YO poem. It can be about a YO-YO, playing with a YO-YO, feeling like a YO-YO—up and down about something? Or, sure, YoYo Ma. Roll the sounds of it around in your mouth for a while and see what comes of it, Yo!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
*According to the Museum of Yo-Yo History, “It is believed that the yo-yo most likely originated in China. The first historical mention of the yo-yo, however, was from Greece in the year 500 B.C. These ancient toys were made out of wood, metal, or painted terra cotta disks and called just that, a disc. It was customary, when a child turned of age, to offer toys of their youth to certain gods. “
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge eons ago. We 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—and tell your friends!
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Poetry Challenge #89 Famous Last Words
Charles Schultz was onto something: Wah-wa-wah WAH. . . Halloween Wah-wa-wah WAH . . . Great Pumpkin.
So was Margaret Mitchell when she gave Rhett the best parting shot ever:
“Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.”
He’s whispering a famous first line here…a prompt for another time!
Shultz and Mitchell knew what my kick-butt High School English teacher, Mrs. Reidlinger (the finest 5-Paragrah Essay coach of all time) called the secret to the best Dagwood.
The secret she said, was in the bread. Start every paragraph with the tastiest crunchiest, best-tasting bread and finish with a slice that’s just as tasty—if not tastier—just keep stacking them one on top of another on top of another. They may not remember the fillings, but they’ll remember that Dagwood, er essay.
(Find more on Mrs. Reidlinger on this early Fishbowl post.)
Or, to quote an aptly named band of Reidlinger’s Second Period English era, BREAD,
“How many came before it doesn’t matter just as long as you’re the last.”
Where are we going with this? You guess it:
Poetry Challenge #89
Famous Last Words
For this prompt, let’s start at the bottom, with potentially famous last words, and work our way up.
Try using one of prompts below as the last line of your poem. (Replace the blanks with whatever you choose.):
Don’t forget to give your poem a title.
I remember when ___________
You can’t be serious.
I love the smell of ___________
Under my bed is ____ and ____.
I collect_______
Wah-wa-wah Wah __________________
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Who said it? If you know, post the answer in the comments along with your poem and we’ll send you a prize!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 3300-ish 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 #88-What They Said . . .
I am a shameless eavesdropper. So bad in fact, that I’ll often shush Curtis (who does not talk much anyway) so I can focus on other diner’s conversations. Yes, I’m that bad…
New Haven Train Sign
Which may be why an old sing-along-in-the-car song, called Humoresque aka Passengers Will Please Refrain, has long been one of my favorites. Set to the tune of Dvořák's Humoresque Number 7 it’s begins with a New Haven Railroad toilet sign ends with If Sherman’s horse can stand it so can you and in between are snippets of conversation.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and Yale law professor Thurman Arnold take full credit for the “Bawdy Song.” In his autobiography, Go East, Young Man (pp. 171–72), Douglas notes, "Thurman and I got the idea of putting these memorable words to music, and Thurman quickly came up with the musical refrain from Humoresque." Because I know you’re curious, here are the abridged lyrics:
“Passengers will please refrain
From flushing toilets while the train
Is in the station. Darling, I love you!
We encourage constipation
While the train is in the station
Moonlight always makes me think of you.
If the woman’s room be taken,
Never feel the least forsaken,
Never show a sign of sad defeat.
Try the men’s room in the hall,
And if some man has had the call,
He’ll courteously relinquish you his seat.
If these efforts all are vain,
Then simply break a window pane-
This novel method used by very few.
We go strolling through the park
Goosing statues in the dark,
If Sherman’s horse can take it, why can’t you?”
The word “eavesdropping” came from medieval English. It refers to the practice of standing outside, beneath the eaves (the narrow strip between the house and the drip line), to listen in on conversations inside the house.
Your Poem Could Be A Song, too!
Poetry Challenge #88
What They Said . . .
Go somewhere crowded (preferably public) with a pen and paper. Jot down snippets of conversations.
Or. If you can’t do that, brainstorm greetings—all the ways/languages/terms we use to say hello, goodbye or thank you.
Arrange and rearrange the terms to create a poem with a melodic, interesting—maybe surprising order.
Title your poem “Conversations” with the location and date. For example: “Conversations at Starbucks September 10”
Go Forth and Eavesdrop.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Click for an oldie but funny from Andy Sheng.
*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.