Poetry Challenge #136.5-Chuckle Challenge
When was the last time you had a gut busting laugh-so-hard-tears- were-running-down-your-legs laugh?
If you can’t remember, then I only have one thing to say to you:
“It’s about time you did!”
Why? I’ll give you 4 reasons (if you don’t believe me, ask the Mayo Clinic.)
Lowers stress hormones
improves heart and immune functions
burns calories
makes you feel better
Now get this…
““The average 4-year-old laughs 300 times a day. The average 40-year-old? Only four.””
Maybe, along with picking & flicking, graham crackers, and “punch bug” laughing is something our kids can help us do more often. And we can help them too, by writing funny stuff.
Let’s give it a try with a little help from author Julie Hauswirth who decided to up the funny factor with the third annual #2026 KidLit Chuckle Challenge. *
Poetry Challenge #136.5
Chuckle Challenge
To begin, rewind to the child you used to be—the one who laughed 300 times a day—and think about what used to make you laugh.
Or if that child is too buried in grown-up gobbledygook, take a minute or two to watch kids at play. What makes kids laugh? Just about everything!
Next: look at this list I copied off the Chuckle Challenge page. It includes lots of ways to add humor to our writing.
Now: Think of some funny words. Or a funny situation. Or best, both.
Kick your adult to the curb, put your silly hat on a write a poem.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
the #2026 Kidlit Chuckle Challenge contest is open from 8:00am central September 10th-10:00pm central September 13th. Consider this the practice round. Click the website link for contest rules and past winners poems.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge thousands of chuckles ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #135-Bird Therapy
Stop! Listen! What’s that Sound? Everybody look what’s flitting round! *
Birds! Hear them? See them?
If you don’t then find a quiet spot, outside or at a window, then… Look and listen!
With most human-made noises stilled and human activity slowed, Birds are everywhere! (Were they always everywhere and we were too busy to notice?) I’m noticing now!
There’s something therapeutic about watching birds flutter and flit about, calling to each other—especially now when we humans are trapped in our cages and the birds are free. For today’s post, let’s send our imaginations winging with the birds.
7-Minute Poetry Challenge #135
Bird Song Therapy
Position yourself in a quiet spot with your eyes and ears tuned to the world beyond your window and listen to the birds. What are they singing about? Are they greeting each other? Squabbling? Sharing news of the world—just learning to tweet?
See if you can track the bird songs to a specific bird or clump of birds. If not, close your eyes and imagine yourself amongst the birds.
Nestlings in sis-in-law planter.
Write a poem about what you’re seeing—and most especially hearing.
Incorporate the sounds and rhythm of the birds into your poem to make it sing!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
*Stop Children by Buffalo Springfield Utube:
**For more “Bird Therapy in CoVid” click over to Audubon Alaska’s “Birdy Care Package” with glorious photographs, activities—for kid’s too—games & videos—complete with song…& bird poetry! Bird Poetry Corner features a new prompt each week.
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 Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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*Stop Children by Buffalo Springfield Utube:
Poetry Challenge #134-Your Inner Animal
Zoologically speaking, I’m a huge fan. If you’re response is “Boo to Zoo!” Have you been to a zoo lately?
Of the ones I’ve visited, and we seem to visit a lot, nowadays, most recently The San Diego Zoo, here’s what I’ve noticed: the animals in the zoo have not been captured ruthlessly. for the most part they are rescues. (Don’t believe me, read the signs.)
FYI: “The first modern zoo was established in the beauty of Vienna, Austria with the order of Emperor Francis I in 1752. It was created to viewing pleasure of the imperial family, but in 1765 it was extended to the public.”—via https://happydays365.org/zoo-lovers-day/national-zoo-lovers-day-april-8/.
While on the subject of the San Diego Zoo, one of the most interesting “Road Trip” books I’ve read is Lynda Rutledge’s West With Giraffe, non-fiction that reads like a novel.
What’s more animals are gorgeous, fascinating, interesting…all the ings.
Poetry Challenge #134
Access Your Inner Animal
Imagine you’re an animal at the zoo. (If you’re not a fan of the zoo, then for purposes of this prompt, channel Dr. Dolittle.)
Write a poem from that animal’s point-of-view. What does it see, think, feel? Who are its friends/enemies? When is dinner?
How would you describe the people looking at you?
What would you think they love based on the people they’re with or what they’re wearing or eating?
If you spoke the same language, what would you say to them?
For extra fun, see if you can’t use words that sound like your animal. Ssssay for instance, you are a python…
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
*This photo links to an article about the trip from NY to San Diego with the giraffes. Click: “How A Gift of Giraffes in 1938 Helped Make the San Diego Zoo.”
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 3600 days ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #132-Little Red Wagons Get Rolling!
What movie was it where the kids took off in a Radio Flyer? I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember…. Of course I could GTS but I choose not to. (Besides, I have you….) Besides, that’s not the point. The point is that that little red wagon gave those kids them freedom. And it’s that what summer vacation is about? Being Free! Flying under ones own power? Summer Break aside, they even have a national holiday for doing just that. The last Wednesday each March is Little Red Wagon Day, a holiday established by Radio Flyer in honor of their Little Red Wagon “to encourage kids to get outside, get active and go wherever their imaginations take them.”
Let’s take it for a spin around the old noggin maze—with words!
Poetry Challenge #132
Little Red Wagons Get Rolling!
Norman has a little red wagon—that’s how he rolls! Bennett had one too. How about you?
Do you remember bumping along the street pulling a little red wagon? Or maybe, as my brother and his friends did, attaching the wagon to your dog’s leash and trying to get him/her to tow you?
If you had a Little Red Wagon who or what would you fill it with? Or, if you’re the passenger, who’d be pulling the wagon? And where would your adventuring take you? Imagine the rhythm of the wheels rolling along. What does it sound like? What does it feel like?
Create a rhythmic Little Red Wagon poem by first creating a refrain evoking the sound and feel of the ride. See if you can use the refrain three times in your poem. *
Set your 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 3000+++ days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #129-#$%^&* Grammar!
Happy ?$&*#@ Grammar Day!
?$&*#@! No, that’s not swearing. It’s punctuation and symbols that tell us something. Grammar!
Are you’re a fan of the oxford comma, semi-colon, em-dash? Every been accused of going overboard on the exclamation points. Or maybe a few too many expletives deleted from your notes.
This is your lucky day!
Poetry Challenge #129
$%^&* Grammar!
Just this once, kick judicious punctuating to the curb!
Write a poem that uses as many kinds of punctuation as possible. Make your poem SHOUT!! Make it whisper. Make it dance. Make it ask? and tell! and order the reader. Can you use commas, dashes, a semi-colon?
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just feel it!
Start writing!
If you are a punctuation junkie, click over to Poetry Box for some delightful punctuation poems by kids.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 1400 days ago! (APPLAUSE!!!) We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #127 Feelings . . . Whoa Whoa Whoa . . .
Tell me all about it…
Relax, this is not an invitation to visit/revisit the analyst’s couch. But, yes, we are going to go all touchy feely, so get out one of your already written poems, and let’s get down to the nitty gritty:
Poetry Challenge #127
Tell Me How it Feels, How it Really Really Feels?
Poetry often deals with emotions: how we feel, what emotions an incident evokes, and too, how words—the placement of words, word choices/combinations—make us feel. But now, today, let’s go beyond those feeling and get really touchy feely.
Take out one of your already written poems. Don’t spend more than 30 seconds of your 7 minutes choosing—it’s not really about that poem, this challenge is about what feelings can do to/for that poem.
When writing, we often focus on describing things through dialogue and action. We also often set the scene by describing what can be seen in a seen. However, we often overlook the physical, even though our tactile memories are strongest and reactions evoked shared.
Try “chewing glass” for example.
Reread your poem, and ask yourself “What does it feel like?” And by “feel” think literally: What does each image actually feel like? Is it rough? Squishy? Smooth? Glassy or sandy? Does it slosh?
Try changing/adding feeling words to that image to conjure those tactile feelings.
If your poem doesn’t seem to have a tactile feeling to it, can you add one? Even more, try adding a tactile feeling to every line.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just feel it!
Start writing!
Now reread your poem. How does it feel, now?
Take a listen: Feelings sung by Morris Albert
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge MORE THAN 3600 days ago! (APPLAUSE!!!) We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or the whole poem in the comments.
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Poetry Challenge #126-What the World Needs Now
I’m not Nick, nor am I Norah, but my entire life is an Infinite Playlist. Song, or snippets of song, spring to mind willy-nilly. All it takes is a word, or feeling, or a beat, and the piano roll in my head begins whirling.
Today it was the news…(isn’t it always???). Gratefully, thankfully, I was saved by Burt Bacharach! Sing it Dionne . . .
Hearts in Montpelier, VT
Poetry Challenge #126
What the World Needs Now
Let’s write a love note to the world in the poetic form called “Tendi.”
A Tendi is a poem made up of four-line stanzas, originating from the Swahili poetry of East Africa. (Here’s more about Tendi.)
A Tendi is usually written with an aaab rhyme scheme, meaning the first three lines rhyme, while the final line establishes a recurring end-rhyme that ties the entire poem together.
Usually that fourth line is repeated at the end of each stanza. If it changes, the end rhyme remains.
Since we are writing a LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Tendi, why not use candy hearts as inspiration for that last line?
I love you very much.
My heart belongs to you.
You are so very sweet.
See if you can’t write a three stanza tendi. Then, if you dare, send it to someone!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
The Song: I’d Like to Build the World a Home
The Movie: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 3500 days ago (who’s counting?). We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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 #125-Cloudy With a Chance
The weather forecast has been threatening…promising…rain for two weeks now. We need it or all of our newly planted gardens are shriveling. That’s how the garden grows here in the East (this years at least) we’ve gone from chilly, soggy, weird Spring to hot-hot-hot (for us). Pretending we’re Meteorologists, we search the skies, examining every cloud…
So far, no meatballs . . .
Obviously, the weather forecasters have gotten it wrong. Let’s see if we can do better!
Poetry Challenge #125
Cloudy with a Chance of . . .
Write a weather forecast poem.
To begin, fill in the blanks:
______________ with a chance of _________________
Write your poem in a Weatherperson’s voice (or channel Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy). Make your forecast factual or fantastical—creator’s choice!
Liberally sprinkle your poem with weather terms.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Listen to The Weather Girls “It’s Raining Men!”
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years ago (who’s counting?). We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. 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.