Poetry Challenge #97-It's The Berries!
Berries! Silly me…I took a vow this past summer to only buy local produce. That was great during corn season, and green bean days and berry season and pumpkin season… but now what?
The Kingston Trio sang a song called “Raspberries, Strawberries” that you can watch here:
Poetry Challenge #99
Berries!
Which kind of berries are your favorite?
I love blueberries and strawberries—especially in a strawberry rhubarb pie.
I love walking through wild strawberries and smelling the sweet smell underfoot. And scratches are worthwhile for raspberries warmed by the sun.And right now, because the float and don’t spoil quickly and a gorgeous to look at, cranberries are tops.
What about you?
Write a poem about berries—any kind, any form. I bet it will be sweet!
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 over 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.
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 #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 #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 #87-How's This for an Idea?
Sometimes, my head is full of ideas. But sometimes . . . At those times a little prompting is in order.
Poetry Challenge #87
How’s This for an Idea?
Choose one of the prompts below as your first line and write as fast as you can. If you get stuck, try another prompt.
Or:
How’s this for an idea: Write a 4 line poem using each prompt for one of the lines.
No one knows I’m here…
Here’s a neat idea…
I’m scared of…
I wish I could remember…
Pick a Prompt
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 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 #84: To Be or Not To . . .
I’m no Hamlet—never played one, don’t live in one either. But…I do know the beginning of Prince Hamlet’s Act 3, Scene 1 Soliloquy:
“To Be or Not to Be that is the question.”
Thus primed, prompt on fair Prince/ess:
Poetry Challenge #84
To Be or Not to Bee . . .
“The verb "to be" is one of the shortest and most important—yet oddest—verbs in the English language. It is an irregular verb; indeed, it is the only verb in English that completely changes form in every tense. The verb "to be" is probably the most important verb in English.”—from “Thoughtco.” By Richard Nordquist:
Below is a list of past and present forms of the verb “to be.” And, just for fun, a fuzzy black and yellow buzzy bee. Write a Bee poem using as many forms of the verb “to be” as you can. One way to begin is to write each form of the word be on a line and take it from there.
Past and Present forms of the verb “to be”:
I am I was
You are You were
He/She/It is He/She/It was
We are We were
They are They were
And if you want to try perfect tense: have/has/had been
Be bold! Be silly! Be—gin!
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 8 years ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This one is Cindy’s.) 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 #68-Cup of Kindness
Nanny, my grandmother (born July 6, 1906), and her girlfriends gave each other tea or coffee cups as gifts. None of them had pockets deep enough to buy a whole set of china at one time. Nor did their ilk register for wedding gifts.
Nanny and her friends built their sets of “good dishes” piece by piece as budget allowed. (Nanny is on the right with glasses; one of her prized tea cups on the left.) On birthdays they would either give a cup in the recipient’s chosen pattern, or they would surprise each other with different cups. Nanny called hers “Friendship Cups.”
These cups are a few of Nanny’s remaining Friendship Cups. I display them front and center in my cabinet to remember her—and to remember my friends. You are welcome to use one anytime.
The cups in my cupboard seem empty, they are absolutely not. Each one, still today, is brimming with love and kindness.
This bulletin board kit is from Jannylovecolors.
It’s a bright spring day and “What the World Needs Now” was the last song on my local NPR station WLIW. That song!
What’s better way to germinate love than to fill a cup with kindness.
Poetry Challenge #68
Cup of Kindness
Think back over the past few months and recall a kindness someone gave to you.
What was that kindness? How did it make you feel to receive it?
With that in mind, fill a cup with a kindness of your own. To whom will you pass it?
Title your poem “Cup of Kindness”
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Nanny’s Cup
This cup is one of few remaining pieces from Nanny’s “good dishes.” The 1989 earthquake sent the rest flying.
*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.