Poetry Challenge #126-Happy Valen-Tendi
Happy Valentine’s Day! Ever since St. Valentine defied Emperor Claudius II of Rome’s orders by secretly married couples, we’ve been celebrating Feb. 14th with hearts, flowers, romance and poetic gestures—including names plucked from a jar*. Let’s carry on the tradition with this week’s prompt:
Valentines in Montpelier, VT
Poetry Challenge #126
Happy Valen-Tendi!
A Tendi is poem made up of four-lines where the first three lines rhyme and the fourth line is a refrain. If you have more than one stanza, the fourth line is repeated each time.
Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day, try to use a refrain that might be on a Valentine. Something like:
I love you very much.
My heart belongs to you.
You are so very sweet.
Or use a saying from a candy heart:
Can you write a Valentine Tendi with three stanzas? Then, if you dare, send it to your Valentine!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Surprise! A Bit More about Valentine’s Day & a song:
Originally Feb. 14th was a holiday to honor Juno - the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also regarded Juno as the Goddess of Women and Marriage. As it happened, the day after, Feb. 15th was the fertility holiday, the Feast of Lupercalia during which women and men, who would otherwise be separated, where brought together. On the eve of Lupercalia—Feb. 14th—names of Roman girls were written and placed into a jar. The Roman boys would draw a girl’s name from the jar and the two would thus be coupled for the duration of Lupercalia. Sometimes couples paired during the festival would fall in love and marry. One might say, those jars were the first Valentines delivered…and the couples, “Valentines.”
The Song: Exs and Ohs by Elle King
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 1400 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 of . . .
Hold onto your hat! Your umbrella! Your snazzy two-button blazer! and grab your microphone! It’s National Weatherperson Day!
“This annual holiday commemorates the birthday of John Jeffries who was born on this day, February 5th, in 1744. Dr. Jeffries, a scientist and a surgeon, is considered to be one of America’s first weather observers. He kept weather records from 1774 to 1816. Jeffries took his first balloon observation in 1784.”—National Day Calendar
Poetry Challenge #125
Cloudy with a Chance of . . .
In honor of National Weatherpersons’ Day, forecast the weather in poetry. Write your poem in a Weatherperson’s voice (or channel Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy). Make your forecast factual or fantastical—creator’s choice!
For inspiration—and a few laughs—view these Weatherperson Out-Takes!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 1400 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 #124-Alphabet Riddlers
Remember the Jackson Five song ABC*? “A-B-C/1-2-3/Baby, You and Me . . . keep tapping those tootsie’s as we wind up for a real riddler of a prompt:
Poetry Challenge #124
Alphabet Riddle Poems Easy as ABC
Many forms of poetry are like puzzles—you try to fit the right words into a certain order or have the right number of beats/syllables on each line. Here are four poetry puzzles. Choose one to solve today and come back to this when you’re stuck for a topic some other day.
Can you use every letter of the alphabet in a poem? The letter can appear anywhere in the word and can be in any order.
For the next puzzle, you need to use a word starting with each letter of the alphabet in order. You can add other words between your words to help your poem make sense.
How about starting each line with a letter of the alphabet? How long a poem can you make that makes some sense?
Pick one letter. Can you write a poem using twenty words that begin with that letter?
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Alphabet Riddlers Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 1350 consecutive days—120 weekly shared 7-Minute Challenges ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This one is Cindy’s.) If you join us by writing a poem, 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 #123-Library Shelfie Day
What’s on your shelf?
Hooray! It’s Library Shelfie Day!
Observed every 4th Wednesday in January, (Jan 24, 2020) Library Shelfie Day was founded by the NYPL as a way to celebrate and share our books by arranging a few favorites or entire collections on a shelf.
Take a picture and share it on social media with the hashtag #LiibraryShelfieDay to share on social media. As we do, let’s observe Library Shelfie Day with a poem.
Poetry Challenge #124
Great First Words
After you’ve chosen a few of your favorite books . . .
After you’ve arranged them into a social media worthy collection (and posted or not) . . .
Let’s use your collection to create a poem.
Write 3 to 5 of your chosen book titles on a paper. These titles will form the basis of your poem. How you arrange them is entirely up to you. You may choose to use the titles exactly as they appear or mix words and phrases around. Feel free to add words to improve the poem. Or change the form of the words. However, there is one rule: You must use every word from every title.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Here’s mine! Now, show me yours!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1380 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 #122-Here's To Bagels, Hats & Bagel Hats!
Today, January 15th, is both National Hat Day and National Bagel Day. I’ve given some thought the matter and still, I have absolutely no idea what hats and bagels have to do with each other…except, of course, that everyone hungry/bagel crazed enough to be bageling on the streets of Manhattan in the winter chill is wearing—or should be wearing—a hat. Maybe you’ll have a better idea:
Poetry Challenge #122
Hat’s Off to Bagels, Hats & Bagel Hats
Think of words that have to do with either hat or bagel.
Come up with words to describe your pick, words you think of when you have one or the other, or words that bagels and/or hats bring to mind.
Now use those words to form a shape poem. Fit the words into either the shape of a bagel or the shape of a hat. Make it beautiful!
Einstein’s Bagels is a Texas fav.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 1350 consecutive days—120 weekly shared 7-Minute Challenges ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. (This one is Cindy’s.) If you join us by writing a poem, 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 #121-Joy Germs?!
In the midst of cold-flu-ick-crud season everyone’s trying to stay germ free. But, there’s one germ I’m hoping goes viral: The Joy Germ
Celebrated every January 8th, National Joy Germ Day is a holiday created to remind people “that by being positive and treating people with kindness, we can influence those around us and pass that positive attitude on to others.
Joy Germ day was established in 1981 by Joan White of Syracuse, New York, in honor of her mother. Here’s Joan’s prescription for observing Joy Germ Day: “Laugh, smile, be kind, inspire and spread the one type of germ that is good for everyone to catch!”
Joan White, Joy Germ Day’s Founder
Poetry Challenge #121
Joy Germs
What’s your Joy? Imagine you are a scientist in a happy lab concocting your own Joy Germ.
What would those ingredients be?
What’s your Joy?
What does it smell like?
Taste like?
Sound like?
How would you spread your Joy Germ?
Write a poem entitled Joy Germ
“May a giant jar of jaunty joy germs rest gently on you and yours.”
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1380-ish days 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 #115-Knit Wits
Think “knitting” and an image of the “quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’” springs to many a mind. But that’s bunk. At last week’s VCFA Writing for Children and Young Adults Alumni workshop flashing, clicking needles were everywhere. Co 7-Minute Challenge creator, Cindy, is a big knitter. So am I, in my fashion. And in the same way, so are you.
Knitting is such a useful word. In the same way yarn becomes sweaters, wounds knit back together. Families are closely knit. Brows knit in consternation or contemplation. Thoughts knit together become ideas, just as words knit together can be poetry.
Poetry Challenge #115
Knit Wits
In Merriam-Webster speak, knitting is “a series of connected loops,” so that’s where we’ll begin.
Close your eyes and write down the first word that pops into your mind. One word. That word will be the title of your poem.
Next, quickly list words that you associate with your word. From that list, choose the best five.
Take a moment to reorder those five words into a sort of pattern that makes sense to you.
Classic Knit-One, Purl-Two pattern
Let’s use our wits to knit those words together to create a poem. For our first effort, we’ll use a simple knit one, purl two pattern. Consider those five words to be your “knit” stitches. The “purl” part of our poem will be modifiers. Let’s get knitting!
Write your first “knit” word. Below it “purl” two modifiers. Below that purl, write your next “knit” word, then “purl” two; continue in this knit one-purl two pattern until you come to the end of your word list. Just like that you’ve knitted a 10-line poem.
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than Thirteen Hundred (1300, yes I am celebrating) 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 #113-One Must Ask Children and Birds
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today . . . “
J. Wellington Whimpy, as any Popeye fan knows, would do just about anything for a hamburger. Parisians rioted over the lack of break, likewise so did Starbuck fans during a recent run on Pumpkin Latte (not really), but, I imagine they would. Cindy’s weakness is lobster. Mine (in case you’re gifting) is salted caramel. What’s your favorite food?
Poetry Challenge #113
One Must Ask Children and Birds
“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Pick a food that begins with a consonant (not a, e, i, o, or u). Can you think of other foods that begin with the same letter? List 5-10 foods that begin with the same letter. Next, list 3-10 foods that end with that letter. Then, list 3-10 foods that have that letter in the middle. Finally, list 3 verbs and 3 adjectives that have to do with food and contain your letter.
The repetition of a consonant sound is called alliteration. Many times tongue twisters are made from these repeated sounds. Use words from all your lists to write an alliterative list poem. Read it aloud and see if it trips your tongue.
“I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”
Set your mind to channel FOOD
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1280++ 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.