Poetry Challenge #62-Please Pass the Peas!
Remember this joke:
What did the customer respond when the Pub server asked what they wanted?
Answer: Whirled Peas
Get it? (You may not, but it is what we all want—world peace.) Alas, that’s not what this challenge is about, but it could be… You decide!
Say “St. Patrick’s Day” and visions of Corned Beef, Cabbage, green applesauce—and Tums pop into my head.
Say “Thanksgiving” and the menu switches to crispy golden roasted turkey, cranberry, stuffing, creamy gravy and pie, glorious pie, dance though our heads.
Say “Summertime” and it’s all about fruit, fruit cobbler, fruit crisp, fruit swirls, fruit juice dripping from chins…and pie. (Anytime of year is all about pie.)
Peas and pie are what led to this prompt.
Poetry Challenge #62
Please Pass the Peas!
Take a moment to imagine your favorite feast. What foods are on your table?
If you’re like me, that feast is going to include…you guessed it: pie! Several kinds of pie.
Maybe even this four-layer PieCaken sis-in-law Valarie suggested we try, specially created for those of us who can’t decide which kind of pie to choose. It’s One layer of pumpkin, one spice cake, one pecan pie, frosted together with buttercream and topped with apple pie filling. Yum! https://www.oprah.com/food/whats-inside-a-piecaken
However . . .
The characters in Ethan Long’s picture book FANGSGIVING are definitely not traditional. However they kind of are as they served up pie, too—pumpkin pie with maggot meatballs thrown in.”
Now it’s your turn:
In the spirit of whirled peas, imagine you are some alternate reality or you are some other creature. An animal for instance, or an alien . . . or maybe even a monster! What would your favorite feast be?
Take a moment to imagine all the fantastical foods your creature would love. Whip those words into a feast of a poem!
For the title, fill in the blank with whatever creature you are:
Please Pass the _______________
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
YUMMY! (So is this book!)
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 3100 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #63-Five Books High
Do you have a pile of books? I always have a stack that I want to read. Sometimes it grows so large I’m afraid it will fall on me and hurt!
Here’s a snap of the top 5 Picture Books on my to read/reread stack:
One solution to the overflowing book issue is to use them to solve decor issues (preferably after you’ve read them):
Or use all those books to solve housing issues…
Since, as the song goes “It never rains in Southern California…”
In San Diego and other places, tiny houses are a viable solution for the housing shortage—
Here are the top 5 books in Cindy’s to read stack. (Notice a difference?):
Poetry Challenge #63
Five Books High
For this prompt, take a look at a stack of five books or five books on a shelf—yours, mine, Cindy’s, someone else’s….
Take the first word (not A or THE) and write it down. Use these words in a poem.
Here is one poem resulting from our practice prompt. The selected words from books titles in that stack were: cool miracle spell tamed bird
And here’s the untitled poem:
Watching the sun go down
was a cool miracle,
a study in pink and orange and red,
a mystical spell
that tamed the world.
And like the evening bird,
we sang one last word.
Your turn!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it. I’ll be waiting on my book couch…
Want more? Check out “10 Amazing Pieces of Furniture Made from Books” at Street Library
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #61-Riffing Off Queen
We Will, We Will ______(Fill in the blank).
If you finished that phrase with ROCK YOU then this post will be right up your alley.
If you didn’t then go directly to your viewing device of choice and watch Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic about Freddy Mercury and Queen.
Freddy Mercury at his Zenith
…”caught in a landslide, no escape from___________(another test).
Not to give anything away (we all know Queen was a success) a high point in the movie comes when the band is plays its first stadium concert. They look out over the crowd and realize everyone in the stadium is playing-singing-performing with them! According to the movie, this prompts Brian Mays to create songs for the audience to perform. And thus, the blockbuster anthem We Will Rock You came to be.
Whether you know the lyrics or not, everyone knows the rhythm:
stomp-stomp clap/stomp-stomp clap/baam-baam boom!
Poetry Challenge #61
Riffing Off Queen
Write a rhythmic poem about something that rocks you. Or, about a rock… or a rolling stone (if you like Dylan or the Stones better).
First, set that classic We Will Rock You rhythm in your head by actually, physically, pounding out the beat: stomp-stomp clap/stomp-stomp clap/baam-baam boom.
Continue pounding out the beat as you compose each line of the poem.
Who knows, you may create another best selling song—at least have fun trying! Rock on!
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 at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #60-Go Back Jack and do it Again!
We hear you! Seven minutes is not a long time! Unless, of course, you’re holding your breath…
Or waiting for news…
Creating a poem isn’t either of those things. So sometimes, in service of a poem, or a prompt, we need to, in the immortal words of Steely Dan:
“Go back, Jack, and do it again!”
Poetry Challenge #60
Go Back Jack!
Today, let’s take 7 minutes to revise.
If you have a few extra minutes, use them to go back through the poems you’ve written and choose one that you LIKE, that would be even better with a little more work.
Or, if all you have is 7-minutes, pull out the Terza Rima poem* you wrote, or started to write, or groaned at and quit, and give it another go.
*Just in case you “can’t find” the Terza Rima, click on either of these happy orange links and it will take you to the prompt.)
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Now…because why shouldn’t the song be stuck in your head too: Steely Day &“Get Back Jack and Do It Again!”
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #59-If The Form Fits . . .
Sometimes You Feel Like Going Commando—poetically speaking, of course. Sometimes (often in my case) some structure, foundation, form is needed.
Poetic forms are like puzzles. You need to fit the right number of syllables or a pattern of rhyme or some other word trick into your poem and still come up with a subject.
They are fun to play with—and the results can be surprising!
Poetry Challenge #59
The Form Fits!
Today’s form is the Terza Rima.
The Terza Rima, which means “third rhyme” originated in Italy. Most English examples of Terza Rima are written in iambic pentameter.
This form creates three line stanzas with lines of any length where the first and third line rhyme.
The second line becomes the rhyme for the next stanza.
Keep writing stanzas until you’re done with your poem. The last stanza should be two lines that rhyme.
If you’re better at reading rhyme scheme, it goes like this: ABA BCB CDC DED EE
Here’s an example Cindy created :
Tah-Dah! Now it’s your turn!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
This puzzle is one from Bags of Love—a site where you can have custom puzzles made! Crazy!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #57-One, Two, Three…GO!
In traditional Western storytelling, 3 is the magic number.
The hero tries 3 times before succeeding (or failing). The genie grants 3 wishes. There are 3 pigs, 3 Billy Goats Gruff, 3 stooges… so let’s go with that!
Poetry Challenge #57
One-Two-Three….GO!
For today’s prompt, write a poem with three words on each line.
Try to write ten or more lines and see where your poem goes.
If you need a starter, use: I collect…
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Count those words! One, two, three, GO!
Find oodles of ways to celebrate WORLD READ-ALOUD DAY at LitWorld! (and your library!)
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #56-Kid’s Stuff
Feb 5th is World Read Aloud Day!
Created in 2011 by LitWorld, World Read Aloud Day is a day set aside to “Bring awareness to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories as well as advocating for literacy as a human right.”
In short an excuse to read—and get kiddos reading—in case you need one! So to celebrate World Read Aloud Day, let’s keep the fun going by using books to kick start our challenge.
Poetry Challenge #56
Kid’s Stuff
Grab the nearest picture book, turn to the last page, the last words.
Use the last line of text as the first line of your poem.
And if you’d like, use the cover illustrations below as inspiration. Let the child in you run with it and PLAY! And READ!!!
. . . and it was still hot!
. . . goodnight noises everywhere.
. . . Yes, David
And because I love having the last word:
Guess what the last words in this finny book are?
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Find oodles of ways to celebrate WORLD READ-ALOUD DAY at LitWorld! (and your library!)
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge at least 3020 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!
Want the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge sent to your email? Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl).
Poetry Challenge #56.5-Nano-Nano
Nano-Nano! That’s alien speak for hello, goodbye, cheers…whatever. (Mork pronounced it “nanu-nanu” so that’s how it came to be known.) Robin Williams, the unpredictable, hilarious, wacky, innovative comedian, got his break as the alien Mork in the late 70’s sitcom Mork and Mindy.
I read somewhere (sorry but I can’t recall exactly where…if you know, tell me) that Williams cinched the role when he walked into the audition and sat on the couch upside down—because that’s how an alien would sit. Talk about getting into character!
Which sort of has nothing to do with this challenge, except that nano-nano came to mind when I read about an alien poetic form: Zeno.
The poetic form “Zeno” was created by children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“I call the form a "zeno," so named for Zeno, the philosopher of paradoxes, especially the dichotomy paradox, according to which getting anywhere involves first getting half way there and then again halfway there, and so on ad infinitum. I'm dividing each line in half of the previous one.”-J. Patrick Lewis.
Here are two of J. Patrick Lewis’ zeno poems (or better zeno-zeno)!
Poetry Challenge #56.6
Nano-Nano Zeno-Zeno
Let’s take seven to stretch our creative muscles with a Zeno.
Zeno is a 10-line verse form with a repeating syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1.
With all of the one syllable words/lines rhyming.
Just for grins, title your poem “Mork.” As it’s a made up name for an alien. Let it be your inspiration to let your poem go where none has bravely gone before.
Nano-Nano! (or Nanu-Nanu, depending on your planet of origin).
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 at least 3020 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 dang poem. Scroll down and click on the comments!