Poetry Challenge #84: To Be or Not To Bee

I’m no Hamlet—never played one, don’t live in one—But . . .  I do know the beginning of Prince Hamlet’s Act 3, Scene 1 Soliloquy in To Be or Not to Be. And now, if you didn’t, you do too. 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 1100-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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #83-Pick A Pet

Which animals make the best pets? Dogs? Cats? Lizards? . . . Rocks?

. . . If you ask me the answer is Goldfish! Definitely Goldfish! (But it’s not up to me . . . )

Poetry Challenge #83

Pick A Pet

List 5 or 10 or as many as you can in one minute.

Which animals make the worst pets? List for another minute.

What other animals can you think of? Time yourself one more minute.

 Write a list poem using animals from your lists.

Write three lines with 7 syllables on each line and finish the poem with a fourth line that has 5 syllables. If you need an extra syllable, you can add an adjective—a word that describes the animal—or a sound.  

Set the timer for 5 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 1100-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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #82-Diamond in the Rough

View fullsize

 In the same way diamonds—the “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” gems/rocks/stones— come in many shapes, colors and sizes, diamante poems can be about anything.

Poetry Challenge #83

Diamond In the Rough

A Diamante is a diamond-shaped poem, simple as that. Diamante poems begin with a one word or syllable line. Each subsequent line grows longer by one than the previous line. The longest line is the mid-point of the poem. From there, the lines decrease by one until reaching the last one word line. The shortest Diamante has three lines of one syllable words.

Here’s a Diamante Frame if you prefer structure.

One

Two words

One

Write a diamond-shaped Diamante about something you value.  

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 1100-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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #81 Don't Bother Checking Twice

Santa still snoozing at some sunny warm spa, recovering after the busy holiday season. So, while he’s otherwise occupied, no need to bother about checking twice—unless it’s to be sure you have ink/lead in your writing implement of choice—thus clearing the way for this prompt:

View fullsize

Poetry Challenge #81

Make a List

Although at first glance you might not notice, soooo many poems are list poems: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I Love Thee”, Billy Collins’ “Bread and Knife,” Shel Silverstein’s “Eighteen Flavors” to name a few.

In a list poem, you can list things you like (animals, colors, kinds of cars, playground games), signs of a season, tasks you have to do, items in a category, or what you’re going to do today.

View fullsize

Once you have your list, play with the order.

Choose better words that sound the same (maybe rhyme, or use alliteration).

Can you make the poem sound like it has an ending? 

Try writing a list poem. What are your plans for the day today? Or use one of the ideas above.

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 1100-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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #80-Scribble Something

View fullsize

Really, would the tike in this pic do a naughty thing like that?

My love of writing can be traced back to when I was two-ish. As the story goes, I used my mom’s black mascara and lipstick to write on the neighbor's car! (And maybe blamed it on my brother… although he says I blamed it on him.) Nevertheless, a scribble is a scribble, and so we celebrate:

Poetry Challenge #80

Scribble Something

In honor of National Scribble Day* celebrated every March 27th,  scratch around for something colorful to write with: crayons, markers, colored pencils . . . lipstick—whatever you can find—and a piece of paper. Hold the writing implement in your non-dominant hand, close your eyes, take a deep breath and focus on whatever comes to mind. Then open your eyes and scribble—preferably on the paper.

View fullsize

A Nothing Scribble--or not…

Try scribbling whatever came to mind. if it was nothing, then scribble nothing. Scribble with 2-year-old abandon for as long as you can—at least 30 seconds.

Now, hold your scribble arm’s length away. While squinting like an artist (a beret might come in handy here), look beyond your scribble to what you drew. Write a poem about it.

*Not to be confused with National Crayon Day (March 31st).

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

Scribble Resources:

• #NationalScribbleDay:

• #NationalCrayonDay:

• Diane Alber’s Site:

*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1050 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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #79-Fibonacci Awakening

Hurrah! It’s spring! Take a close look at the way the leaves on a plant and petals on a flower grow. Notice how they often grow in a pattern: One in the center; next row 2; third row 3; fourth row 5; fifth row 8 and so on. This pattern, which allows each leaf/petal to have maximum exposure to light and moisture while maintaining a tidy spiral pattern, called is the Golden Ratio, is the Fibonacci Sequence in action! Pure poetry, right! Which leads naturally to today’s prompt:

Fibonacci Sequencing Succulent

Poetry Challenge #79

Fibonacci Awakening

Number sequences are fun ways to create a form for a poem in that they pose a puzzle without too many rules. You could write a poem with using your phone number, birthday or another important date to determine the number of words or syllables on each line. For instance, this year the first day of spring is March 20th or 3202019 which would be kind of weird or maybe fun as the zeros could be stanza breaks. Get mathematical and write a poem based on the first six digits of pi: 314159, or have some spring fun with Fibonacci.

A Fibonacci sequence begins with 0 and 1. Each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. The third number would be 0+1=1. The fourth number is 1+1=2. And so on.

Write a poem matching the number of syllables or words on each line with the first six numbers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.

In celebration of Spring Awakening, let the theme of your poem be Springish!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

When you finish step outside and find the Fibonacci Busting out all over!

If the Fibonacci has you fired up for More MATH! Here’s a fab Math Challenge game!

*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1050 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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Challenge #77-Heave-Ho! Chant-She-Blows!

Sing-Alongs are always challenging—and sometimes embarrassing—even for me. (And those of you who know me, know I love to sing—badly.) The worst is when someone sticks a microphone in my face and I don’t know the words. That’s when I resort to the trusty mumble-mumble-murmer-murmer— la-di-dah-daaaaaaaa

My Best Friend’s Wedding Classic!

Songwriters who like audiences who sing-along— pirate ship captives & those wanting tips, for example—make singing along easier by writing song with repeated refrains—the more often repeated the better. Which brings me to today’s prompt.

Poetry Challenge #77

Heave-Ho! Chant-She-Blows!

“The chant poem is about as old as poetry itself,” writes Robert Lee Brewer in his Oct. 23, 2012 post. “Chant poems simply incorporate repetitive lines that form a sort of chant. Each line can repeat [as they do in Blues’ songs], or every other line [as in a Sea Shanty].” Sailors sang shanties as they rowed or heaved on ropes to keep everyone working at the same pace. It’s believed “Shanty” is a morphism of “chanty” meaning both the type of song and a name for the sailor who leads the singing. By way of an example, below is a Chant Poem Cindy created.  

“Snow fell this morning, soft and white and cold,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.

I liked it more before I got so old,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.

I left the city a long time ago,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.

Now I hear sounds of birds—the caws of crows,
I was thinking of our bench in Central Park today.”

— --Cindy Faughnan

Follow these three easy steps to create your own Chant Poem—Or “Shanty” if you will! 

1. Find a headline in a newspaper or magazine that you like the sound of. That will be your chant.

2. Write a four line rhyming poem where the first 2 lines rhyme and the last 2. AABB

3. Insert the chant between each line of your rhyming poem and you have a chant poem.

View fullsize

“They know a song will help the job along…”

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 1042 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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL

Poetry Prompt #76 Thirsty Thursday

View fullsize

Maybe because it’s Thursday.

Maybe because I’m thirsty.

Maybe because water isn’t cutting it, I recollected a play called The Drunkard by William Henry Smith, which brought to mind the song cowboy song Cool, Clear Water, you know the one: “Don’t you listen to him Dan/He’s a devil not a man/and he spreads the burning sand with water/Cool, clear, water….” Thus today’s 7-Minute Poetry Challenge.

Poetry Prompt #76

Thirsty Thursday

Draw inspiration from the title, Thirsty Thursday, write a poem about thirst using as many “th” words as you can throw into it.

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

View fullsize

Here’s to You! & Your 7-Minute Poem!

When you’re finished reward yourself with a nice tall glass of something cool. Cheers!

Thirsty Thursday Playlist:

• The Drunkard by William Henry Smith  

• Cool Clear Water by The Sons of the Pioneers

*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1037 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.

Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):

SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL