Ask Norman...Do you have a pet?
Ask Norman HERE!
Hey Kids!
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter
Ask Norman...Sometimes I want to be alone...
Ask Norman HERE!
Hey Kids!
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish—about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter
Poetry Challenge #78-Little Bit of Bloomin' Luck
“With a little bit of Bloomin’ Luck!” Alfred P. Doolittle sings in My Fair Lady. I know exactly how he feels! Who doesn’t wish for a little bit more luck—bloomin’ or otherwise. That’s what makes Saint Patrick’s Day, one of my favorite holidays. Four leaf clovers, horseshoes, pots-of-gold, lepraucauns, jigs, lucky charms and wearing green, it’s all about conjuring up luck and having fun while you’re at it. St. Patrick’s Day is this Sunday, March 17th, let’s celebrate by writing some lucky poems to celebrate.
Poetry Challenge #78
Little Bit of Bloomin’ Luck
If you had a bit of “bloomin’ luck what would it be? What would you do with a lucky charm? Write a poem about it. Here’s a list of St. Patrick’s day related words. See how many you can use in your poem:
Bagpipe, banshee, blarney, blarney stone, bog, brogue, celebrate, Celtic, clover, coins, donnybrook, emerald green, Emerald Isle, fortune, four-leaf clover, gold, good luck, green, harp, Ireland, Irish, jig, legend, leprechaun, limerick, , luck of the Irish, lucky, magic, March, mischief, pot of gold, potato, rainbow, Saint Patrick, shamrock, shillelagh, snake, St. Paddy's Day, St. Patrick
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
When you’re finished, read your poem aloud—maybe a leprechaun with hear—if you’re lucky!
Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge about 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 Prompt #76 Thirsty Thursday
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.
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:
*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
Poetry Challenge #72-World Read Aloud Day
Happy World Read Aloud Day!
Poetry Challenge #72
World Read Aloud Day
Let’s celebrate in style. For today’s prompt, instead of taking 7 minutes to write a poem, let’s read poems aloud. Grab a collection of poems, click over to one of the poetry links below, or if you’re feeling truly brave, flip back through your notebook and reread some of the poems you’ve written. Then, take a deep breath and read—aloud! To someone or something else. After all, poetry is best shared!
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start Reading!
(Be warned: You just might get carried away!)
World Read Aloud Day Links:
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than a thousand fifteen 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 #70-Noises On!
For the last poetry challenge we explored the Sound of Silence, this time, let’s crank up the volume by focusing on noise.
Poetry Challenge #70
Noises On!
Visualize an event, a moment, an incident—either real or imagined. Now, close your eyes and listen to the sound of significant movements and/or actions happening in that moment. What sounds do you hear? Heart beats, water dripping, footsteps, maybe bells . . .
Write a poem using these sounds. Try establishing a rhythm by repeating the sound a few times in each line followed or preceded by what is making the sound. Some hugely successful songs use sounds in this way. For example, in The Trolley Song sung notably by Judy Garland in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis sounds are used to describe the first moment Ester meets John:
“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heart strings
From the moment I saw him I fell
Chug, chug, chug went the motor
Bump, bump, bump went the brake
Thump, thump, thump went my heart strings
When he smiled I could feel the car shake”
And in one of the all-time greatest stick-in-your-head songs That’s Amore! sung notably by Dean Martin jingly sounds are what make us what to sing and dance along:
“Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you’ll sing “Vita bella”
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella”
If you have your list of sounds, but you’re stuck for a way in, use one of these songs as a model for your poem (that’s what I did.)
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Noises On! Playlist:
That’s Amore! written by Jack Brooks & Harry Warren
The Trolley Song by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane
BTW: If you are wondering where the usual links are, my resolution is to stop promoting compensation-free downloading. Please download from your fav buying spot.
*Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 1000 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 #65-I Yam! Channeling Shakespeare/Popeye
William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, 4 poems and 154 sonnets (that we know of). Of these, many of the plays and all 154 sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. Popeye guzzled spinach from the can and sang one truly memorable song, “I Yam what I Yam.”
What do Shakespeare and Popeye have in common? I Yam!
“I Yam” as in I-Yam-bic Pentameter. Iambic meaning a two-syllable soft-hard beat foot: “I-am” or “I-Yam”; Pentameter meaning five metrical of these feet, thus creating that singsong rhythm—da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA.
That pattern soft-HARD-soft-HARD-soft-HARD (like a horse gallop) is said to “fit the natural rhythms of English fairly well” in that it offers “enough structure to be memorable and enjoyable, without feeling sing-songy.”
Too, in Shakespeare’s case (and maybe Popeye’s creators, too) the words were intended to be memorized—not read. Mimicking the natural rhythm of the english language I am I yam I am I yam I am made memorization easier.*
If Shakespeare and Popeye could do it, surely we can to.
Poetry Challenge #65
I Yam! Channeling Shakespeare/Popeye
Can you write a four-line rhyming stanza of iambic pentameter?
Or, in Popeye-ese, four-lines each line five I-Yams long?
You can rhyme each pair of lines (AABB) or every other one (ABAB), whichever you choose.
Write on any subject you want or choose one of the prompts below.
I wish I could remember…
I love the smell of…
I’m waiting for…
Once you’ve got the rhythm, ala Shakespeare, try writing a complete 14-line sonnet.
BTW: “French and Italian frequently use six-foot lines, which correspond to about the same number of words but with more gender-marked endings,” (Literature Stack
Channeling Shakespeare Playlist:
*Cindy Faughnan nd I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 950 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.
Join the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge. 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 #64-Got Bubbles?
Dec. 5th is a Red Letter Day on my calendar. It’s National Bathtub Party Day!
According to my go-to need a reason to celebrate site, National Calendar Day:
“Bathtub Party Day was created as a way to skip the ordinary, everyday shower and to luxuriate in the pure pleasure of a good soak in the tub.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Gather your favorite bath bomb, a good book and a glass of Moscato and let the worries of the day fade away while you relax in the tub.”
Poetry Prompt #64
Got Bubbles?
Write a poem about a Bathtub Party which incorporates some or all of the following words:
Bub, Bubbles, Suds, Splash, Scrub, Soap, Splash, Rubber Ducky and Ninja (It’s International Ninja Day, too.)
Extra points if your poem rhymes.
Set the timer for 7 minutes.
Start writing!
Don’t think about it too much; just do it.
Got Bubbles? Playlist:
*Cindy Faughnan nd I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 950 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.
Join the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge. Click on Fishbowl link below and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl)!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FISHBOWL