Poetry Challenge #288-Begin in Kansas . . .
March 22nd is a red-letter day! It’s officially spring! Three Two Twos—who doesn’t love saying “tutu”—and it’s the birthday of American’s Favorite Poet, Billy Collins! (If you doubt that “favorite” bit take it up with the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Bruce Weber, who called him “the most popular poet in America.”
Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States (2001-2003) and New York State poet laureate (2004-2006), was born in NYC! In 1975 he cofounded the Mid-Atlantic Review with Michael Shannon, has more degrees than digits on a thermometer, receives six-figure advances on—gasp—“poetry collections,” of which he has published eleven: one-one!
An only child, Billy’s mother, a nurse, “had the ability to recite verses on almost any subject, which she often did, and cultivated in her young son the love of words, both written and spoken.” Listen up, y’all!
Why?
“[Billy Collins] puts the ‘fun’ back in profundity.”
Poetry Challenge #288
Begin in Kansas . . .
In an NPR interview* Scott Simon asked Billy Collins how his poems start in one place and end up in another. Collins response: I'm always looking to move the poem or let the poem expand or contract or turn in some unexpected direction.” Or, in his own words, his poems “Begin in Kansas and end in OZ.”
Let’s give it a try. Below is a snap of the Table of Contents from Collin’s collection of short poems, Musical Tables. And here’s what Billy C has to say about short poetry:
Thinking “Short,” choose a title from the list. Use that title in a short poem of your own. Use it as the poem’s title or in the body of the poem. Either way, see if you can’t do as Billy does and take your poem in a completely different place from where it began.
Bulldog Tutuville maybe!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write Toto, Write!
*Craving more Billy Collins? Listen/read the Billy Collins on Musical Tables interview with NPR’s Scott Simon.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2400+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
The House That Ruth Built Pre-Order Giveaway!
WARMING UP! It’s almost time for The House That Ruth Built to launch (available March 28th) which to my way of thinking means: Time for Baseball Charms & Sweet Surprises!
To celebrate the book’s birthday, I’m hosting a Give-Away. What’s the prize: A way-cool ALL-STAR Baseball Backpack Charm from Veronica's Arts — personalized, too!
How To Enter: Easy? Order THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT and send the proof of purchase to KELLY’S FISHBOWL by Mar. 31st to enter. (US addys only.)
Drawing will be held April 1st. No foolin'!
If you order from Red Jacket Books you can get personalized signed copies. Each book will come with a brand-spanking new baseball bat bookmark—and you’ll be automatically entered in the Give-Away!
IT’S A WIN-WIN! Let’s PLAY BALL!
Fin Pal Ask Norman "What Do You Think of Seaweed?
So many questions! And a fintastic drawing too! If you’ve read the Norman books: Not Norman & Norman One Amazing Goldfish then you know Norman T. Goldfish as well as anyone? What do you think Norman has to glug about seaweed? Or fruit?
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
But first a finny:
Q: How do goldfish stay warm in the winter?
Q: How do goldfish stay warm in winter?
A: They wear pufferfish coats!
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish- about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Don’t forget to order your copy of NOT NORMAN: A GOLDFISH STORY and NORMAN: ONE AMAZING GOLDFISH!!
Poetry Challenge #290-Maya, I Will Rise!
Judy Garland may have sung “Clang-Clang-Clang goes the trolly” but Maya made that trolly GO! Today we celebrate the birthday of San Francisco’s first female streetcar conductor—an African American woman to boot—Maya Angelou!
Maya Angelou , born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. She had a tough life which provided plenty of fodder for her National Book Award nominated, Pulitzer Prize Awarded, Grammy Winning, mostly autobiographical novels, essays, and poems.
Here’s a bit of “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” to give you a sense of this sensational woman:
When Maya was 15 she applied for the job of streetcar conductor. Plenty of boys her age were doing the job as were women. But because she was Black, she was rejected. Every day for three weeks she returned requesting a new application. Finally the company relented. She applied again (gave her age as 19) and thus became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco.
Cabaret Singer
After that she was married, had a son, Guy Johnson, worked all sorts of jobs.
Her writing career took off after she joined the Harlem Writers Guild in 1959.
In 1993, Maya became the first person since Robert Frost in 1961, to recite a poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” at a President’s Inauguration.
Poetry Challenge #290
Maya, I Will Rise!
Maya Angelou’s wrote in a direct and informal voice.
Her stories are welcoming for readers as she is inviting them to share her secrets with them. She also used “persuasive and strong similes and metaphors.” www.litpriest.com
Choose a metaphor to describe an aspect of who you are.
Write an autobiographical poem using that metaphor. For example, in her first autobiographical novel, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou compared herself to a caged bird.
Begin as Maya did with the words, “I know why” . . .
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write It!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2400+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #287-Not the Junk Drawer!
Happy Birthday, Naomi Shihab Nye! (A few slices of cake late and all the cheerier for it!)
Born, March 12, 1952, Naomi composed her first poems when she was 6.
This link will take you to the Poetry Foundation’s page and has links to many poems.
She’s an excellent poet, novelist, and essayist—entertaining and accessible. Doubt me?
Naomi Shihab Nye—who, BTW, lives in San Antonio Yeeeehaw!—served as Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate from 2019-2022 (the first Arab American to be chosen) and kids don’t suffer fools!
To get your started, below is a personal favorite titled “The Rider.”
“the primary source of poetry has always been local life, random characters met on the streets, our own ancestry sifting down to us through small essential daily tasks.”
Poetry Challenge #287
Not the Junk Drawer!
For today’s poem, choose a title of one of Naomi Shihab Nye’s poems listed below and write your own poem. (Titles taken from Nye’s collection entitled Honeybee.)
Someone You Will Not Meet
A Stone So Big You Could Live in It
The Frogs Did Not Forget
How We Talk About It We Are the People
Argument
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Write it!
For a treat, find one of Naomi Shihab Nye’s collections—Honeybee maybe— and read!
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2400+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Baby's Bite! Picture Books About Siblings to Sink Your Teeth Into!
Baby’s bite! Siblings squabble! That’s reality. Reading Books about Sibling Relationships is an easy way to discuss sibling stuff with kids. And because it’s March and you are reading aloud right? Here’s a list of picture books about siblings that are—as Vampire Baby puts it, “Toothly funny!”—definitely worth sinking your teeth into:
March is National Reading Month! In between games and goings-on, pull out some books and read-read-read aloud with your kiddos!
After all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if your future all-stars could read about themselves—for themselves! Win-Win-Win! (A Three-Pointer!)
Tip-off starts March 2nd with Read Across America Day!
And get this, you don’t even need to lug around those big old clunky books. There are scores of picture book read-alouds on-line—click and pick!
Videos of my picture books are just a YouTube button Click Away! Below is a screenshot of my You-Tube Channel @kellybennettbooks9789 so you’ll know it. (Seriously…CLICK HERE!)
March Read Aloud Month more dates to remember (in case you need an excuse to read):
March 2: Read Across America Day
March 4: National Grammar Day
March 6-12: E-Book Week
March 20th: World Storytelling Day
March 21: World Poetry Day
What comes after March? April, of course! Library Week! So no excuses!
What’s more! my new picture book, The House That Ruth Built, illustrated by Susanna Covelli, available now from Familus!
“With beautiful, true-to-event illustrations reminiscent of Norman Rockwell, and with facts on every page about the stadium, the teams, and that very first fateful game that christened the original Yankee Stadium, The House That Ruth Built is the perfect book for kids and baseball fans everywhere. Take a step into the past and watch the baseball greats make history!”
For reading all the way down to here, you get a reward: It’s a brand-new readaloud of THTRB
Happy Read-Aloud March!
Poetry Challenge #286-There is Always Light
Amanda Gorman was the first person to be named “National Youth Poet Laureate”
in 2017. In 2021 at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, she delivered her poem, “The Hill We Climb” as the youngest inaugural poet. She was 22 (March 7th is her birthday!)
Her words touched the nation and the world. People read and reread her work.
You can watch her at the inauguration here:
Amanda Gorman performing “The Hill We Climb.”
Poetry Challenge #285
There is Always Light
One of Amanda Gorman’s most quoted lines is:
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Think about the light you would like to see in our world. How can you be “brave enough to be it”?
Write a poem detailing what needs to happen. Make it a call to action. Use strong words and phrases.
Be sure to read it aloud with feeling!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, write the light!
Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem The Hill We Climb has been published as a book. So has Change Sings (above) which is lovely. And that’s not all. Find out more on her website: Amanda Gorman Books.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2400+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Poetry Challenge #285-Would You? Could You?
Parents hide them, children love them, editors warn “don’t try them,” today we celebrate them. What are they?
Dr. Seuss’s rhyming picture books. Thank you Dr. Seuss for the most stick-in-your-head read-it-again books of all time! And Happy Birthday! (March 2, 1904-Sept. 24, 1991.)
Do you like my hat? I do! I do!
Dr. Seuss was not his real name, nor was he a real doctor. Dr. Seuss is the pen name for Theodor Geisel. “Seuss” was his mother’s maiden name.
“Ted” Geisel was an illustrator and an editor who challenged himself to write an entertaining primer from a set word list as a sort of protest against boring primers such as the Dick and Jane reading books. The story goes that he was given the word list, chose the first two he found that rhymed: cat and hat, and the first few lines came to him while in an elevator. The rest is millions of copies of one of the longest sing-songiest, beloved picture books of all time. Guess the title?
You guessed it! The Cat in the Hat, published in 1967.
Writers take heart: Seuss’s first picture book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street* published in 1937, was first rejected 27 times. He even has a star on the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ at the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.
“Adults are obsolete children . . .”
Poetry Challenge #285
Would you, could you . . .
Choose a concept: colors, weather, prepositions, numbers, adventure, art, A.I, bedtime . . . and explore it in a rhyming poem—a singsong, rhyming, predictably-patterned poem. The kind of poem Dr. Seuss might have written.
In fact, if you’d like, choose a stanza or two from one of your favorite Dr. Seuss books and copy its rhyming pattern—after all, imitation is the highest form of flattery!
One fish, two fish, red fish blue fish.
I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am.
If you’re stuck coming up with end rhymes, don’t stress it. If Dr. Seuss could make up words and rhyme one word with itself over and over and over and over—you can too!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, Seuss it!**
**With cultural sensitivity please!
*And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street* is one of 6 titles Dr. Seuss Enterprises has ceased publishing because of insensitive and racist imagery.
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2500+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. 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.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .