Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.
Every month, Michelle H. Barnes posts an interview with a poet. Then a Ditty Challenge is given. This month’s challenge comes from Helen Frost.
Choose an object (a seashell, a hairbrush, a bird nest, a rolling pin). It should not be anything symbolic (such as a doll, a wedding ring, or a flag). Write five lines about the object, using a different sense in each line (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Then ask the object a question, listen for its answer, and write the question, the answer, or both.
I opened the freezer for a Thin Mint cookie, and thus an ode appeared.
Green-vested Girl Scouts
line boxes on a table outside Walgreens.
Crinkling wax paper opens
to a circle of mouth-watering chocolate.
Mint permeates my senses.
Why are you hiding in this box?
Come on out for my delight,
a refreshing bite.
–Margaret Simon
Reflections on the Teche 