Poetry Friday roundup is with Elizabeth Steinglass
Laura Purdie Salas is one the most clever poets I know. In 2014, she invented a new form of haiku, the riddle-ku, when she decided to write riddle+mask poems for National Poetry Month. In Spring of 2019, a new book of riddle-ku poems will be available, Lion of the Sky.
I received an advanced copy at NCTE. For reading with small children, the illustrations give pretty strong hints to the answer to the riddle, so I didn’t show my middle grade students the illustrations until they “gave up.” I was surprised both by the ones they guessed and the ones they missed. Nevertheless, they had a good time playing along.
Then, of course, we wrote our own riddle-kus. I copied lines from Laura’s book onto popsicle sticks and let the students select a stick and decide how to use the line in their own riddle-ku.
Laura shared her webpage for this book which includes a padlet for students to post their poems.
Sprite+Mentos=Explosion
(This title is a shout-out to another of Laura’s new books, Snowman-Cold=Puddle)
Exploding red hot
lava oozing out on top
Dangerous! Don’t touch!
by Chloe, 3rd grade
Endless Parched Sea
Wide, curvy, golden
I am a sea needing rain
Memories within
by Madison, 5th grade
I wrote a few, too. The one above with the picture of burning sugarcane fields, but my favorite is this one. Can you guess what it’s about?
On the waiting page,
I flow from your colored pen
Word patterns counted
–Margaret Simon, (c) 2018
In the comments, take a guess for each poem. Thanks!
Reflections on the Teche 
Simply beautiful! I can’t guess. What is it about?
Which one?
I love these! The oozing lava, the parched sea, the riddle-ku itself…so much fun:>) Thank you (and your students, too) for sharing these, both here and on the Padlet! Woohoo!
These are great fun. I love the popsicle stick idea!
Your waiting is over and now you are a proud Grandma, Margaret! Congratulations! May I capture your riddle-ku for my upcoming gallery?
Yes, you may. I assume you are referring to the sugarcane field one. They burn the fields for harvesting. This is a common fall scene in my area.
I forgot to mention that I enjoyed the children’s riddle-kus. I love the title to Madison’s poem.
I pondered “memories within” for a while. Corn? Wheat? I give up! (Are the other ones volcanoes and riddle-kus?)
I had a hard time with Madison’s. She said it’s a desert and the memories are the fossils.
It must have been lots of fun to write these with your students. I saved all of Laura’s when she first wrote them. Is your last one a haiku? Congratulations on becoming a grandmother!
Yes, a riddleku riddleku.
I can’t wait to write riddle-kus with my students!
Fun post Margaret, and intriguing riddle-kus by you and your students, thanks!
These are wonderful, Margaret! As always I so enjoy reading your work alongside that of your student poets. This writing exercise must have been a hit with them!