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More Poetry Challenges

April 21, 2012 by margaretsmn

Catching up on the 30 Day Poetry Challenge:

Day 19: Imagine yourself performing any household task/chore, then write a poem using what you’ve imagined as an extended metaphor for writing: an Ars Poetica.

Ars Poetica on a Stained Shirt

Coffee spilled on my shirt,
early morning stain
I’d wear all day.
Cover it with a cardigan,
hidden and unnoticed.
Spray-n-Wash
launder clean
fresh and new.

Poem spills out on my notebook page,
early morning musings
I’d think about all day.
Scratch out words,
Incubate-launder
with revision.
Type onto a clean page
here for you.

Day 20: Write a narrative poem detailing a specific childhood memory.

Growing up Beside Purple Creek

A concrete slab becomes a waterfall.

A tree is a cabin in the woods.

Dirt-filled lots are caves for dolls.

A trampoline tarp makes an acrobat’s stage.

We put on another play for the neighbors in the garage.

Listen for the whippoorwill to call us home for supper.

Come home, come home, come home!

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A Cardboard Box

April 18, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day poetry challenge: Day 17 Write a poem that employs a rhyme scheme.

Race me to the door in a speedy machine!

My sister has been posting for days about cardboard boxes that my niece and nephew have made into a variety of imaginary things.  Oh, the joys of childhood!  And hats off to my sister for allowing these huge things to remain in her living room for days.  I think we should collaborate on a children’s book or maybe I’ll just write a poem for the poetry challenge.  Wherever your imagination takes you.

What can we create with a cardboard box? I know.
A slippery sled to ride in the imaginary snow.
Maybe a spaceship the flies to the moon!
Or the basket part of a hot-air balloon.
I can imagine the most perfect thing.
Race me to the door in a speedy machine.
Before our momma throws it out
Let’s make a clubhouse and lounge about.
Be sure to bring your favorite book
To curl up with in my
cardboard box-spaceship-speedboat-reading nook.

Cardboard box-spaceship-speedboat-reading nook

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Bad Poetry

April 14, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 14 Write a bad poem.

Yesterday I wrote about how my students and I write together:  The Knockout Punch.  One day a few weeks ago, my students and I were writing list poems.  What I started with was a list of poetic forms.  Then I tried to rhyme, which I am really bad at.  My student Matthew added a line. (Look for it in italics.)  All day in and out of classes, I worked scratching out, rewording, and asking their advice.  At the end of the day, I still had a bad poem.  Some days you just catch a boot.  I should’ve thrown it back in, but here it is, ready for today’s challenge.

A Poetry Lesson

Haiku,
Cinquain,
Limerick,
Acrostic,
What kind of poem will you write?
Can you feel the beat?
Will you be a poet or a rapper on the street?
Can you write like Robert Frost
or William Carlos Wiliams?
This is just to say,
you can write your own way.
Please don’t write like Poe,
Cause he gives me the chillins
Read it aloud
Or share it on a blog.
Fill the world with imagery,
metaphor or simile.
You can decide what poet you will be.
Don’t forget to sign your name,
and thank your teacher, me.

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The Knockout Punch

April 13, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 13 Write a poem a child would like.

When I teach writing to students, we workshop our writing pieces.  I write when they write.  I pass out sticky notes. (Kids love colorful sticky notes.)  They label their notes with a plus, a question mark, and a triangle.  We call these notes “Criticycles.”  They are our way of critiquing.  The plus is something you like, the question mark a question, and the triangle a suggestion for a change.  When I saw the challenge for today, I thought, “That will be easy.”  All I needed to do was look through my school journal and find a page full of sticky notes that told me I had caught a good poem.  This poem I wrote in writing camp last summer.  (I am doing two this summer, so leave me a comment or send an email if you are interested.)

We take a writing marathon on one day of the writing camp.  On the marathon, we tour around town with writers’ eyes.  Most shop owners are happy to have us come in when we say we are writers.  On this day, we went into the downtown bookstore.  I had a discussion with one of my students and her mother about the book, “Heaven is for Real.”  Then I opened it up and stole a line.  This jump-started my poem.  The illustration shows the criticycles from my students, so I knew I had a winner.  Sometimes when fishing for poems, we catch one.  Sometimes, we catch a boot.  My students usually let me know loud and clear what I have caught.

The knockout punch is the one they didn’t see coming.
Like the wave that flips your peaceful float
Twirling you under the salty water
whipping you upside down
You can see the air, the reflection of sunlight calls you up
Can you find it?
Will you swim long enough to catch a breath?
Will you find the shore?

Relax.
Release tension.
Don’t fight the wave.

God will take you in His arms
and carry you home.

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Lists of Spring

April 11, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Write a list poem.

A Perfect Spring Day

Mating call of a mockingbird
Rhythmic chimes faintly heard

A gentle breeze rustles the trees
Open blossoms fragrant sweet

Rippled stream, greenest green
Field of grass, fertile and clean

Far away song of a fisherman
Cumulus cloud hiding the sun

Days like these are far and few
Writing poems here with you

Darby’s Poem:

If I were a bird, I’d belong to the sky.
If I were a bird, I’d be fearless and brave.
If I were a bird, I’d do my own thing.
If I were a bird, I’d make my own song.
But most of all, if I were a bird,
I’d soar long, high,
and free.

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Poetic Silence

April 10, 2012 by margaretsmn

Day 10: Pick a one-line song lyric to serve as an epigraph to your poem. Then, write the poem to accompany it. The poem need not be directly related to the song.


…my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence.
—Paul Simon

In silence, our poems live
In sharing, our poems grow.
Today was my first day to introduce the poetry challenge to my gifted students.   Their challenge:  Using ABCs of poetry forms, write a poem each day.  We started with Acrostics.  Tomorrow…Bio-poems.  I shared my acrostic poem from Day 1 of the 30 Day Poetry Challenge.
I enjoyed the results.  I told them that the poem should not be about them, but should use the initial letters from their names.  This was part of the 30 Day Challenge, and I was surprised at how well they did.  Here are a few:
Brooklyn
Batting at home place
Racing base to base
Outfield players catching pop-ups
“Out” yells the umpire when the batter has three strikes
Keeping your eye on the ball
Letting the time run from you
Yelling coming from the bleachers
Never getting defeated
Kaylie
Kindling the fire
Ablaze in the midnight sky
Yawns bounce with the light breeze
Locusts chirping
In a sweet melody
Entrancing

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Blue Morning

April 9, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge Day 9: Quickly jot down four verbs, four adjectives, and four nouns. Write a poem utilizing all 12 words.

The proof for Blessen, my first novel for young readers.

The proof of Blessen came on Easter Eve, like a long-awaited gift.  I read it aloud to my husband on our drive to and from New Orleans to be with daughters for Easter.  He enjoyed it.  We talked about word choices and together made some changes.  Now Blessen belongs to both of us.  So today, with this challenge, I opened my book to find the required words from the first page.  I hope the poem captures both my apprehension and excitement about this new literary adventure.

verbs: cackling, hear, flip-flop, birthing

adjectives: big, feathery, thick, proud

nouns: morning, voice, coop, egg

Blue Morning

Cackling of a big feathery hen
wakes up this morning.
Blessen flip-flops to the coop
proud of the newly laid egg.

The birthing of a literary adventure
traveling down the bayou
searching for a home.

Her voice rises in a joyful call,
“I am here, Lord,
ready for this new day!”

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Easter Lily

April 8, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge Day 8: Write a Cinquain on a topic of your choice (1st line = 2 syllables, 2nd line = 4 syllables, 3rd line = 6 syllables, 4th line = 8 syllables, 5th (final line) = 2 syllables).
Lily
opens in time
to hear the joyous hymns–
Alleluias raise, trumpets sound
He lives!
My friend and colleague, Coty Eastin, is also taking the challenge.  She sent me this message, “Margaret,
Today’s cinquain: not deep in structure, but the most precious truth I know.
I enjoy the challenge of writing a poem each day through the fb prompt. Thanks for sharing yours on your blog.”
Rejoice:
Night defeated!
For our sins he suffered
so that we might know the light of a
New Day!

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Roots, Wings

April 7, 2012 by margaretsmn

Day 7- Take a walk until you find a tree you identify with, then write a poem using the tree as a metaphor for yourself or your life.

This quote comes to mind when I look at the great cypress in our backyard: “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children.  One of these is roots; the other, wings.
—William Hodding Carter, Jr.

Old cypress, tall and lean,
roots running deep, branches tall,
offer us protection.

Old cypress, your memory long
crawfish boils and Easter egg hunts,
you watched them all.

Open your branches wide for
nests of birds,
paws of cats,
squabbling squirrels.

Give us your roots,
send forth our wings.

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Weeding on Good Friday

April 6, 2012 by margaretsmn

30 Day Poetry Challenge  Day 6: Write a poem of any length incorporating every word from your latest Facebook status update in any order.

It took a while to find my last real post.  My posts have been my blog, so I kept looking.  I passed over the post about Berry Queens, not really that poetic.  Then I came to this post: With this little extra day, I was able to finish The Hunger Games just in time for the movie. I resisted and resisted, being encouraged by my student to keep reading. I hated the violence, but now I am intrigued to see the movie.  Too many words to work with, but I took the liberty of picking out some that fit with my thoughts on this gorgeous Good Friday.

In the Springtime, our yard becomes a jungle
growing vines cling to brick
resisting my pull, my tug
my violent raging against invasion.

With time, I am able to clear a path
follow it to the water’s edge.
In this silent game, I keep
tending and trimming.

Today is the day of hunger;
In passion, he gave up his life.
I walk through the mud
plucking the weeds.

How can I know such hunger, such pain?
I didn’t see the movie avoiding the sight
of violence on my Savior.
Yet, the story intrigues:

A crown of thorns–
betrayal–
Here is the man you call
King of the Jews.
It is the law
He should die. Why?
For me? For my clutch of weeds?

I look up into the strong arms
of grandmother oak and notice
the resurrection fern
open, happy, and green.

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