Alligator Pie and a Poem to Try

  As the saying goes, Life happens when you're busy doing something else.  Today I was doing some research for the presentation I'm doing at Poetry Camp (for grownups)  at Western Washington University in Bellevue on Sept. 30.  If you don't know about this fantastic, wonderful, first ever gathering of the clan you can find out more here.  It isn't too late to register for this fun weekend and you are more than welcome to come join the over 40 childrens poets who will be presenting and probably doing some hooting and hollering too. We'll definitely be doing a lot of laughing. It should be a grand gathering.

  Anyway, in my research, I stumbled across a fun poem called Alligator Pie by Canadian poet Dennis Lee.  You can read the poem here.  The poem starts:

Alligator pie, Alligator pie,
If I don't get some I think I'm gonna die.

I had so much fun feeling the words in my mouth, and acting them out that it got my brain spinning.
Dennis Lee has three verses to his poem , Alligator Pie, Alligator stew and Alligator soup.  So I got to thinking about other animals and other foods.  Here is what I've come up with.  (They do say imitation is the highest form of flattery.)

Orangutan cake, orangutan cake,
If I don't get some it would be a mistake.
You can have my shovel. You can have my rake.
But please don't take my orangutan cake.

Caterpillar hash, caterpillar hash,
If I don't get some, I think I'll crash.
You can take my hair and my mustache.
 But please don't take my caterpillar hash.

Rhinoceros slaw, rhinoceros slaw,
I love to eat it totally raw. 
You can have my sister, you can have my pa.
But please don't take my rhinoceros slaw.

Butterfly milk, butterfly milk,
It goes down my throat just like silk.
Give away my chocolate and things of that ilk.
But please don't drink my butterfly milk. 

Armadillo toast, armadillo toast 
It's the food I love most.
You can have your turkey, you can have your roast.
But please don't take my armadillo toast.

OK, you've got the idea of what I'm doing.  Do you want to try?  For your poetry challenge for today, pick an animal and a food then see if you can come up with three rhyming words to write your own verse.  Have fun with your creation and if you'd like to leave your poem in the comments, I'm sure we'd all love to read it.  Do have fun with this.  Maybe you'll have fun illustrating your poem. (Remember, due to COPPA laws, if you're under 13 years of age, please have an adult leave your comment for you.)

   Today is Poetry Friday and I hope you're safely indoors reading poems.  Penny Parker Klostermann is hosting the round up this week, so you can hop over to her blog A Penny and her Jots to find more poetry posts.  Thank you Penny, for hosting us this week.

  Today I'll be as happy as a camel chewing dates.

MY PET DRAGON

I have a pet dragon
his name is Fred.
His scales often glow
and turn bright red.
Whenever I whistle
and call him by name,
Fred opens his mouth
and out breathes a flame.
I have to be careful.
You'd think I'd have learned,
that calling out, "Fred!"
will get myself burned.

   Penny Parker Klostermann's new picture book THERE WAS AN OLD DRAGON WHO SWALLOWED A KNIGHT arrived in the mail today.  I won the book from a draw at Renee LaTulippe's blog NO WATER RIVER. The book is lots of fun and it inspired me to write my own dragon poem.  Your poetry challenge for today is to try writing your own dragon poem.  If you had a dragon, what color would it be?  What would you name it?  What would you do with it?  Have fun writing.

Poetry comes with silence.