PIZZA

Let's all try
some of this pizza pie.

"I can't,"  said the ant.
"It's not too big," said the pig.
"Oh yes," said the lioness.

"I'm in," said the pigeon.
"I will," said the hornbill.
"I also will," said the gerbil.

"I shall," said the serval.
"I can," said the toucan.
"I might," said the bobwhite.

"I'll try," said the fly.
"I may," said the stingray.
"I must," said the cow, "eat the crust."

"May I have anchovy?" asked the muscovy.
"We'll see," said the bee.
"I'll eat half," said the giraffe.

"You would, of course," said the horse.
Then it was the hen who said,
"Let's dig in."

   This was a fun poem to execute once I had the idea.  I took all the ways I could think of to try to say, "YES!" and then tried to find animals that would rhyme with my yes-words.  Can you think of other ways to say "YES!" Please let me know.  I did have some left-over animals like bruin, duckbill, spoonbill, blue gill, Parmesan (oops, that's not an animal,) termite, snake, and nene(the Hawaiian State Bird). Did you know a serval is an African cat and a muscovy is a kind of duck named after Moscow?
   Just for fun try writing your own poem to say NO.
  

Writing poetry for children is better than eating pizza.

I WILL SAY YES

Today I will say YES
to the sunshine brightening the sky,
it's beauty so wondrous
it enriches my eye.

I'll say YES
as I dance on my way to school.
No cares. No worries.
I'm one dancing fool.

I'll say YES
when you ask me to come play.
I'm floating on a cloud.
Up, up and away.

I'll say YES and smile
to all I meet,
I'll even wave
to cars in the street.

YES to new things
I'll try, YES, YES, YES.
I know it will bring me
much happiness.

   I was reading a blog post yesterday at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme from Matt Forrest and he mentioned saying YES.  It reminded me of being in a poetry workshop with him at the Highlights Educational Foundation Barn.  Any time we had an exercise or an activity to do as a group, Matt would be the first to say YES, let's give this a try and see where it takes us.  So this poem is for Matt with a message for all of us.  What can you try today that you haven't tried to do before?  For your poetry challenge today, can you write your poem in a form you haven't tried before?  What ever you do, try having fun today and say YES.

YES!

OK, we're trying this again.  The text reads:

I fly

on a zip line

through the trees.

YIPEEEE!

          This is a concrete poem in that the final letter is supposed to make a zip-line through the poem.  I recently read an article about one of Elizabeth Bishop's concrete poems and the author made the point that in the days before computers the poet had to position each letter on the typewriter platen.  I'm not so sure it would be harder because I often end up at odds with the computer program that wants to take out spaces, wrap, or put the lines hard left.  Hence, I drew what I wanted and then took a picture.  

          This poem is also an acrostic.  The last letter of each of the first three lines forms a word--the title of this poem.  For such a short little poem, I'm not sure if it isn't more trouble than it is worth, but I'll keep trying to get it right.  Have a great Sunday.