Big Bear Hug

Toes tap.
Fingers snap.
Knuckles rap.
Hands clap.
Arms flap.
Wrap around you
In a Big Bear Hug.


     This is an action poem.  Can you act out the lines?  Now have fun trying to write your own action poem.  What actions do you want to include?

Robyn Hood Black, Children's Poet

     All my friends know how much I love, love, love THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=poetry+friday+anthology&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=13302063981&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=345380227259911175&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_zcgwbusok_b

     So many of the poems in the book make me laugh and give me ideas for writing my own poems.  One of my favorite poems in the book is by Robyn Hood Black. 

      With Robyn's permission, I'm sharing  her poem, Snack Rules with you.

SNACK RULES

Don't talk with your mouth full--

full of peanut butter.

Anything you try to say

will cmmm out as a mmmttrr.

Copyright © 22012 by Robyn Hood Black. Used with permission of the author. All rights reserved.

     When I first read her poem SNACK RULES, my eyes played a trick on me and I read the title as SNAKE RULES and I thought it was the funniest thing to think of a snake with his mouth stuck shut with peanut butter.  When I wrote to Robyn and told her of my mis-sight, she suggested that I write the poem I thought I saw.  Or rather she said something like I always did have a thing for snakes.  (She is right, I've written about them often.)

    So I did.  But when I got done I changed the title to:

SNAKE SNACKS

My pet snake,

I call him Drake,

likes to eat my snacks.

He eats the cheese,

he eats the nuts,

he eats all my

peanut butter crackers.

My snacks,

He says

are delicious

lip-smackers.

The only problem,

it happened quick,

the peanut butter

made him sick.

They made his lips

like glue stick.

Now instead of h-i-s-s-s-s-s

my pet snake hics.

A snake with hiccups

could cause fright.

His hic-ing keeps me up

all through the night.

     I'll admit that the rhythm is off in a couple of places, and if you come back tomorrow, I'll show you a nifty way I found for working with that. (I hope.)
     Your poetry prompt for today is to think of an animal and write a poem about something that happens to it.  What happens when the birds eat lemons, or the bear uses honey on his coat, or the dog rolls in the mud, or the hamster eats all your jellybeans?  Can you find an animal that sets your imagination running?  Happy Saturday.  Have fun playing with your poem.

     Thank you, Robyn for sharing your poem with us and for stimulating my creativity.

HOP, HOP, HOP, HOP,

I am a rabbit.

I hop and hop.

I keep on hopping

and will not stop.

I hop on one foot.

Hop, hop, hop.

Hop on two feet ,

hop-hop, hop-hop.

Hopping-hopping

until I slump.

One foot is a hop.

Two feet are a jump.

    This is an action rhyme.  Can you tell I've make an exercise resolution for the new year?  Can you try writing your own action rhyme? Do you like to run, skip, or sit?  I can think of words to rhyme with each of them.


My short poem


To run
is fun.
To skip,
don't slip.
But, if you sit
you're full of it.


     Which only goes to prove that I can write bad poems too.  I'm in a silly mood today.  I hope you enjoy your day too.


 

ACTION POEM

     OK, here we go again.  I'm trying something different again today.  (Isn't poetry all about experimenting with new ways to communicate meaning?)  Today's poem is actually a poem with actions but WITHOUT words.
I'm supplying the description of the action, but it isn't my intent to have the reader say the words but to do the action.  Let's see if this works.


(march,     march,     march)

(blink,     blink,     blink)

(clap,     clap,     clap)

(turn around left)

(shake left fist)

(turn around right)

(shake right fist)

(jump up)

(sit down)


     Now, here is the challenge.  Write your own wordless action poem.  You could nod, look left, right, up, down, skip, hop, sway, kick, stomp.  What other actions can you think of?  Have fun.  This can also work as a chain game where each person gets to add the next line of the poem or action.  For an even greater challenge, have the person adding an action repeat all the other lines of the poem before adding their own.  I wish we were together so we could do this as a group.