SUNRISE

.

Sunrise.

Welcome 

the birth

of a new day.

See

the gem

sparkle

over

the bay.

Watch 

light 

rise

into

the sky.

See

your future

drifting by.

When

all the world

has a rosy glow,

and the day

is full of magic

with room

to grow. 

  Happy Poetry Friday.  Were you up early enough to see the sunrise?  The sunrise in Kapaa today was at 7:26 AM.  It comes very late when I'm on the far west of the time zone and the sun has to get over the foothills before it gets to me. My sunset is after 6:30 in the evening.  What magic will happen for you today?  How will you grow yourself today?  Can you write a couplet about your Friday today?  Have fun writing.

Dreams are the soul's pantry.  Keep it well stocked and your soul will never hunger.  Cindy Williams

 

Today is Poetry Friday and Kimberley Moran has the round up at her blog Written Reflections.  Thanks, Kimberley for throwing the poetry party this week

FAVORITE FOOD

"Moo," said Cow,
"this tastes like, WOW!"
"Oink, oink," said Pig,
"this pie I dig."
Tomato said, "Squish."
"Pizza is our favorite dish."

     What is your favorite food?  Can you write a poem about the foods you like to eat today?  This refrain started out as a quatrain, with lines 2 and 4 missing.  but as I worked on the poem, I was having fun, so I switched it to couplets.  I called it a refrain because I'm thinking this poem is going to work its way into a rhyming picture book.  Can you figure out why a cow, a pig, and a tomato are the main characters of this poem?

A children's poem makes you tap your toes and snap your fingers.

Having fun

I made banana bread yesterday with left over bananas.  This morning, as I was cutting a slice for breakfast, I was thinking about today's poem.  I came up with a couplet, and then I thought about other couplets, and I ended up with a game for myself.  Would you like to play too?

Little girl, her nickname is Red,
her favorite food is banana bread.

Little boy with eyes of blue,
his favorite food is Irish stew.

Basketball player with skinny legs,
his favorite food is scrambled eggs.

Granny Horton with skin like a snake,
her favorite food is carrot cake.

Gloria Jean, eyes with a gleam,
her favorite food is chocolate ice cream.

Silly Suzie loves to tell jokes,
her favorite food is artichokes.

Alice Ann won't tell a lie,
her favorite food is apple pie.

Bobby Bolton wears blue jeans,
his favorite food is Boston Baked Beans.

Charlie Carter, his hair is sandy,
eats a lot of hard rock candy. 

    OK, so can you see I'm starting to follow the alphabet?  Now it is your turn.  Take an initial from your name and see what you come up with.  Have fun writing couplets today.  If you want to play, leave your couplet in the comments.  Thanks.

     I'm off to find "J" foods, or I might slip into sports.

Joyful Joy stepped on a pin
when she hurled a javelin.

 Jone is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Jone.  You can find more poetry here: http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=509905

I DON'T KNOW

Clo is a girl who liked to say,
"I don't know what I'll do today."
She said, "I don't know 
how to launch a boat
how to row it 
or what makes it float."

She said, "I don't know 
all the nations on the globe
or how to sew a terry cloth robe.

"I don't know 
how to speak Japanese,
or how to measure the wind 
in this breeze.

"But the more I study
the more I know
and the more I learn
the more I grow."

   Last Thursday when I volunteered at my library helping children write their poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day, I met a Victoria who didn't know what she wanted to write her poem about.  Like Pierre in Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie, who kept repeating I don't care; Victoria kept repeating I don't know and so I suggested she write her poem about that.  Victoria chose to write her poem about a place she loves in Conneticut, but the I don't know phrase stuck in my head and I had to write a poem about it.  So here is your challenge for today, can you write a couplet to go in the middle of my poem about something Clo might know?  Have fun with your writing.

HAPPY POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     Let me share this one with you.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     It helps me when I'm blue.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     It's stuck in my heart like glue.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     I know the words are true.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     It gives me ideas I can chew.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     I know it by heart, don't need a cue.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     And its meaning grew and grew.

I keep a poem in my pocket.
                     Would you like to try it too?

Just keep a poem in your pocket.
                      That's all you need to do.

Share the poem in your pocket.
                      Toddle-oo.


     It is national Poem In Your Pocket Day where people are encouraged to keep a poem in their pocket and share it with others today.  This is a poem written for two voices.  Your poetry challenge for today is to write another stanza to go in this poem.  You can leave your couplet in the comments.  I'm off today to my local library to help the children write poems and make pockets.  I'll be reciting my poem CAPILLARY ACTION for them from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, published by Pomelo Books.

Couplet

Two very shy poetry lines

came together and felt fine.

"We can be strong, you can bet!

We'll call ourselves a couplet."

And when the two appeared together

their verses got better and better.

     Oh this is silly, I'm going to have to work on this a lot.  I'm thinking about
 the couple getting pregnant and when the  twins came, the family then would be a quatrain.  The twins catch a cold and  they get sick, so Grandma comes and makes a limerick. 

     Your challenge for to day is to write a poem in couplets.  Try to keep your poem short.  Can you write a complete poem with just one couplet?  Have fun.

Desert Couplet

Everyone hides from this broiling desert sun,

Tarantula, snake, lizard, and scorpion.

       A couplet is two lines, a pair or couple.  It brings together two things for a complete thought.  Although it doesn't have to be, most couplets are rhyming.  The challenge for the poet is to make the brief lines worthy of notice.  Basically what a couplet does is notice a moment and to say this matters and this matters. 
The animals I list are all from the desert around my house.  What animals are around your home?  What is the weather or the terrain like?  Can you put them together to write your own couplet?  Try several of them.