haiku

lizard meditates
upon a sunlit flat rock
disturb not his dreams


grasshoppers awash
in the cool golden moonlight
cry into the night


large ring neck lizard
greedily bathes in sunlight
watching flying gnats


hummingbird
my mother's spirit
observing her joy


can I cultivate
words, phrases, will this mountain
of verse disturb you?


     I'm still working on haiku as I work my way through another zen book.  I do enjoy combining my writing with reading.  You challenge for today is to take one of your poetry books and randomly open to a page.  Put you finger down in the middle of the page and look for the closest noun.  Can you write a short poem about that word.  Does the word strike a memory for you?  When was the first time you learned to read this word?  How did you learn the meaning?  Ask a friend what the word means to them.  Can you find a metaphor or simile for the word?  Have fun writing.

    For more poetry fun, Poetry Friday is being hosted today by Michelle Barnes on her blog, Today's Little Ditty .

POUT

A lip 
sticking out
is a
pout.


     Busy day today.  I hope you are enjoying the season.  I put a little bird on the pout in this sketch because my mother used to tell me that if I pouted a bird would come along and peck my nose.  I always thought I was more likely to catch gnats with that moist lip sticking out.  Your poetry challenge for today is to write your own poem about someone who pouts.  Have fun.

Five Little Lizards

 This little lizard sat on the wall,

 having fun.

This little lizard slept under a rock

out of the sun.

This lizard ate a gnat or two.

This lizard changed colors

from red to blue.

This little lizard dashed fast 

off the wall

because  he heard 

the hawk's call.

 I'm still working away on list poems.  They are also called catalog poems  I started pulling all the poetry books off my book shelf and checking the index to see if the book included any material on list poems.
I did pull out my copy of THE LIST POEM A Guide to Teaching and Writing Catalog Verse, written by Larry Fagin, published in 1991 by the Teachers and Writers Collaborative. 
   I noticed he has a chapter titled: This Little Piggie (Lists and List Poems)  I won't bore you with all the details of this chapter except to say that Fagin points out that we start children on lists with poems like this little piggie, the A B C song, The House That Jack Built and Old MacDonald Had A Farm. 

 So here is today's exercise.  Take a sheet of paper and writing as quickly as you can make a list of animals. Include domesticated animals, farm animals, zoo animals, birds, beasts--any kind of animals you can think of, but only write for a minute.  Making one-minute lists is a fun thing to do if you just have a short amount of time.  Take any noun--dogs, hats, flowers, food,  --and see how many things you can write down that fit your noun category in one minute.  I frequently let my students name the category.  They are very creative.  We've done mall stores, video games and even video game characters. 

Now remember the This Little Piggie rhyme?

This little piggie went to market.

This little piggie stayed home.

This little piggie ate roast beef.

 This little piggie had none.

This little piggie cried wee-wee-wee all the way home.

Now take one of the animals from your list and plug that into this form poem.

This little _______________went to________________.

This little _______________stayed home.

This little  _______________ ate  _______________.

 This little  _______________ had none.


This little _______________ cried  _______________ all the way home.

For an example, I can do this with goldfish

This little goldfish swam over the dam. (Notice I changed words for a stronger verb.)

This little goldfish stayed in the pond.

This little goldfish  ate  flies for breakfast.

 This little goldfish had none.


This little goldfish  cried gulp, gulp, gulp all the way home.

The pattern is easy enough to follow that in no time, I predict you will want to change the words a bit to make your own variation on this list poem.   Have fun playing and please share your creations with me.  What is the silliest thing you can write a poem about?