KISSING FROGS

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

I am one happy frog.
I like sitting in my bog,
eating bugs and flies
as I watch the days go by.

However, I confess
my life would be a mess
if I were made to kiss
the lips of a princess.

 Do you know the fairy tale about the Princess and the Frog?  What would happen if all the frogs were getting kissed by little girls who wanted to find a prince? What is your favorite fairy tale?  Can you take a fairy tale, turn it on it's ear and then write a poem about it?  Have fun being wild and crazy.  Happy writing.

I cannot get out of my head a fairy-tale of olden times.--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)



The Poetry Friday Round Up is hosted this week by Heidi Mordhorst on her blog My Juicy Little Universe.  Thanks, Heidi.  She has a delicious poem about going back to school titled, No Not Yet, with lots of fun word play.  Check out her poem and lots of other fun poetry on her blog.

MY BEST FRIEND JOHN

Knocking at my door

was Monster John

face all white,

waxy and wan.

I was scared.

My cheeks turned red.

Trick-or-treat

was what

Monster John said.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

     See, I'm still playing with this silly rhyme.  This time I've taken the name of my friend and plugged it into the poem.  Do you have a friend who is going trick-or-treating for Halloween?  What costume will he wear?  Can you write your own poem about your friend?

Knocking at my door

was Princess Joy.

She carried a wand,

a children's toy.

I laughed so hard,

my cheeks turned red.

Trick-or-treat,

was what the Princess said.

Happy Halloween.

     All right!  Enough.  But, wouldn't you like to try writing your own Halloween poem and put your name in the poem.  I hope you have a happy Sunday writing poetry.

THE YETTI

Knocking at my door
a furry yeti,
held out his hand
all hairy, sweaty.

I was scared.
Thought I'd be dead.

Tick-or-treat,
was what
the yeti said.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.


     I'm still playing with my Halloween rhyme. Have you tried it yet?  I had two other ideas.
One was to try using fairy tale characters.


Knocking at my door
a princess with her pea.
She held out the legume
to hand it to me.

She was distressed,
found a pea under her bed.

Trick-or-treat,
 the princess said.

Happy Halloween.

     Then, the second idea, to try writing the poem as a reverso--a poem that makes sense read from the top or the bottom.  With a tiny bit of tweaking, I made it work for the princess.


Happy Halloween
the princess said

Trick-or-treat,
She'd found a pea under her bed.
She was distressed
to hand it to me.

She held out the legume
the princess and the pea--
knocking at my door.

    I was delighted to see this works with this poem.  Now it is your turn.  Don't you want to try?  Pick an animal, or a fairy tale character, or your favorite character from children's literature and give it a go.  Have fun playing.  Please share your creation in the comments.