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.

WHERE DO YOU WRITE?

I like to write
at the kitchen table.
Sometimes I write
at the dining room table.
My laptop lets me write
at the coffee table
or even an end table.
When the weather is nice
I write from the picnic table
or even a patio table.
But my favorite place to write
is in among the vegetables.


     Can you tell I'm being silly again?  My father-in-law had a stroke and the area affected is his right frontal lobe at his speech center, so I'm thinking about speech in a whole new way.  I've also been super busy too.  Did the storm keep you awake taking care of your house and family?  Maybe you're ready to write a silly poem too.  Use your dictionary, a magazine, or even a newspaper.  Close your eyes and take a stab with your finger.  What word is under your finger?  Do this three times on three different pages.  Now see if you can write an absolutely nonsensical poem that links the three words.  Or what happens if you write the word backward.  I'm thinking about "word" and come up with drow.

Oh dear, I need my mind to settle.  Here I go being silly again.

A black bird
went canoeing
in his row boat.
"This feels renewing,
as long as I float."

With my paddle,
I drow, drow, drow
back and forth
too and fro.


    See how silly.  Do have fun writing your own poem.