CRUMPET TEA PARTY

copyright 2015, Joy Acey

At her tea party
Little Miss Muffet
offered Miss Elephant
a taste of her crumpets.
"These are delicious,"
Miss Elephant trumpets,
"Oh what a day!"

     If you were to host your own tea party, who would you invite?  What food would you serve?  What would you talk to your guests about?  Can you write a poem today about your own tea party?  Have fun making up your guest list.

There are all kinds of tea and all kinds of tea parties, I mean to enjoy a few.

SUMMER HAIKU

Wading in the creek
we turn rocks over to look
for salamanders.

At sleep-away camp
in my cabin with the girls
we talk through the night.

Dandelion puffs
will grant us a magic wish
when we blow on them.

Dress up with my dolls
we are having a tea party--
cookies without crumbs.

Picnic at the park
peanut butter sandwiches
and too many ants.

At swim team practice
we race minnows and sharks
everyone gets wet.

    Happy Saturday, can you try writing your own haiku today?

WHAT IS POETRY?

WHAT IS POETRY?
It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. --Stephen Mallarme
 

  It is finding the truth, no need to lie.
  It's munching on watermelon and letting seeds fly.
 
  It's a letter that comes with a card in the mail.
  It's the lacy silver threads left by a garden snail. 
 
  It's daffodil trumpets covering the hill.
  It's a deer at the creek, drinking her fill.
 
  It's giggling and laughing and being absurd.
  It's reading a haiku and feeling each word. 

  It's a dragon who blows flames, loud and hardy.
  It's fairies in the garden having a tea party.


  This is my progressive poem for National Poetry Month.  Each day I'll add a line to this list poem of what poetry is to me.  What is poetry to you?  You're welcome to leave suggestions for lines for me.  

   Try writing your own poem today.  What would your life be like without poetry?  I know that poetry makes me very happy and I think I'd be sad, unhappy if I couldn't surround myself with poetry.  Have a great week.

A Bear Comes to Tea.

If a bear comes to a tea party

he'll want to eat

extremely hearty.

He'll nosh on salmon,

shrimp and trout,

and will not leave

when you want him out.

     I'm still playing with the tea party.  When I first drafted this poem, I had, " trout, salmon and shrimp."  I just couldn't get a good rhyme for shrimp.  So I had to change the line and order for the fish.  I tried ending the line with "shrimp, too" so I could rhyme with "too." but that sent the poem into a dead end also.  Today, instead of writing a poem, can you read to find poem with an end rhyme that you think is elegant (clever)?  If you find one you especially like will you share it with me in the comments.please?

Tea Party

Yesterday I suggested you try writing a poem about a tea party.  I just got back from the Highlight's Founders Workshop in poetry, so I'm running.  I'm busy, there is so much to catch up on.  Sorry this post is late.  But Linda Anderson asked me a question about having tea in a bubble and it got me to thinking.  I could use my response for today's poem.

Hey Linda,
  The bubbles are magic, so you can put as many imaginary folks in a bubble as you'd like. There you go again, Linda--how wonderful--you've got me thinking, a funny series of poems (probably quatrains) with advice for having tea parties.

The Snail
 

Never invite a snail for tea
he'll slobber on the plates
and eat half cookies.
He'll leave his slime
all over the place,
and will not brush crumbs
from his face.


I'm jazzed about all the things I learned at the workshop and all the ideas I need to follow up on (and the revisions I want to work on).  The workshop was a wonderful experience--
I recommend it for anyone who has the chance to attend and loves children's poetry.

One of the free books in my "BAG" was Eileen Spinelli's TEA TIME TODAY; Poems to Sip and Savor.  It is a delightful book with lots of tips on how to have the most delightful tea parties.  I'm going to need to study this book to see how my poems are different. 

But, your challenge for today is to write a poem about one person you'd invite to a tea party, or someone you wouldn't want there.

Never invite the hippo,
you really don't want him there.
He will crack your hand-painted china
and smash your dainty sitting chair.

    (Yuck, that really needs some help with the meter, but the idea is there to get you started.)  Have a super Friday and I sincerely hope I get some of this work done so I can really work on my poetry and have my own party.

    I welcome your comments, or your poems (please) in the comments section below.  Thanks for dropping by.  I appreciate all your help.

Bubble Magic

The faeries are blowing wee soap bubbles,

they're growing like flowers in the tall grass.

They are sending you an invitation

come along every young laddie and lass.

Come play with the bubbles and drink some tea.

Dine in your bubbles and blow one for me.

     Yesterday, children's poet Eileen Spinelli gave me a bottle of soap bubbles.  She said it would help me to get in touch with my inner child.  It was a bottle of magic.  I took the bottle outside and blew bubbles. They settled in and on the long grass.  The glistening orbs made me think they would be the perfect thing for a faerie tea party.  Each one held a rainbow.
     This poem has a really long line for me.  It is a pentameter (5 foot) line.
Do you like blowing soap bubbles?  Can you write a poem about that today?  Or experiment with using your own pentameter line.

The Rabbit

The rabbit in the garden

likes to munch, munch munch.

On tender grasses and plants

that crunch, crunch, crunch.

     I had fun yesterday practicing sketching and drew this little rabbit.  He is far from perfect, but I did think he ended up looking like a rabbit.  I hope you had fun yesterday drawing a picture to go with your poem.

     Today is supposed to be very cold again.  for a short month, even though we get an extra day with leap year, February seems to go on forever for me.  I will be happy to see March.  And now you know how Lewis Carroll wrote about the March Hare and a mad tea party.  If you were to have a tea party today, who would be there?  Can you write a mad (wild) poem about it?  Do have a good time.  Cheerio.