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This is my playground for poetry written for children with ideas and inspiration for writing your own poems. Come on in. Sit for a spell, have a cup of words to swirl around and make your own cup of poetry. I'm so glad you are here. I hope you'll find the Kingdom of Poetry a fun place to be.

Friday, July 17, 2015

BEING SILLY

My feet woke up this morning.
They wanted out of bed
And if they hadn't hit the floor
I'd have fallen on my head. 

   You never know where a poem is going to come from. Sometimes you hear a phrase and you just know it has to be a poem.  This came from a tweet posted by John Schu about a book by Laurel Snyder, titled SWAN.  (I think.) All I got was "Her feet woke up." and it hit me as interesting, like saying: 
her mouth watered, 
her skin itched, 
her eyes blinked, 
her stomach growled.
    Now if you separate the phrase from its meaning and take it literally what would cause that action to make a story?  What if you switch around the pieces?  Could your stomach blink, your skin sneeze, your eyes growl?  What would that mean?  So your challenge for today is to take a body part and take a typical phrase about it and turn that phrase on its head.  Can you try writing your own silly poem today?  Have fun playing with this.

  Poetry Friday is hosted by Kimberly Moran this week.  You can find more poetry on her blog at https://plus.google.com/103353747436744986067/posts/1WZ74Qnc34a 
Thanks Kimberley for rounding us all up this week.

Children's poets mine for hidden gold.

14 comments:

  1. Joy, this prompt came at the best time for me. I finished up a kids writing camp today and promised to post a prompt each day on our shared blog. I hope the kids keep writing. But here is my twisted response.

    My stomach sneezed
    in the heat of the day.
    The sun blazed hot,
    my mouth itched,
    and before you knew it,
    achoo! from way down deep.
    Some people may call this reaction 
    something totally gross.  
    But you can forgive a sneeze,
    "Bless you!"

    --Margaret Simon

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    1. Yes, Margaret, I've been following your posts with the kids. I've greatly enjoyed them. I used to teach at a summer writers camp at NC State University. I always had the most fun being with other young writers. We did ekphrastics at the NC Museum of Art. Some of the things the kids wrote were amazing. Thank you for your service to future writers.
      Your poem made me giggle.

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  2. This is fun Joy! It really is true, isn't it, that poems come from anywhere!

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    1. I do have a twisted sense of humor, which does make for some weird poems occasionally.

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  3. Such a funny poem & that it came from one tweet-you never know when the muse strikes, Joy.

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    1. Yup, you just have to have your brain engaged and your pen handy. But you also have to be willing to be crazy-silly.

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  4. Fun poem and challenge, Joy--love these pairings, especially eyes growl!

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    1. But you know Buffy, you've had people look at you with growlly eyes. Or the question might be, what have you looked at with growlly eyes. I think Hawaiians call it the hairy eyeball.

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  5. So cute, Joy! There's something Shel Silversteiny about it.
    Did you choose "of" instead of "have" in the last line because that's what it sounds like?
    I think sometimes my brain powers down before the rest of me. There's a poem in that :-)

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    1. Tabatha, bless you. Thanks for keeping me honest. I appreciate the help.

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  6. What a neat activity! It's amazing how we can bring inanimate objects to life just by asking them to do something we don't usually do. It's kind of a blend of personification and metaphor, don't you think?

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    1. Absolutely. If you get to try this out with kids, let me know what they come up with.

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  7. What fun, Joy. Maybe ears could wink at a joke. Another silly: ears peeled when they saw the bright sun! They didn't wait for the sunburn.

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  8. Linda A. I like your ideas. Wonder what poem you'll come up with for these.

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