BEING CAT

If I were a cat
I know what I'd do
I curl in your lap
and purr for you.


    Today's poem came because I was reading a poem posted today by US children's poet laureate Kenn Nesbitt.
    His poem starts: If I had a dollar/ I know what I'd do...  and as I reread the lines, I thought, hey, I've written a poem with those same words.  And the more I thought about the lines, the more I knew these lines would make a good outline for lots of poems.  My previous poem was about a dog, so I tried again with a cat.  The poem above is what came out.  But what would happen if you used a bird?

If I were a goldfinch,
I know what I'd do,
I'd sit at the feeder
and sing songs to you.

     Or what happens if I try another animal?

If I were an elephant
living in the zoo
I'd share half my peanuts
and give them to you.

        I could also try a holiday, this is what I ended with for the Fourth of July.
If I were an American flag
I know what I'd do
I'd wave for freedom
in red, white and blue.


    Would the basic pattern work for professions?

If I were my teacher
I know what I'd do.
I'd make recess last all day.
How about you? 

 So now it is your turn.  Think of an animal, an object, or an event, and write your own poem.

If I were (fill in the blank.)
I know what I'd do.
I'd ______________________
____________________ with you.

    Give it a try and see if you have fun.  You are welcome to leave your poems in the comments below.  Have fun playing with this.

New Day

I'm sorry I'm so late posting today.  Yesterday we had a power outage and I lost my internet connection for 24 hours.  I kept thinking it would come back on, but it didn't. I kept putting off going to the library or Starbucks to get a connection.  So as not to waste time, I spent the day making another batch of prickly pear jelly.  Today I've been busy trying to catch up on the things I should have done yesterday.

I had pictures to show you what our sunrise looked like at 5:30 in the morning.
So here:

 

And here:

     It really was a beautiful morning.  This got me to thinking about my Sunrise poem, and the fact that yesterday's poem read from left to right, but when you look at a map on paper the East is on the right and the West is on the left.  So I took that poem apart to try running the words in the opposite direction.
    But along the way something happened.  It made me think about two poetry exercises I have learned about in poetry workshops.

   The first exercise I learned from poet Yousef Komunyakaa.  He said that a lot of poets carry their poems on past the point where the poem should be done.  Many is the time I've read a poem and known  what I was reading was really two poems and the poet needed to seperate the two thoughts and write two poems.  Komenyakaa suggested reading the poem from the bottom up and asking yourself if you really need that line.  Eventually you'll reach a point where the natural ending of the poem should fall.  It is his instruction that helps me to make tighter poems with more impact.  His exercise helps me to get down to the essential meaning of my poetry.

  The second exercise is one I know my friend Ruth Moose uses in many of her poetry workshops.  She has students cut apart the lines of their poems and then try to see if there are other ways to patch the lines together.  This changes the order of the lines.

  This is what I was doing with the spine poem when I took the words off the first drawing to have the poem read right to left.  Like Magnetic Poetry, I could easily look at each word and see if it was in the right order.  To see if I had the words in the best order.  And in my playing I tightened the poem.  I think I like the poem better this way.  What do you think?

(original art by Joy Acey, all rights reserved)

If you have trouble reading this from right to left, here is the Sun poem

UP
Rise Up
start
a new
day
rise 
in the
east
come
out
play
when
it's
time
to rest
sun
sets
in the 
west

     Your challenge for today is to take one of your old poems and cut it up to see if you can come up with a different poem by rearranging the lines.  Have fun playing with your poems.

WHEELS ON THE ROAD

The wheels on the car,
squish, squish
thump, thump
over the hot tar road.

The wheels on the pick up truck
squish, squish
bump,bump
over the macadam road.

The wheels on the dump truck
squish, squish
rattle, rattle
over the gravel road.

The wheels on the semi truck
squish, squish
swish, swish
over the highway road.

The wheels on the bus
squish, squish
jump, jump
over the wet, black road.

All the vehicles
come and go, come and go
splashing, bouncing
rolling over all our roads.


  There were a lot of cars out on my morning walk, and this is what I came up with.  If you're a fan of THE WHEELS ON THE BUS, you might see some similarities, except I'm going with different vehicles; and all of the tires go squish, squish.  Do you have an idea why?

   Now stick with me here.  I jumped from this idea to how I could take the same cadence of WHEELS, to my pet turtle.

MY PET TURTLE

The head on my turtle,
ducks right in,
ducks right in,
ducks right in.
The head on my turtle,
ducks right in,
hiding in his shell.

Can you see how the verses for the feet and tail might follow?  Now, jump back to a child going to bed.

GOING TO BED

The toes on my feet
tuck right in,
tuck right in,
tuck right in.
The toes on my feet
tuck right in
to my snugly bed.

  Then you could move to:
the feet on my legs, the knees on my legs, the shins on my legs, the thighs on my legs-- you name a body part and it can be tucked into bed.  And if a child doesn't want to go to sleep he could keep you going all night thinking of body parts to tuck into bed.

  So, here is your challenge--think of an object--animal, mineral, or vegetable, and write your own short verse using this repetitive cadence.  Have fun with this, you can be as weird and bizarre as you choose.  Just WRITE, and have fun with poetry.

Christmas Morning

On Christmas morning
while Mom and Dad sleep,
my sister and I
downstairs we creep.

We quietly race
to our Christmas tree
and are super surprised
by all we see.

Everything is here.
It's better than a dream.
We wake Mom and Dad
when Sis and I scream.

This is the BEST Christmas,
Mom and Dad.
I want you to know
you've made me so glad.

Everything is perfect.
Everything is right.
Even my cat and dog
today do not fight.


I hope the same thing
is happening at your place,
May our hearts all fill
with Christmas grace.

Merry Christmas.


     Thank you for finding the time to stop by.  I hope you can find a moment today to make notes about your best memory of this holiday season. Can you try to shape your notes into a poem?  Did you get a new journal for Christmas?