MEET ME

Meet me in the garden
in the spot where pixies play.
We can watch the flowers grow
on this springtime day.

Have tea with me in the garden
by the flowers the fairies grow.
We can sip from honeysuckles
while you tell me all you know.


   If you had an imaginary garden, who would meet you there?  Can you write your own poem about that today?  Have fun imagining.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Yolanda Yokahama
rides a yak
looking for her lambs.
They're out back
in the garden
eating all the big fat yams.

CREATIVITY

Turtle woman watches
space upon space
providing room
for her stories.
Like the garden she tends
her words grow.
A profusion of peonies blooms.


   Who is Turtle Woman?  What does she look like?  What story does she have to tell you?  Is there a Wolf Man?  Can you write a poem about his story?  Have fun writing.  

Rabbit hops
in the garden,
pauses to nibble
the new plant greens.
Rabbit dashes
across the patio,
hoping he
won't be seen.

     My rabbit has a very busy life.  He is always moving quickly.  If I don't pause to watch him, I miss seeing him.  When you look outside your window, what do you see?  Can you write a poem about the view from your window?

MAY 9

A Lai

Bobbing the fence rail
are two feathered quail--
mistake.

Along that same trail
flicks his rattle-tail,
a snake.

His meal, it will fail
as up the birds sail--
heart-ache.


     I thought for May 9, I'd try a couple of nine line poems.  The first is the French form, the lai.  This form uses two rhyme families.  A syllabic form, there are five syllables for the first two lines using one rhyme, followed by two syllable lines for the second rhyme.  So, the lines look like:

x x x x a
x x x x a
x b

x x x x a
x x x x a
x b

x x x x a
x x x x a
x b

  It is fun working with the long and short lines, but it does make the poem list-like with that really short two syllable line.

Here's another:

Once you may recall
when we were still small
we'd play
at chasing a ball.
You'd try not to fall
each day
and sometimes we'd crawl
or we would stretch tall
in May.

   Another nine line poem is the nonet.  The first line has nine syllables, the second eight, with each successive line having one less syllable until the ninth line has only one syllable.  This takes some planning because you have to end on a single syllable word.   I'm working on a nonet for tomorrow.

   But May 10th is Astronomy Day, so I might write about the moon.  And it is also National Public Gardens Day, so I might make my poem about the garden.  What will you write about today?  Can you try writing a lai or a nonet?  Have fun writing.

   The Poetry Friday Round Up is hosted by Jama Rattigan on her blog Alphabet Soup.  Head over to Jama's Alphabet Soup to read more poetry today.  Thank you, Jama for hosting a fun party.

A Fairy in the Garden

There is a faerie in the garden
I can here her sweet voice sing
as she dines on tea and honey cakes
and juggles small gold rings.

     Today is the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen and so I wanted to write about faeries today.  If you had a faerie in your garden, what would she do?  Can you write your own faerie poem today?  Have fun writing.

A WILD RIDE

A fairy rides on a toad 
who is white.
She giggles and laughs
and sings with delight.

They jump through the forest
where her flower beds loom.
And she whispers to me
It's magic that makes
my garden bloom.

Her pansies are bigger
than that white toad,
as together they leap
on down the road.


     Elves, brownies, pixies and fairies, all kinds of wee folk live in the forest.  When she isn't riding on her toad, what do you think the fairy is doing?  Can you write a poem about that today?  Have fun?

HOW TO MAKE A FAIRY GARDEN

Look for a quiet spot
under the canopy of a tall tree.
If there are dead leaves
that's good, if there is moss
in the shade it is even better.

Scatter stones
to shape a walkway.
Carve a log into a house.
Use two rocks to make a bench,
others for some chairs.
Add a pine cone or dried mushroom
for a table.

Use sticks to form a fence.
Do you want to dig a wee well?

Then put out a sign saying
Fairies Welcome
and hope one takes up residence.
Plant seeds of happiness
and watch your garden bloom.



     I'm being fanciful and I invite you to join me.  This is a "how to" poem that gives directions.  Can you write your own "how to" poem today? Perhaps you'd like to write about how to catch a fairy.  Have fun.
Let your imagination soar.

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.

Midnight MAGIC

A snail
   slips along his trail,
       silver threads
           a road map
              for stars to slide
                 from the night
                    sky to dance
                           a jig in the garden.


     You have until 2:00 this afternoon, MST, to enter the drawing for a free copy of GUESS WHO'S IN THE DESERT, a rhyming riddle book written by Charline Profiri.  If you'd like to be entered in the drawing, leave a comment on my Friday post.

TRIOLET for Fairies

Based on two lines of poetry by Rose Fyleman

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden.

They often have a dance on summer nights.

Have you seen them there, do you reckon?

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden.

When you hear them, please beg their pardon.

Wee folk hate to be seen by star light.

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden.

They often have a dance on summer nights.

    I had so much fun writing the triolet for yesterday's post, I thought I'd try it again today.   Have a good weekend.  I hope you find time to write your own poem.

WILIFORD MOUSE

Wiliford Mouse

liked to spend hours

sitting in the garden

smelling the flowers.


This little mouse

was quite a hoot

sniffing the pollen

with his yellow snoot.


He'd taste the petals,

lap up the dew

but when the cat

came stalking through


Wiliford tried hiding

under the pansies

but he couldn't help it

young Wiliford sneezed.

AH  AH  CHOOOOO!






    Hey, Happy Thursday.  I want to thank you for stopping by and reading my poem.  I've used a slip rhyme, or assonance rhyme in the last stanza.  If you can think of a flower that rhymes perfectly with sneezed, please let me know.  That last stanza still needs work, but I'll get to it.
    Do you like mice?  Click here to read MICE by Rose Flyman.
    Here is your challenge for today, can you write a poem that uses Ah-choo? 

Dragonfly Tea Party

     This poem is for the extraordinary children's poet David Harrison, who had a dragonfly come visit him yesterday. (You can see a picture of the dragonfly by clicking your cursor over his name.)

     I wish I were a princess.

     I'd fly with fairy wings.

     I'd live within the garden

     to see what summer brings.

     I'd have a mushroom 

     for my table

     and a toadstool

     for my seat,

     and there I'd dine

     on lovely food

     with lots of tasty treats.

   

     When you come to visit

     we'll have lots of food to eat.

     We'll dine on little fairy cakes

     and other yummy sweets.

     

     We will drink the dew drops

      and snail shell cups of tea

      when you come into the garden

      for our dragonfly party.

        I'm having so much fun with the thought of being a Dragonfly Princess that
I want to get out my colored pencils to draw a picture to go with my poem.  Do you have a poem (one of your own or someone else's) you'd like to draw a picture for?  OK, so today let's try drawing instead of writing.  Have fun.  This fairy princess loves the color pink.  Happy Saturday.

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.