ONE HOT SUMMER 3

Will the monsoons come?
Will I race outside laughing
with my mouth open
to catch rain drops
on my tongue
once more?

Yes, monsoons will come
and raindrops
will fall on your tongue
and laughter too.

But now it is summer.
Now you can stand in the shade
to feel a few degrees cooler
playing shadow games.
What fun!

    It is three days now that I have been using Eileen Spinelli's NOW IT IS WINTER as my mentor text.
What games do you like to play in summertime?  Can you write a poem about your favorite game?  Have fun writing.

Children's poetry must be written with enthusiasm.

WHALE

Whale blew
spewing
raindrops
each drop
a rainbow
coloring
the air.

     My poem today features another aquatic animal.  Do you know why I didn't say another fish?  Yesterday's minnows are fish, but a whale is not a fish.  It is a mammal.  What other creatures might you find in the sea? Can you write your own ocean poem today?  Have fun.

COUNTING RAINDROPS

ONE raindrop

yelled as he fell,

"Ya-hoooo!"

TWO raindrops 

called as they fell,

"Wheeeeeeeee!

THREE raindrops

begged as they fell,

"More!"

FOUR raindrops

danced as they fell,

"Come on, jive!"

FIVE raindrops

sang as they fell,

"It's great to be alive!"

All of the raindrops

started to fall.

I opened my umbrella

to avoid them all.

      It does seem strange to be writing poems about rain when it is dry and sunny in Tucson.  Our big news is we might possibly have a shower on Saturday.  This poem is built on internal rhyme.  I'm not sure if I like that or not.  I'm probably going to play with it some more and see if I can do something better.  This is the fun of writing poetry; you can always come back and play with it later and try to do something else.   At the poetry reading I went to last night, Carl Dennis read mostly new poems he is working on for a new collection he calls, EXTRA ROOM.  These are poems loosely connected to the idea of "widening our circle of ideas."  Later he mentioned that in preparation for the reading he had been practicing reading out loud and had found several poems he just didn't want to read.  He said when he finds poems he doesn't want to read again (and again,) he knows something isn't right with the poem. He puts it away in his drawer. 
     I asked him, what happens to those poems in his drawer.  Dennis said that those poems get recycled.  Parts of them will end up in other poems, or he may just take the idea and start all over.  I did like the idea of reading aloud poems to find ones that bore you, don't sound right, seem unfinished, etc.  So, I'm going back over some of my old poems to find those that no longer please me to see if I can make them better.  It will be fun to visit some of my old friends again.
   
     So, today's challenge is to re-read some of your old poems and see if there is one you don't like.  Spend the weekend with that poem, making it better.  Have fun writing.  Have a great weekend and if you have rain, enjoy it.  Have you ever had a rain party?