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.

MARSHMALLOWS

Campfire
flickers
leaps
glows
great for
roasting
marshmallows.

      I have plans for turning this spine poem into another concrete poem.  Can you guess what I'm going to do?  If you read this poem from the bottom up, does it change the meaning?  Happy Saturday.  Have fun writing your own poem about a summer activity.

WAVES

(original art by Joy Acey, all rights reserved)

    I'm still playing with spine poems.  Poems that have one or two words on each line.  This poem is also a concrete poem--a poem that takes the shape of the thing the poem is about.

    If you have trouble reading the text in my illustration, it reads:


WIND
pushes 
waves
UP
UP
to crest
F
A
L
L
and rush to shore.

     I've been working lately on writing poems that move in the direction of the object I'm writing the poem about.  It has been fun to experiment with words, lay-out, and having to do illustrations to show how the words should be read.
    You challenge for today is to write your own poem about something that moves.  (That is about anything that is alive.  I'll put one exception in there, my dog is alive, but after his morning walk all he does all day is sleep.)
    I'm having fun playing with my poems.  I hope you have fun too.

  POETRY FRIDAY is today.  Margaret is hosting with a lovely poem about oak trees.  You can find links to other children's poets on her blog  here.  
   Thank you Margaret, for hosting us.

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.

SUN

(original art by Joy Acey, 2013 all rights reserved)

This is another of the spine poems.  I played with the idea of having you read the poem right to left, so the poem would end in the traditional west side of the paper, but it was really hard to read that way.

If you have trouble reading this, here it is in a traditional vertical mode.

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


     Now it is your turn, can you write your own poem about the sun, or play?  I hope you have as much fun writing poems as I do.  Enjoy.

Moon

(original illustration by Joy Acey, 2013)

Today's spine poem reads in an arc, so you read from the bottom left to the bottom of the right side of the picture.  This one I had to illustrate, to show you how to read it.
If you have trouble reading the words, here they are in traditional linear fashion.

shape-
shifter
moon
rides
the back
of a
wolf
watches
sleeping
children
when
all is at
rest
moon
sets
in the
west


    I hope you enjoy today's poem.  Your challenge for today is to write your own moon poem.  Indians had a different name for the moon for each month.  You might have some fun doing research before you write your poem.  Have fun.

ROASTING MARSHMALLOWS

clouds
kiss
tries to
smoke
and the
the sky
reaches
upwards
spirals
twirls
twines
fire
camp-
from the
smoke

   Which way does smoke travel, up or down?  So read this spine poem from the bottom up.  I'm still working on this one, trying to make it into a reverso, a poem that reads from either direction.   Can you try writing your own poem about a campfire today, or roasting marshmallows?  Have fun writing.

Acorn

An acorn
dropped
from
the top
of a 
tall
oak
to spin
whirl
twirl
then
plop
into
the 
soft 
earth
to be
covered
in a
colorful
patch-
work
quilt
of fallen
leaves
to sleep           S  again.
until               E
spring          S
when          I 
it              R



      I've been playing with spine poems again.  This one reads down before you start up again as the acorn drops and then starts to grow at the end of the poem.  Was this one hard to read?  I've been having fun with thinking about things that drop.  It is Sunday, so have fun writing your own poem today.

JACK IN THE BOX

surprise
with
laugh
baby
makes
he
high
so
stretches
box
his
of
out
springs
box
the-
in-
jack-
A



      Some thing go up, and some come down.  This poem reads from the bottom up because that is the way a Jack-in-the-box would spring up.  This is another spine poem.  Can you tell I'm having fun with this form?  I'm thinking this poem, or a variation on it would make a good concrete poem, too.  Have fun writing your own poem today.  Happy Saturday.

Gravitational Force

Gravity
forces
birds
bees
leaves
and
me 
to 
float
drop
fall
toward
earth


     I've been working on some spine poems lately.  These are long slim poems with only one or two words on each line.  Can you write your own spine poem today?
You might have fun writing from the bottom up.

sky
the
into
bird
a
like
float
to
air
expanding
heats
balloon
air
hot
a


   Have a great weekend. Write some poems.  Have fun.

Poetry Friday is hosted by Sherry  at Semicolon this week. And Co-hosted by Matt Forest at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme.